AJC > Sports > Columnists > Archives > 2007 > May > 04 > Entry
DEL.ICIO.USOne fight can’t stop boxing’s decline
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Jeff Schultz
In boxing, there is a tendency with every criminal decision, or criminal arrest, or rankings that seem so obviously criminal, to say: “There’s another black eye for the sport.”
This ignores evidence that boxing ran out of eyes to blacken several years ago.
Tonight in Las Vegas, Floyd Mayweather will fight Oscar De La Hoya in an event that might set gate and pay-per-view records, even though most watching will have no idea what title the two are fighting for or even who the champion is. (Answers: WBC super welterweight, which is owned by De La Hoya, even though Mayweather is favored).
Only in boxing could such a centerpiece event perfectly illustrate a sport’s identity crisis. But identifying corpses often can be problematic.
Boxing, the sport of King and everything below, has been lying prone on the examination table for at least a decade. Every year or two, it shakes for a few seconds when a promoter slaps electronic paddles on its chest with a pay-per-view card and yells, “Clear!” But then it slumps back to its normal state.
Some have billed Mayweather-De La Hoya as an event that can save boxing. It can’t. Think of long lines at a going-out-of-business sale.
“One fight won’t make a difference,” said Don Turner, 68, the former longtime trainer who worked with Evander Holyfield, among others. “Except for a few fights here and there, the talent just isn’t there anymore. The teaching isn’t there. Guys don’t want to listen.
“You think a 20-year-old wants to listen to what I’ve got to say? They say, ‘Don’t listen to him, he’s old school.’ All anybody cares about is getting paid. Nobody’s developing fighters.
“The only reason mixed martial arts has even gotten off the ground was because the buffoons in boxing have made a mockery out of the sport.”
De La Hoya is knocking on the door of retirement. Granted, that’s almost a sport by itself in boxing (witness the resident Holyfield). But because De La Hoya is one of the few with crossover appeal, tonight’s fight likely will be the final major promotion for some time.
Boxing’s problems are not new. They just generate. There is no single governing body, like the NFL or Major League Baseball. The sport is run by a bunch of independent contractors (promoters, cable-television executives, casino executives) who care only about marquee events, not developing a sport. Imagine a commissioner worried only about having a World Series on pay-per-view every few years, without a concern or blueprint to heal a sport.
There are too many sanctioning bodies (four generally recognized: WBC, WBA, IBF, WBO) and weight classes (17, including flyweight, junior flyweight and mini flyweight, separated by seven pounds). This isn’t done to give more boxers opportunities to win titles, as sanctioning bodies would suggest. It’s done to create more title fights, which lead to more mandated sanctioning fees.
Boxers who don’t play along don’t get title shots. Or get ranked.
We scream about too much government oversight. Boxing screams for government oversight.
All of this has filtered down to the amateur level. Olympic boxing used to be embraced. Now it’s off the networks’ radar. For most athletes, boxing’s now a last resort.
And you wonder why Turner has a headache. Now he runs a gym in North Carolina, far from the Las Vegas strip, where he helped train Holyfield for consecutive wins over Mike Tyson. He said he would train another pro, “but only if the situation was right.” He has been worn out by the sport’s mismanagement, the resulting decline and increasing health risks.
“In the old days guys used six-ounce gloves and fought 200 times and still stood upright,” he said. “Today they use 12-ounce gloves, fight 30 times and sound like they have marbles in their head.”
At times he sounds like the old guy on the porch, but old guys can be right.
Turner likes Mayweather big tonight. He says this fight is selling “only because of the perception that De La Hoya is still The Golden Boy. People don’t know any better.”
Tonight, two boxers and a promoter will get rich, and then we’ll wait a few years for it to happen again. There will be no coat tails for boxing to jump on.
Permalink | Comments (21) | Post your comment | Categories: Jeff Schultz
Comments
By JSS
May 5, 2007 1:05 AM | Link to this
LORD!!! Now the NO TALENT HACK IS A BOXING EXPERT!!! Schultz, you wouldn’t know a superbantam weight from a middleweight… What do you expect from a nation that gets its “what’s a pertinent sport” from ESPN and insulting mental lightweights like Dan Patrick, John Kincade, and Colin Cowherd…
Hey Schultzie The Dog, how’s Mardge doing these days?
By Terry
May 5, 2007 8:41 AM | Link to this
I think Schultz is absolutely right.
I saw Joe Louis box in the late 40’s, I boxed competitively (not a lot but enough to appreciate the skill, strength and stamina involved) and my family were all boxing enthusiasts.
Someone at the office asked, the other day: “Who’s the heavyweight champion?” and nobody, myself included, knew the answer. I wouldn’t even have been able to tell you how many heavyweight champions there are.
It doesn’t take a boxing expert, these days, to draw the conclusions in this column but I thought it was a well-written picture of the state of the sport. What a pity!
By TP
May 5, 2007 9:25 AM | Link to this
Let the truth be told. Lack of mentality within the minds of our young males are on a decline. Men in America and now around the world have succumb to effeminacy. The main cause is the Government of the United States (Ephesians 6:12). They have given man’s power to the woman which weren’t what God intended. (Genesis 3:16). Have you ever wonder why the Devil was able to get Eve to eat from the forebidden tree? (1Peter 3:7).In time the Devil discovered Eve was the weakest of the two. He also knew that Adam would do anything for sex. Well….I’m sure you know the rest of that story. A woman doesn’t belong in the same work place with men no more than a little girl belong on a footballfield with little boys. Males and females are different folks….that’s why there are men restrooms and women restrooms. I’m sure our forefathers are rolling around in their grave to see a woman as leaders in the whitehouse. Our forefathers understood the difference between a man and a woman. A fensed in female dog will dig herself out when they gets in heat….same can happen when you let woman work in the same work place with men. When a woman decides she wants a divorse she can afford to leave her husband and take proportion of his salery leaving the male child without a full time father. It takes a man to teach a child how to be a man. As divorses increase our young male’s manhood decrease. (1Timothy2:11,12) (1Corinthians 11:3)
By bh
May 5, 2007 9:42 AM | Link to this
The pay per view took me right out as a boxing fan. No way I am paying $30 to $50 to watch an event that may be over in the first round, or a dud for a fight. You are right about promoting the big pay per view event and not building the sport.
By Ken Myers
May 5, 2007 10:35 AM | Link to this
At times, I think boxing is as crazy as the WWE or TNA professional wrestling..
By Dr. Vinnie
May 5, 2007 10:50 AM | Link to this
bh is right. PPV has killed boxing. My brother and I would watch all the big fights on TV. Then the fights were on HBO/Showtime and it made it more difficult to watch. Now, you have to really go out of your way or pay $50 for a fight … no way.
PS:JSS is right as well … John Kincade is a joke. Since he can’t try to pass himself off as ATL’s hockey expert, he’ll find something else to speak about. That’s why ESPN hired him … he as skilled as Chris Berman … Da,Da, ta Da, da,da (Berman talking).
By Claude
May 5, 2007 11:02 AM | Link to this
Of all the sports that exist in this country, boxing has the biggest gap between how popular it is and how popular it could be.
By Jared
May 5, 2007 1:15 PM | Link to this
MMA events are on the verge of putting Pro Boxing down for the count. There are packed gyms spread across the country and even the world that are dedicated solely to producing trained MMA fighters much like the glory days of boxing. Fighters like Chuck Liddell, Randy Couture, Wanderlei Silva, Mirko Crocop, Rich Franklin, Quentin Jackson, BJ Penn are becoming more and more well known and their exploits have captured the attention of the 20-40’s male bracket that boxing used to have a stranglehold on. Not anymore… MMA is the new evolution…
By PlusSizeModel
May 5, 2007 1:50 PM | Link to this
I think it’s instructive that there are only eight posts prior to this one. Now, exactly when will the AJC and the rest of the sports media stop pretending that UFC doesn’t exist?
By Rick
May 5, 2007 2:32 PM | Link to this
MMA ? is that the thing where the guys try to box for a minute then roll around on the mat. I think they like the feel of the sweaty guys way to much. It is lame. No boxing skill, it is not wrestling. It is not martial arts.It’s an evolution? of what? Mean gay guys turn wrestler?
By Rick
May 5, 2007 2:35 PM | Link to this
UFC= ultimate fruad challenge
By gary
May 5, 2007 2:44 PM | Link to this
tp your opinion is based on your religious point of view. It is not the only religion observed,nor does it affirm that religion is the absolute truth. PEACE!!!!
By Rick
May 5, 2007 2:50 PM | Link to this
wow TP, let me guess, your ex old lady was porkin sombody at work huh? it’s ok, nothin helps you get over the last one like the next one
By greg
May 5, 2007 2:56 PM | Link to this
Hey TP, maybe you should have spent more time takin care of business at home instead of memorizing bible verses she would not have been looking for it at work>
By coz109
May 5, 2007 5:03 PM | Link to this
TP-right on, at least someone is willing to speak the truth. As for the MMA bashers, there’s not a boxing champion (I use that term loosely) in the world who would last 5 minutes with a UFC or Pride champion. Most of them lack the courage. They haven’t the dedication or the heart to compete as true warriors.
By Rick
May 5, 2007 5:45 PM | Link to this
True warriors? Yeah right, you think the ufc and pride guys are there because they are good at something? wrong, they cant box, they cant wrestle and they dont know martial arts They are like the barrel racers for Rodeo, you had to have an event for the girls. There was a Pride parade downtown last week, I think I saw some of those guys there. The UFC boys just like the feel of body hair and sweat. But hey, not that there is anything wrong with that.
By JSS
May 5, 2007 6:08 PM | Link to this
It is not an either or situation in terms of things like UFC or “professional” boxing… Of course boxing needs a common vision, but it is absurd for a grown sports columnist to use a statement like: “There is no single governing body, like the NFL or Major League Baseball.” You mean to tell me that the owners of MLB are unified? Until Pete Rozelle and Lamar Hunt put the horse and monkey show in a singular direction, the NFL was one TV contract away from being a regional sport (the NE and the Midwest).
Look, the Boxing game went nearly 20 years without a great single heavyweight and those are considered the “golden years of boxing:” amateur and professional (1944-63/64) when Ali took the heavies to a place not seen since Louis in his prime before the WW. All apologies to the “Rock” (Marciano), he was not a showstopper… He was a great champion and devatating… The fighters who carried the sport, Ray Robinson, LaMotta, the great latin welterweights, and amazing battlefields of light heavies… That was boxing, not a glam show, not hype, and for all of its surrounding corrupt institutions, it captivated people to care… Get that back, and then you save the sport… And for heaven sake, get out of the pay for view business, it is killing every sport except for UFC, and that too will come to an end when that generation starts to have kids and responsibilities that makes it an either or choice in a household…
By coz109
May 5, 2007 6:45 PM | Link to this
Rick, you seem to know alot about this parade. One can only deduce from your statements that you were a participant. Try telling Randy Couture (4 time national greco-roman champion, 3 time all-american, just to mention a few accolades) or any of numerous world class fighters he has beaten, that he can’t wrestle. Check your facts before you run your ignorant mouth.
By Jeff Schultz
May 5, 2007 8:21 PM | Link to this
Hi all — For what it’s worth, I’m not an MMA-basher. I understand it’s appeal. But given a choice of the two, I’d rather watch a great boxing match seven days a week. To me, it is more artistic, less barbaric, and generally more athletic than MMA. That doesn’t mean MMA is bad. It’s just what you prefer … And for what it’s worth, I really am looking forward to this fight. I would’ve preferred to see it when De La Hoya was five years younger, but you never know what kind of performance an “old” guy can come up with for one night. That’s what makes boxing special.
By coz109
May 5, 2007 11:23 PM | Link to this
Jeff-sorry you misunderstood me, I did not mean that you were a part of MMA negativity. I agree with a lot of your article. At one time, I was a huge boxing fan and I will be following the fight tonight, as I still enjoy the marquee matches. But, if it comes down to money, MMA gets my dollar any day of the week. As far as artistry, barbarism, and athletics go, I’m curious to hear your supporting opinions. Keep up the good work.
By Peerless' Mama
May 6, 2007 3:06 AM | Link to this
I’m not a boxing fan, usually don’t watch them but someone invited me over. I had never seen Mayweather before.
I really enjoyed this one, especially since it was free. We spotted John McCain right away. He had good seats if you want sweat slung at you.
I found the father angle interesting. He even said afterward that Oscar could have won if they were using a scoring method, whatever that means.
I don’t claim to understand the sport and did ask a LOT of questions to my friends.
While my friends didn’t think this was that great of a fight, we did notice the following things.
Did anyone else think Floyd Sr, resembles the monster in Predator? Lennox Lewis has that look going on also. I’m thinking of getting a weave now….
That LONG rambling interview/conversation between Sr. and older man (name?) during the fight before the main event was hilarious. We had to rewind it. Neither said much but it took them both a long time to get it out.
Then the Mayweather came out with the sombrero and it was ON.
Later………