05.12.06 – By Tom Luffman: I couldn’t believe the headlines when I read them, “Valuev Eyes Marciano’s Undefeated Record”1 and “Calzaghe retains middleweight belts, ties Hopkins’ record”2. Even the claim that Bernard Hopkins holds the middleweight title defense record as supreme boxing writer Dan Raphael stated in an “USA Today”, March 30th, 20033, article is highly speculative. It’s unreal how much spin and outright inaccuracy is involved in sports “journalism” these days. At the very least these claims deserve an asterisk next to them to connote the truth behind the new “record” they trumpet as imminent.
I’ll take each grievance in order. “Valuev Eyes Marciano’s Undefeated Record.” This has been claimed by several publications in the past few months, but this particular headline comes from a boxing website where the writer Jesse K. Cox states, “Valuev (44-0) will likely meet and surpass Marciano’s 49-0 record with little trouble. With fingers crossed, sensibility may settle in before that point and Valuev won’t have the greatest heavyweight record.”
The statement makes the headline look like a bait and switch. I have no problem with that; websites, newspapers, magazines, and writers will sometimes offer up a headline that is provocative but not necessarily an indicator of the argument made inside. Cox seems to agree with me in the final analysis, but the problem is that of perception the headline puts forth. To wit, some people are going to perceive Nikolay Valuev as a legitimate threat to what is arguably Rocky Marciano’s greatest claim to fame.
Oh I know I lost some of you there and those of you that can name who Marciano beat for the title and then overcame for his six title defenses are let off the hook for being more expert on “The Brockton Blockbuster” than most of the boxing world today and certainly more than casual boxing fans. The rest of you know that Rocky’s enduring imagine in boxing is indivisible with his undefeated record, with his knockout power coming in second place. Both how intertwined since Marciano’s retirement to make the former undisputed champion not only a legend, but a mythological force.
Nevermind that virtually no top boxing expert ranks him as the best ever, he was undefeated! In what was a brilliant career that included wins over high caliber, hall of fame competition, Marciano’s enduring legacy is that of retiring 49-0. Nikolay Valuev on the other hand isn’t even considered the best heavyweight in the world, nor has anyone ever ranked the giant in the top spot, therein lays the rub. Rocky Marciano completed his undefeated tenure as champion having beat future hall of famers.
Valuev?
Well, unless Owen Beck, Monte Barret, Jameel McCline, and John Ruiz do something special in the next few years Valuev has yet to even face on hall of fame caliber fighter. I’ll take it even further and state that he hasn’t even faced the number one guy in his division yet! The claim to have a record that is equal to hall of famer Rocky Marciano or even to be approaching the record is as ludicrous as it is offensive to those of us that appreciate truth in advertising. Honestly, I wouldn’t pick “The Beast From the East” to beat Rex Lane, Harry “Kid” Matthews, or Wladimir Klitschko!
My second gripe comes from a headline off of Yahoo! Sports via a ticker picked up from Manchester, England.
“Calzaghe retains middleweight belts, ties Hopkins’ record”2
First of all, Joe Calzaghe doesn’t ply his trade at middleweight, he fights at super middleweight. Secondly, he is not and never has been the undisputed super middleweight champion of the world. On this note, since the article linked the two fighters, even Bernard Hopkins record of defenses at middleweight is more myth than fact. In times past a man had to beat the universally recognized champion to begin his title reign. Today people like Joe Calzaghe can pick up the WBO strap, fight hand picked “contenders” and stake claim to a title. Joe Louis didn’t have that luxury neither did a host of legit undisputed champions that set real records for title defenses. These men were ranked number one legitimately.
I know, I hear your cries, “the system has changed”, you yell.
Before you fire off an ill advised comment, I agree with you. However, the multitude of belts makes it much easier to become a so called “champion of the world”. Because of this today’s fighters must push themselves past being mere belt holders and unify titles or at the very least clean out their divisions of deserving contenders if they want to compete in the record books with men who won the actual world title when they won, well, the world title. The fact that Calzaghe has held the WBO title since October 11th, 1997, is to be applauded, but during this time Mikkel Kessler has also been a super middleweight and in his last fight picked up the WBC belt by beating Marcus Beyer after already owning the WBA strap. Beyer first become champion on April 5th, 2003. He did lose the title to Cristian Sanavia in 2004, but regained it four months later.
After that he fought five times before losing to Kessler October 14th of this year. Mikkel Kessler is 38-0 and in just his fourth defense unified the WBA and WBC belts in the division. This is more than Calzaghe has accomplished while putting together his “record streak” as Calzaghe has yet to fight either Beyer or Kessler. Instead he has opted to fight the runner up to a reality boxing show for his next match? How can we possibly take his “record streak” seriously? He hasn’t yet cleaned out his division and yet he’s still fighting “B” contenders in a crass attempt to lengthen some record he never earned anyways!?!
As for Bernard Hopkins, he did unify the titles and defend all four of them one time.
Look it up. I know the spinsters would have you believe he held all four titles for a decade, but the truth is he never held the WBO until he beat Oscar De La Hoya. Certainly before that he was the best of the division, but even his “record” has knocks. He first won the middleweight title on April 29th, 1995. “Ring Magazine” didn’t bestow their title upon him until he beat Felix Trinidad in September 2001. He made six defenses of this title before losing to Jermain Taylor twice. These totals are a far cry from the nineteen title defenses he claims. He defended a strap nineteen times, not an undisputed title as the record would indicate.
My argument is simple; a “record” in boxing is only as good as two things:
1. The men beaten to achieve that record.
2. The people who recognize and perpetuate the record as such.
Bernard Hopkins, Joe Calzaghe, and Nikolay Valuev can and should take care of the former, as for the latter, it is up to sports journalist and the boxing world at large to examine and decide for themselves which records to choose to celebrate. As for me and my house Sugar Ray Robinson is still on the throne, Carmen Basilio and Jake LaMotta are still the baddest men I have ever met, and you have to be the man of the division before any real title reign can even begin.