Recycling is all the rage these days, but should great fighters and the fights they had or should have had get the recycle treatment? Next year, we could see three (or more) fights take place featuring fighters who are past their best, fights that should have happened years ago.
Super-featherweights Yuriorkis Gamboa and Juan Manuel Lopez will share a card on November 10, and the word is, if they both win they will fight next year some time. This one still has a little bit of fan interest, maybe, but no way is it the big fight it would have been – should have been.
When they should have fought: 2010, at super-bantamweight. It would have been an epic night then, between two unbeaten lower-weight stars who had power, speed and an exciting style. Instead, the fight was left to “marinate” for too long, and Juanma got chinned by Orlando Salido. If it does happen next year, Gamboa Vs. Lopez will be happening at least nine years past its sell-by date.
Welterweights Amir Khan and Kell Brook have been jerking each other, and us, around for years now. The latest we hear is, the fight is “closer than it’s ever been.” But Eddie Hearn did add that “this doesn’t mean it’s going to happen.” But in truth, does anyone really care any more? Like Gamboa-Lopez, this one would have been big – very big in the UK – a few years back. There is still some interest and if it does happen next year it will go out on Pay-per-View here in the UK. But will it do big numbers?
When they should have fought: 2014. Back then, with Brook being unbeaten and Khan having far less wear and tear on his body (and his chin) this one would have been special. Brook has been calling for the fight since long before 2014, and here he is, two painful stoppage defeats later, still obsessed with “smashing” Khan. But do fans share his obsession?
All-time greats Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao may hook up again in 2019. These two made us wait, and wait, and wait, before finally getting it on in 2015. But by then Pacquiao had slowed down, he had been knocked out badly by Juan Manuel Marquez, and Floyd, in his most artistic piece of cherry picking, moved in when he was sure he would be able to defuse the southpaw dynamo. It all resulted in one big dullard of a “fight.” Now they want to do it all over again!
When they should have fought: The first “Fight of The Century” should have take place in either 2009 or 2010, but back then, a 31 or 32 year old Pacquiao was far too lethally dangerous for the so-called “T.B.E.” Had they fought five or six years sooner than they did, who knows what kind of a great, maybe unforgettable fight we would have been treated to. As for the rematch, it should have taken place in either 2010 or 2011. Heck, we might have even had a trilogy, with the final fight in the rivalry taking place in 2012 or 2013.
Now we have almost zero interest in a rematch going down in 2019.
Better late than never? Not for the three fights listed here. There are plenty of hot, new young stars who should be giving us the big fights we need. One thing though: let’s hope that massive Deontay Wilder-Anthony Joshua fight doesn’t meet the same fate as these one-time super-fights that came far, far too late.