By Wilfy Dee: Nowadays you can’t load up a webpage, flick through a magazine or check your tweets without seeing something in relation to or directly linked with the inevitable demise of the professional sport of boxing. Unless, you have absolutely no interest in Boxing or Full-Contact/Non-Contact Sports . Then this is quite achievable.
Is it inevitable? Has the snowball simply built up too much momentum to ever be stopped? Who knows. One thing I do know is things are not getting any better. Failed drug tests, judges and dodgy hats, little toes and that press conference just one after the other and that is only a handful of events in the past year. People have always lost interest but never respect.
We cling to the idea of these “Golden Era’s” and it has cast such a gigantic shadow over the entire Boxing World so the bar has been set at this absolute highest of iconic standard which is almost impossible to live up to. Then everything comes back to THAT fight. It all comes down to that fight. To the point where everything that is good is good but it just isn’t that fight. Right now, the possibility of that fight is the only reason that the Boxing remains the most popular contact sport. The Mayweather v Pacquiao event has the potential to be the saving grace of all that is good in pugilism, but if it doesn’t happen it could be the sole reason behind the end of boxing as we knew it.
MMA is causing Boxing some massive problems. Every time is it brought up around a man of the boxing world they react to it the same way people from the Harry Potter world react to the name ‘Voldermort’. People get offended. Boxing is suffering from several issues, but let me tell you how MMA is one of them. They makes big money now, a lot more marketing and huge T.V coverage. Some argue that they aren’t getting as much as some individual boxers but the financial system behind it is so different you can’t really compare it like that. The point I am trying to make is that it is more desirable now for people to become Mixed Martial Artists, a chance to be PPV superstars a with shiny new belts, the label of being the ‘Best In The World’. Whereas boxing has so many different ranking systems that nobody who is anymorw. There are more MMA gym’s which means it is possible for more people are to train, people that maybe otherwise would be taking up boxing. The rule changes that and company “unification’s” implemented over the past 10 years of so have lessened the risk of getting your face stamped in, a factor that I’m sure made many of men think to themselves “Not for me,that”.
Another issue is that people don’t like to see the same thing over and over again. The Klitschko’s have been so dominant for so long now that no one can ever come close to them. Personally, I am a fan of both Klitshcko’s and don’t believe they get half the credit they deserve but that’s for another day. Nobody wants to see a stagnant division, especially the Heavyweight division. Then there is David Haye, in his own right a great fighter but you mention him and all anybody can think about is that toe! It has destroyed him. Now, I hear he is fighting Dereck Chisora July 14th at Upton Park. The whole press conference was absolute madness and Frank Warren is cashing in. The fight we should be talking about is Chisora v David Price, but how anybody possibly consider that?
The Amir Khan and Lamont Peterson fight had a big build up, with its very own Rocky storyline, but it was so overshadowed by controversy. Then Lamont Peterson fails a drug test less than two weeks away from the rematch. You couldn’t make it up. Boxing needs to find a new face. Mayweather won’t be fighting for much longer and Manny Pacquiao has got so much going on that he could walk away at any given second. Then we are left with two more retired greats to refer back to. Who then? I suppose Andre Ward has been looking great and he is a Olympic Gold Medallist which always helps, there is also Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez. Already a superstar in Mexico coming and getting a decent win over Shane Mosley. Even if they go on to beat everybody if they haven’t beat Floyd or Manny it doesn’t matter who they have beat.
Boxing has always been a sport riddled with controversy , something everyone has come to except. Still maintaining a special something that made the sport great, a real sense of pride. The only thing that comes close to that at the present time is the potential of this ‘Super Fight’ . If these two guys and whoever else each of them keep blaming it on don’t give their heads a shake and make this fight happen how much damage could it inflict upon this sport? So many people believing against believe that it can happen and never giving up hope to the possibility. To have that belief broken for all the wrong reasons. I’m not sure the World of Boxing could recover.
@WilfyDee
wilfydee@hotmail.co.uk