22.03.06 – By Aaron King: Joe Calzaghe’s win, or, obliteration, over Jeff Lacy was one of the most significant of fights of the past decade, and it’s not because he “cemented his place as a legitimate champion” or a pound-for-pound type. It’s not because Jeff Lacy was “exposed” or because now it proves that European fighters are superior to American fighters. While the performance said a lot more about Calzaghe than it did Lacy, for whom the jury is still deliberating, something was said about the future of boxing’s place in the world. And I mean that quite literally.
There are more declarations of the demise of boxing than there are miles that separate America from Great Britain. The antagonizing starts with corruption, then leads to smaller fan base, which in turn, leads to further marginalizing, which only starts the cycle over again.
This popular view of boxing’s downward spiral does exist, especially in what remains the center of the sport’s activity. This place is, of course, America. While the United States is boxing’s economic hub, the numbers are beginning to make less and less sense.
While experts have thought it over and debated about how to halt boxing’s worsening trend, Joe Calzaghe may have begun to answer that question without saying a word.
Try telling someone in the Philippines or Germany that boxing is eroding, and they’ll probably laugh. It seems that boxing’s biggest problem isn’t an irreversible cycle, but where it calls home.
Two heavyweight title belts were defended in Germany in the past six months, and another titlist, Chris Byrd, will be in Germany to defend his dubious version of the crown in about a month. Australia is building toward its most anticipated fight in history. Manny Pacquiao is making a hero’s return to the Philippines without HBO’s cameras, and Chris John just raised the featherweight championship in his homeland of Indonesia.
And then there was Calzaghe-Lacy, held in Manchester.
There are other signs that America’s stronghold on the boxing map is slipping. HBO is making accommodations to air the April 22 bout between Chris Byrd and Wladimir Klitschko live in the U.S. from Germany, which will be 5:00 p.m. ET.
Global interest in boxing far exceeds the levels seen on U.S. soil, and European countries are beginning to reap the benefits. Already, fanfare is much stronger abroad. In fact, from most fans points of view, Europe is boxing’s capital.
However, the mass exodus from the United States hasn’t completely come to fruition yet. The money still resides in America. The biggest fights still go down in Las Vegas or Atlantic City. If a fighter wants to prove himself, he still must do it on the American stage for maximum exposure.
Yet, the tide may be turning. Joe Calzaghe didn’t just prove himself to the boxing world (i.e. America) on the first weekend of March. He did it without leaving the United Kingdom, against an American fighter.
If Calzaghe could do that, and HBO begins to show fights live in Europe and worldwide, then it’s getting about time to read the writing on the wall – Boxing isn’t dead. It’s just moving to a new home.
Send any comments for the writer to aking1@ithaca.edu