You just have to love the sport of boxing. As much as guys like Manny Pacquiao, Nonito Donaire, Andre Ward, and Bernard Hopkins try and prop it up, it virtually screams out to its supporters, ?Smack me in the face with another pie?.
Well, the other night in Heidelberg, Germany, it not only got smacked in the face with another pie, it got stripped and paddled, spindled and mutilated — left behind like Saturday night?s garbage. In fact, it was Saturday night?s garbage.
Boxing has been a major part of my gainful employment for many years and I have always tried to be its champion. I turned down many opportunities to do MMA fights when it first came on the scene because I felt it would hurt my credibility as a boxing commentator.
When I finally did do an MMA pay-per-view event I became a believer. I thought, these people just get it. They know how to stage an event, they know how to promote an event, and the fighters are, generally speaking, bright guys who took a page out of the NASCAR handbook of how to be available to the media for the good of everyone in the sport. The event rarely disappoints.
And all the while I contended that there was plenty of room for both sports — and that it wouldn?t hurt boxing to borrow a little in terms of promotion and fulfilling promises from the new kid on the block, MMA.
I still believe there is room for both to not only survive but also thrive. But, for the insistence of boxing to continually step on its own body parts and provide horsemeat to go with the proverbial sizzle, instead of steak.
Perhaps the biggest reason for boxing?s ineptitude is living with the idea that the very essence of the sport lies in the heavyweight division.
Here are the facts: If you?re waiting around for the next great American heavyweight, you?ll probably find him on the local basketball courts or knocking heads with a tackling dummy. Boxing is what American kids do when there is no other choice. There simply will not soon be another Jack Dempsey, Joe Louis, Rocky Marciano, Muhammad Ali, Larry Holmes, or Mike Tyson.
Heavyweights in those days were the size of defensive backs. Today, they are linebacker or defensive-line size and if they are, they are playing linebacker or defensive line.
And so we?re left with guys like David Haye who this past weekend went from buffoon, to whiner, to downright loser. Haye no more belonged in the ring with Wladimir Klitschko than any of the other palookas that the Klitschko brothers have disposed of seemingly since the Nixon administration.
The problem this time was that even the champion looked like a loser. The best punch of the fight was thrown by one of Haye’s henchmen at an overzealous spectator during the Englishman?s ring walk — and even that was a glancing blow.
It not only rained on the 34,000 fans in Heidelberg on Saturday, it rained on the sport itself.
The heavyweight division is a wasteland and the only fighter who can sell tickets is Manny Pacquiao. And until a fight with Floyd Mayweather is made, even Pacquiao — with the sport on his shoulders — is going to sag at the box office and the pay-per-view buys.
There are some attractive fights and attractive fighters on the landscape in the lighter weight divisions but we all seem to be so smitten with what was, that we can?t see what is. If you?re waiting for the next great American heavyweight he?s more likely to be found on the court, on the field, or in MMA.
It goes against everything my mother taught me, but when it comes to the future of the sport of boxing — think small.
Barry Tompkins is a regular contributor to CSNBayArea.com and Chronicle Live.
