My worst boxing nightmare is over. Ruslan Chagaev defeated Nikolai Valuev by majority decision, 114-114, 115-113, and 117-111 in Stuttgart, Germany, to take the WBA heavyweight title. (Actually the scores are immaterial here. There have been so many bad decisions in Germany that it’s become almost an accepted fact that foreign fighters compete there at their own risk. Chagaev, a native of Uzbekistan, resides in Hamburg, Germany, and has fought 15 of his 24 career fights in Germany, all 15 since November 2003. Valuev, from St Petersburg, Russia, has fought in Germany 13 times since August 2003. So possibly there was a stand-off in the judge’s bias.)
The biggest concern here was the hallowed 49-0 record of Rocky Marciano. It’s not so much that I care about the record being shattered – I just didn’t want Valuev, a second rate fighter feasting on a collection of stiffs while building his record to 46-0 to be the one. I just feel that once you take away the freak show aura of invincibility achieved by simply being seven feet tall and 320 pounds, you have Jeremy Bates in the ring.
Actually, I only hope that we do have a worthy heavyweight with a 49-0 record again someday. Soon.
Chagaev should be commended for giving away 11 inches and 90 pounds to beat the Russian giant, using movement, hand speed and counterpunches. He is now 23-0-1 (17) and will hopefully get a chance to show his mettle against good competition and be a worthy and entertaining titlist. Obviously, neither man excited the networks enough to televise this fight, which was finally picked up by MSG Network.
MISSED OPPORTUNITY
When promoter Joe DeGuardia pulled the plug on the April 22 Antonio Tarver-Elvir Muriqi fight, it was the sport that suffered the greatest loss. The bout would have been televised on ABC at the 3,000 seat room upstairs at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, the first televised fight by that network since June 2000. Network TV could be just the ticket to bring boxing out of the wilderness if done correctly, so the cancellation was a left hook to boxing’s future.
So what happened? Who’s to blame?
To begin, we must first give DeGuardia his props for having the stones and the foresight to even attempt this endeavor. You can name the promoters who would even attempt what he did on one (index) finger.
DeGuardia went to the wall on this one. ABC was not paying a license fee to air this fight. DeGuardia was buying an hour of network time on Sunday, and then would have to round up the sponsors, subject to ABC approval. Last week it was announced that the fight was off for now when it became apparent that DeGuardia was about to take a severe financial bath.
The first finger pointed at Tarver, who took a shot from a website that said that it was rumored that Tarver was “not in shape for the fight.” Tarver denied the rumors emphatically, saying that he was already at 182. If he wasn’t, he should have been. He’s now 38 and it’s been a while since he’s won a big fight, or any fight at all for that matter. (Tarver last won over Roy Jones in October 2005, but you could make a good case that his last good performance was against Glen Johnson in June 2005.)
The bottom line to all of this seems quite simple to me:
If this was a competitive attraction it would have been held in the Boardwalk Hall, not in the upstairs rumpus room. If fans aren’t going to pay top dollar for competitive mismatches, why should a sponsor?
I’m surprised that ABC bought into this. Oh, that’s right, they didn’t buy anything.
Nevertheless, it would seem that ABC is the right network for boxing. After all, Alex Wallau, the president of ABC’s Network Operations and Administration as well as a board member of ESPN, is a former boxing commentator who was awarded the prestigious Sam Taub Award for Excellence in Broadcast Journalism by the Boxing Writers Association of America in 1987. Perhaps he might lend a friendly ear, for old time’s sake.
I think that Joe DeGuardia had the right idea and the best of intentions, If this is true expect him to be back again in a few months with ready financing and a compelling product to sell.
OH NO! NOT AGAIN!
Joe Calzaghe has an open July 21 date on HBO. But there is still no opponent for the brittle handed Welshman. But look up in the sky! Is it a bird? Is it a plane? It’s …uhhh Roy Jones Jr.
Yep, RJ was quoted by BBC Wales as saying, “I’ve got July wide open and I’d fight at 168 pounds in the UK or the USA.”
ZZZZZZ…Whatever happened to that big pay per view show in June?
“I’ve still got all the skills and I’m hungrier than ever,” Jones was quoted.
Just for what it is worth, a dispute over money choked efforts to arrange a showdown between the two just last summer.
Personally, I think when you start referring to yourself in the third person you should be forced to retire.
Mike is going to take a wild guess that Calzaghe will be facing Dennis Inkin. He’s 30-0 (23) and is the WBO mandatory challenger. Mike also thinks that Roy will be calling someone else out soon and not fighting them either.
NEW RULES
An interesting article sent to me by a reader, written by James Blears for Boxing Scene, read that WBC president Jose Sulaiman wants to create a worldwide numbers classification for boxers. Sulaiman wants to prevent the no-hopers from being mismatched with superior fighters, creating safety problems, and is proposing that the 164 countries affiliated to the WBC classify their fighters, subject to scrutiny and confirmation by the WBC.
Here are the guidelines: Category one will be those ranked one to ten by the WBC. Category two will be 10-20, three will be 20-30, and four will be 30-40. (Yes I realize that some numbers are listed twice; it was written that way.) Category five will be regional champions, six will be national champions, seven will be other types of champions, category eight will be 10 rounders, category nine will be eight rounders, and category ten will be six rounders.
Champions from category one would be allowed to fight category two boxers, but no lower.
Sulaiman is also proposing another new rule in which a referee could penalize a fighter a point if he clinches five times during a fight. These and other issues will be discussed at the WBC’s second medical convention in Cancun on April 24-29. The final approval will go to the annual convention in Manila on November 17-20, and subject to approval could be adopted world wide within a year.
I remain skeptical. A WBC officer who will be in Cancun next week told me that while many proposals will be made next week, he was unaware of these.
My first concern is that, no matter how well intentioned, it would be a clerical and administrative nightmare to try to manage the input for the 10 categories coming from 164 countries. Some might question the validity of any rankings from a sanctioning body, and giving the champion a watered down list of 20 WBC choices is quite a bit of latitude. But if they can work out the details that would prevent promoters from putting highly skilled boxers in the ring with human punching bags it would be an important step toward fighter safety and a worthwhile endeavor.
I’m firmly against the five clinch rule. John Ruiz would be down five points in the first round. Frankly, I doubt that most heavyweights could survive with this rule in effect.
I can remember a time when Muhammad Ali was the greatest clincher of all time, but he was so brilliant that he made it an art. Clinching was once a part of infighting and required great defensive skill. Today, many fighters see it as an opportunity to catch a breath. But to me, changing the rule would be throwing out the baby with the bath water. If the WBC wants stricter enforcement inside the ring, it should come from the referee who can give warnings and deduct points as appropriate.