Heavyweight Heat: Who cares?

25.08.05 – By Craig Parrish: Well, another month has come and so has another meaningless evening of Heavyweight fights on PPV. An evening chock full of faded fighters either trying to score a last payday or mount a “comeback”. The card is pretty weak and the one fighter it seems that people were most interested in seeing, David Tua, has dropped out due to his teeth.. Ray Mercer is 44 years old. Jameel McCline is not a top ten fighter and never will be. And Shannon Briggs, perhaps the most physically gifted of the bunch, has let his career go down the tubes due to inactivity. So why is this fight on PPV?

Don’t get me wrong, if this card were on “Friday Night Fights”, I would definitely watch it. I would be interested to see how Briggs looks coming in the ring, in fact I did watch his last appearance on Friday Night Fights.

It would be slightly interesting to see how he performs against old man Mercer. I would have liked to have seen how Tua looks after the long layoff. But even if Tua were still on the card, I would not pay 50 dollars for this card. This is coming from a guy who watches boxing 3-4 times a week, not counting the old fights on ESPN Classic.

So who do the Promoters think are going to buy this fight?

As fight fans, we complain about the lack of star power in the Heavyweight division. We pine for the good old days of “Wide World of Sports” when fights were on Saturday afternoon. Or even better, when a Heavyweight prize fight was a major event on network television. Is there any wonder why the popularity of boxing has waned, when this is the caliber of event that we are expected to shell out our hard earned money for?

I will not be purchasing this event. In fact, I will not be purchasing any PPV event until the powers that be give us a ticket that MEANS SOMETHING. If we boycott things like this, perhaps it will send a message to these promoters that we are fed up. Stop extorting us. Let the fighters fight. Unify the belts. Give the Heavyweight division its dignity back. While it’s true that the Heavyweights are not the most talented bunch of Boxers in the world right now, they still have the guts to step through the ropes. Put fighters like these on “Friday Night Fights” of “The Best Damn Sports Show Period” and give us PPV events with some firepower.

Boxing fans are some of the most diehard, loyal fans in the world. But there is a limit to everything. Perhaps if we return the grandeur to the sport, it will return to the place of prominence it once had.