04.04.06 – By Barry Green: It is difficult to believe that 30 years ago this month America had just ONE world boxing champion. A perusal at the list of world champions as of March 1976 sees only the incomparable Muhammad Ali sat atop of the division that is generally held in the highest esteem in the US.
Other than that the closest they came to world domination in the seventies was the opening of a new McDonald’s at Woolwich, London in 1974. However, soon enough their grip on the sport was once again as tight as a duck’s arse and they dominated the 1980s and 90s just like they did pre-1970
Today, the sport of boxing has seemingly come full circle, as the overhanging query is: Are we seeing the end of American-led dominance in the sport just like in the Seventies? Before we discuss this day and age, it is sensible to evaluate the similarities between now and 1976.
In the 1970s the USA was facing a steady decline in sporting success. While the rest of the world turned its collective noses up and sneered at the Vietnam War and OPEC announced a quadruple rise in the price of oil, old Uncle Sam was receiving a steady beating in many of its premier international sports.
The Olympic track and field events of 1972 and 1976 were dominated by the Soviet block and Caribbean countries, the US basketball team had lost to the USSR for the first time in many a year and most of the best fighters came from other parts of the globe.
Even the Europeans and Japanese had more world champs than the Yanks…for the first time since the Marquess of Queensberry told us that he doesn’t spring-loaded boot weren’t allowed in the ring. To turn the paradox full circle American Bobby Fisher was the world’s best chess player- the times
they were a-changin’ indeed.
It is somewhat surprising to think that during the Montreal games of ’76 only Ed Moses won a track gold for his home country. However, that very Olympics would sow the seed for the following decade as the US bettered the Cubans…a feat deemed virtually impossible since.
Even in the world of rock n’ roll the USA was suffering. After a swinging sixties largely dominated by the Beatles and the Stones, America’s teenagers were still very much looking abroad for their musical kicks.
Indeed, if one looks at the Top 10 best selling albums of the decade, they’ll notice just three entries by American artists in an era that was largely dominated by British rock gods such as Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd. But the US retained its foothold in the 1980s with acts like Madonna, Bruce Springsteen and Michael Jackson, which mirrored the re-emergence of US
boxing.
The lull in boxing’s popularity in the USA in the 70s lay, according to Herbert Goldman, with the ‘baby boom generation’ being brought up in the age of television, a demographic that preferred watching fights from their armchair as opposed to sitting at ringside.
Indeed, the Ali-Norton fight in Yankee Stadium was watched by just 30,000 attendees- far below the capacity. At this stage Ali’s fight were nothing more than pantomime- as ‘The Greatest’ seemed to just go through the motions in his later fights, when every Tom, Dick & Coopman received a title chance.
Many of the decade’s best fighters came for Latin origins and, with the exception of light-heavyweight champ Bob Foster, only the heavyweights stirred the imagination of the average Joe Donut, leaving its South & Central American counterparts to dominate boxing like never before.
Fighters like Roberto Duran, Alexis Arguello, Carlos Monzon, Jose Napoles and Wilfredo Gomez are just a handful of the names that saw an upsurge in the sport’s worldwide popularity, yet at the same time witnessed the sad decline of America’s best fighters at world championship level.
Of course, there were challengers a-plenty from the US but most failed in their quest to win the big one. Fighters like Benny Briscoe, Hedgemon Lewis and Ray Lampkin would have likely been champions if they fought today but back then the world title holders were as dominant as they ever were- and many were undisputed title holders.
This was the era before the big fights in Las Vegas and Atlantic City gave American stars the chance to fight in their own back yard. In the Seventies, if you wanted the title you would generally have to trek to the other guy’s hometown to win it- a far cry from the comfort zones of Las Vegas or Atlantic City.
Then late in 1976, the 200th birthday of US, saw two key events that turned around the USA’s good fortune in the prize ring. The Oscar winning movie Rocky was a ‘catalyst’ for the upsurge in boxing popularity,as was the emergence of a superior Olympic boxing team that featured gold medallists: Sugar Ray Leonard, Leon & Michael Spinks, Howard Davis and Leon Randolph.
The year that punk rock became Year Zero in the UK, the same could be said that the January 24th fight slugfest between George Foreman and Ron Lyle also dawned a new era in boxing, before that everything was BC (before casinos).
This truly memorable and exciting contest became the first big fight to be held at Caesar’s Palace: a pre-genitor of what was to come. Casinos were a godsend to boxing in th States, as hotels would also foot the bill for fighters and their, often huge and occasionally embarrassing, entourages. Thus saving promoters thousands of dollars in the process. Baseball stadiums
were out, casinos ‘in’.
Another incident that became symbolic to modern day boxing was Saensak Muangsurin winning the WBC Light-Welterweight championship in just his THIRD paid contest. He was considered all but washed-up when knocked out by a young gunslinger by the name of Thomas Hearns- in just his 17th fight!!!
Although Muangsurin’s story has nothing to do with boxing in the US, it did set the ball rolling for many a new professional, especially Olympic medallist, who were given a world title shot before they had fully blossomed into complete fighters. Another example of the popular TV fighter being rushed into the big time well before their peak years and a far cry from the days of Archie Moorie, who fought his 156th fight before challenging for a world title.
The 1980s saw a massive boom in boxing’s popularity amongst boxing’s 18-35 demographic. The television era was in full swing and the torch was passed from Ali to Leonard to Tyson. As the Nineties began the ‘knowledgable’ fan once again was king and fighters like Pernell Whitaker and Julio Cesar Chavez regularly served up their delicacies for the more refined tastebuds.
Of course, the great fights and stars of the 1980s more than made up for the tumulus decade that preceded it for the USA: Tyson, Leonard, Hagler, Holmes and Hearns would all become household names across the sporting world but despite this great era that I enjoyed my adolescent years growing up in, the 1970s remains my favourite ever decade in boxing because it was then that the sport finally became a truly international spectacle. This looks like it’s happening again.
Just last month Jeff Lacy arrived in the UK full of piss and vinegar only to be administered a boxing lesson by Joe Calzaghe. Chris Byrd fights Wladimir Klitschko in Germany later this month. Is this a sign that Europe is slowly but surely creeping up to the States in securing the bigger fights? Don King too seems keen to re-locate the heavyweight scene to his friends in Germany, a modern-day Atilla the Hun if there ever was one (excuse the bad joke).
Indeed, by the end of the month there’s a good chance that three of the four heavyweight champions will be European. A shape of things to come or just a lull in US boxing caused by a decrease in popularity, thus leading to potential stars of the ring choosing an easier life of playing US football or basketball perhaps.
The beginning of this article concerned the decline of top American fighters 30 years ago. A glance at the Top 12 pound-for-pound fighters 20 years ago and again in 1996 one would see lists dominated by American fighters.
Today, it is arguable that the only American fighters that are amongst the current ‘dynamite dozen’ are Floyd Mayweather, Winky Wright and Antonio Tarver. But none are household names, thanks chiefly to the ugly side of home entertainment, the ghastly ‘pay-per-view’ (which was the most obvious result of boxing boom in popularity in the Eighties…but in turn one that has turned the average fan away). More fights like the Calzaghe-Lacy one on free TV is the only real answer to help American fighters become recognisable to the more ‘casual’ fan.
Like the opening half of the 1970s, the trend is perhaps again slipping towards a more universal sport, with the best of Mexico, Britain and even the Philippines at the top of the fistic pool of talent. Perhaps a new Monzon, Duran or Arguello is just around the corner.
The next generation should see major world title fights once again spread around the world and top American fighters may now have to venture out of their comfort zones in order to fulfil their ambitions, by the same token our own best like Ricky Hatton and Joe Calzaghe are looking to travel across the pond and defend their titles. Fights that take place on the four corners of the earth- just like 30 years ago.
And if championship bouts can take place all around the world like they did in the Seventies. Then that can only be a good thing…let’s just hope the USA comes along for the ride.