Hey Guys and Gals another year has come and gone and unless something drastic happens in the next few days all the major stories on the knuckle-dusting world are done. Since we are almost at the end of the year and this is the season of sharing I have decided to share with you my wishes for the sport of Boxing for the year to come.
In no particular order here are my wishes for Boxing in 2011:
1. The establishment of a Federal Boxing Commission. I know this is a long shot but we really need to have a framework to oversee that rules are uniform and high medical standards are maintained within this most dangerous of sports.. Also under this wish is that the commission would hold judges accountable when they show a pattern of incompetence. The same names keep showing up over and over again that turn in horrible scorecards. The bottom line: If you don’t do your job well, you shouldn’t have that job. I know there are a whole lot of Boxing fans out there and at least one Boxing writer who would love the opportunity to judge major Boxing matches.
2. A high quality Boxer takes on and trounces a top UFC fighter. It still grates on me that repeatedly James Toney was advertised during the build-up of his MMA fight with Randy Couture that he was an all-time great Boxer. Maybe a long time ago, as a Super-Middleweight he might have qualified as an all-time great. But now he’s just a fat, lazy, arrogant has-been. I would like to see a top-notch Boxer show what real hand skills are in the Octagon. There are reasons why MMA fighters pretty much stick to their sport.
3. Vitali or Wladimir Klitschko meets an opponent who pushes either or both of them to the limit in a knock-down drag-out slugfest. I really do believe the Brothers-K. are great fighters. They’re just so far above their competition that their fights are boring. I’d like someone to show up that is on their level and give them pure hell. It would be fun to watch!
4. That Pacquiao vs. Mosley is an all out dog-fight featuring multiple knockdowns, suspense, drama and a definite ending that we’ll all be talking about for months after the fight takes place. It would be nice if a big money match-up delivered on even half of the hype that surrounds it. The only fight that immediately pops up in my head as doing that is the first Leonard/Hearns fight. That happened far too long ago.
5. More-more and even more tournaments to establish the best in weight divisions. I congratulate Showtime Network for coming up with a great idea and acting on it. Tournaments are wonderful because they quickly put together a series of matches between top fighters that would otherwise take a whole lot longer to develop. I want to see more-more-more tournaments!
6. I want to see a prize fighter come out of nowhere that can compete effectively at the top levels in both MMA and Boxing. It is possible. I’d like to see it. Just think about it. What if at his best Roy Jones had known Gracie Jiu-Jitsu? He’d have been able to do it. It would be great for both sports to have a superstar like that emerge. The box office potential for a guy like that would be astronomical.
7. That Boxing writers (myself included) emphasize the positive in the sport of Boxing rather than the negative. We had a really nice resurgence near the end of 2010. Anyone seeing Juan Manuel Lopez vs. Rafael Marquez could see why Boxing can be extremely entertaining, exciting and dramatic. Anyone seeing Sergio Martinez vs. Paul Williams 2 can tell that anything at any time can happen in a Boxing Ring. And anyone seeing Pacquiao vs. Margarito witnessed skill, courage and even a type of warrior mercy on display. This is a magnificent sport. It teaches lessons about life that everyone can benefit from if you only look for them. Boxing is far from perfect but let’s not dwell on the bad and forget the good.
8. That Glen Johnson somehow wins the Super-Six tournament and gets recognized for accomplishing that great feat. This is a hard luck guy who through sheer perseverance and grit has kept himself at the top level for far longer than anyone dreamed was possible. Glen Johnson has been screwed in so many bad decisions that most other fighters would have retired from the sheer frustration. I hope he pulls off winning the Super Six and can walk into the sunset with a commentating job waiting for him. His story deserves a good ending.
9. That Juan Manuel Lopez and Yuriorkis Gamboa have a unification bout that is a Fight of the Year Contender and that it leads to a three fight series that rivals Gatti/Ward for action. These are two supremely talented young warriors who need to fight each other to prove who the best Featherweight in the world is. They might be featherweights but both hit like Heavyweights and they got speed to spare. Get at it!
10. A wish for exciting fights where all the prizefighters come out of it with no serious injuries and live long happy lives after their careers are over. These guys and in some cases girls, bleed for our entertainment. I don’t want them to have to give more than they came in prepared to give.
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Before I sign off I want to wish everybody out there in Cyber-land a wonderful and prosperous 2011. Just about everybody has had it a lot tougher over the last two years so I’m hoping your roads become smoother over the next and all the coming years.
Take Care
Have Fun
B.L. Morgan
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B.L. Morgan is the author of Blood And Rain, Blood For The Masses, Blood On Celluloid, Blood And Bones, Night Knuckles and You Play, You Pay. They can all be ordered through Borders or Barnes and Noble. By February 2011 the first three John Dark Books and Night Knuckles will be available through Speaking Volumes and the rest are available through Stonegarden.net Publishing.
YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!!!