by James Slater: It’s a fact these days, seemingly more so than ever before, that past it heavyweights are refusing to retire once they are done. Just look around, and what do you see? Men with surnames, Holyfield, Moorer, Tua, Toney, Ruiz, Donald, Mercer, Briggs and others still insisting on lining up further fights when everyone apart from them themselves knows they are through.. Sure, everyone has the right to pursue what they want to in life, but that includes us boxing fans, too – and we choose to no longer put up with has-beens and veterans cluttering up the heavyweight division.
There really is an easy way in which to eliminate all those big men who insist on carrying on in their delusional quest, however. It will never happen, but it sure would be great if it did. How would it be if, by public demand, all the big name, yet used up, heavyweights fought in a series of “the loser must retire” eliminations bouts? Sworn to adhere to the promise via a signed contract, the loser of each bout in the series would leave the sport for good.
Why not? The aforementioned names insist on boxing on, so why can’t we insist that they only do so this way, and retire if they are not successful? Who knows, if forced to fight opponents other than just their own choosing, there might even be the odd decent fight in such a series?
Let’s say underachiever Shannon Briggs, should he seriously claim he wants to fight with hunger again, boxes James Toney when “Lights Out” makes his own inevitable return, in bout number one. The loser has to retire, while the winner goes on to face someone like Evander Holyfield in fight number two. Again, the loser from this bout has no option but to retire. Then the winner out of this next fight in this revolutionary series gives someone like David Tua a fight, with the winner to face a guy like Michael Moorer, etc, etc and you get the idea. By the time six or seven fights or so have been done with, there would only be one man left standing. He then gets one final shot at a world title, inevitably loses, and, hey presto, the heavyweight division is cleaned up and all the oldies and unfits are cleaned out!
Think of all the good work such a tourney would produce; the losers would have no option but to face facts and admit they are finally finished at top level, the winner would also soon realise this once his title fight results in a much needed reality check, the fans would get to see boxing’s most important weight class freed from all its golden oldies – and there might even be the odd interesting, not-to-be-taken-too-seriously type of exhibition bout along the way.
I know what you’re thinking, what if the eventual winner from such a series actually WINS his heavyweight title shot? Yes, that is a worry. But surely, it simply is up to whichever heavyweight title holder it is who fights the winner of this elimination tournament to ensure that he is not going to be embarrassed by losing to such a “novelty” type of challenger. How hard would he train to make this so?
They used to have exhibition bouts in the old days, so why not now? The fights would be ten rounds each, would count on the boxers’ records and would be the same as any other heavyweight fight in every aspect other than that of the fan’s perception of them. Those watching would know that the participants were engaging in fights as close to “exhibition” and “fun” type bouts as possible, while at the same leaving the real heavyweight contenders – i.e the young, the talented and the seriously hungry – to go about their ultra-serious business.
As I’ve said, it won’t happen, but if it did it would almost certainly catch the fans’ interest. Something these faded fighters cannot come close to doing individually.