By Gerardo Granados: After a mandatory lockdown that until today has reached an unimaginable 83 days, I think that I might have started to develop apparent symptoms of pro boxing flu. The unimaginable worldwide lengthy lockdown and the severe boxing draught were slowly turning me into a Jack Torrance type of guy. I wonder if the reader feels the same way.
Back in 1918, the Spanish flu lasted around 16 months and took the lives of an estimated 70 million people around the world. COVID-19, in just eight months, has killed 400 thousand worldwide. I believe there was no world lockdown back in 1918, but back then, it wasn’t as easy to spread a virus as now a day.
In baseball, the World Series saw how the Boston Red Sox and the Cincinnati Reds won the series, respectively, in 1918 and 1919. And no, in case you were guessing, the regular season was played as well as the playoffs with fans in the stadiums. Sadly in 2020, COVID-19 has locked all professional sports for a long time.
I am still waiting to see the Houston Astros begin their season after they got caught cheating to win the 2017 World Series. Say what you want, but a tradition is a tradition, and I expect to see several ejections as soon as the Astros season starts.
But hey pro boxing is back! So now we will get to see thrilling fights in the rest of 2020, right? Well, to be honest, there aren’t many fights signed that could create that much anticipation. The boxing politics and the usual Divas could as well spoil the rest of the year.
With most of the so-called big names fighting twice a year, many of them might just fight once more time this year. Some could have only one fight this year, so in six months or so, we the fight fans better see a reasonable effort delivered from them to alleviate our bloodthirst.
The fight of the year can occur at any time during 2020. So there is more than enough time left in 2020 to have a couple of nominee fights to include in the list for this award.
How about the fighter of the year? Who can claim that award with a single fight in the remainder of 2020?
I thought that this year was going to be Vergil Ortiz´s consolidation year, but I guess that I will be wrong. There are other young lions on the rise which development will be delayed too. Some veterans might have lost time. They couldn’t waste this late in their careers. But now a day Television dictates the tempo in pro boxing, and for most fighters, they must keep in line to have exposure.
A friend of mine asked me who will steal 2020 boxing fighter of the year; I replied to him that most of us already forgot what happened early this year and that after the lockdown ends, the restart would be like a new beginning for boxing in 2020.
I don’t think that the Tyson Fury vs. Deontay Wilder III leaves much to the imagination. I pick Fury to stop Wilder in seven rounds this time around.
Canelo Alvarez has many possible opponents through three different weight divisions mentioned. However, still, there is not a single opponent that can generate the hype or anticipation of a big fight. I would consider seeing Canelo fight Dimitry Bivol at 175, but only without any catchweight or rehydration clause A side trick involved.
Terence Crawford fighting against Erroll Spence would be a solid fight to watch, but I doubt it will be signed anytime soon. Rumor says that old Gennady Golovkin is being considered by an even older and smaller Manny Pacquiao, but this is pure circus garbage.
How about Vasyl Lomachenko, can his team make the correct moves to secure him the fighter of the year? So far, the matrix has been ten months inactive.
Can the Monster Naoya Inoue or Francisco Gallo Estrada steal this year accolades fighting just one time in 2020? I doubt it, well unless they fight each other.
Anthony Joshua looks to be more politically active than he is in the ring training. So it wouldn’t be surprising if he was to fight only once late this year in a stay busy fight.
It is a shame that Alexandr Usyk fought only once in 2019, but since then, he has been inactive eight months, and he doesn’t have any fight scheduled. The high expectations cooled off after he won the cruiserweight tournament back in 2018 and then moved up to the heavyweight division. This year could be a wasted year too for Usyk.
I don’t see how a fighter will deserve a fight of the year award this 2020 fighting only once. But, how about the readers, do you agree?