You’ve heard of that holiday tune, “The Twelve Days of Christmas.” Well, here are 12 things yours truly would like to see happen in our beloved sport:
(1) Kelly Pavlik named 2007 “Fighter of the Year” by any respected entity doling out such an award.
Let’s think about this for a second. How often have we seen a top-ranked contender knock out another top-ranked contender and then knock out the reigning world champion in the same year? That’s what Pavlik did. In May in Memphis, Pavlik squared off with Edison Miranda, a very hard-hitting hombre from Colombia who came in 28-1 with 24 knockouts.
Pavlik stopped him in the seventh round of a barnburner. Pavlik then ventured to Atlantic City and stopped Jermain Taylor in the seventh round, taking Taylor’s two middleweight championship belts in the process. This after nearly being knocked out himself in the second round. Case closed. It’s a no-brainer.
(2) A statute passed – I know, I’m dreaming – that would make it so promoters who dislike one another can’t use that as an excuse not to make fights.
We’ve seen that with Bob Arum and Don King, with Arum and Oscar De La Hoya and now with Arum and Floyd Mayweather Jr. (Funny how Arum is involved in all three instances, isn’t it? Just kidding, Bob.)
When a promoter publicly states that he will not do business with one of his peers – as Mayweather and his Mayweather Promotions did recently regarding Arum – it is never a good thing. It makes boxing look ridiculous. Really ridiculous.
(3) Mayweather fight a welterweight title unification bout with Puerto Rican terror Miguel Cotto.
Referring to some copy above, Mayweather and his adviser, Leonard Ellerbe, have stated they don’t plan on doing any business with Arum and his Top Rank Inc. But if Mayweather is going to continue to fight, the only fight he should take is one with Cotto. No disrespect to fellow champions Kermit Cintron and Paul Williams, but Mayweather and Cotto are the two best in the division and two of the best pound-for-pound fighters in the world.
Mayweather doesn’t think he has anything else to prove, but he does. He needs to prove he can beat a guy like Cotto without running much of the fight, like he did against De La Hoya.
(4) Bernard Hopkins say he’s sorry for bringing out the race card during a verbal confrontation with Joe Calzaghe in the media center at MGM Grand earlier this month.
Hopkins told Calzaghe he will never lose to a white person, and that if he does, he will never be able to show his face in the projects. Let’s face it, if Calzaghe had said he would never lose to a black person, he would have been crucified. But not much is being said about Hopkins saying it to Calzaghe.
The message here to Bernard would be, hey, talk all the trash you want, but leave race out of it. It’s uncool and unnecessary.
(5) A law passed – again, I’m dreaming here – that would allow police to arrest every idiot booing our national anthem, as those thousands of classless Brits did before their beloved Ricky Hatton got knocked out in the 10th round by Mayweather on Dec. 8 at MGM Grand.
These fools ruined all the good they did all week by cheering for their very respectable countryman as he headed into the biggest fight of his life. Lock them all up for the night, maybe two.
(6) A truly good American heavyweight burst onto the scene.
Man, as good as boxing has been this year, none of that good has involved a terrific heavyweight of the red, white and blue persuasion. Tell you what, I miss the days of Foreman, Ali, Frazier, Norton, et al. Having another great American heavyweight will happen, but it can’t happen soon enough. Here is some food for thought on the matter: Not only does Christian Arreola of Riverside (Calif.) have the chance to be a world heavyweight champion, he would become the first heavyweight champion of Mexican descent. If he were to accomplish this goal and eventually unify the division, what a story that would be.
(7) Roy Jones Jr. retire. He should get a good payday when he takes on Felix TrinidadJr. next month at Madison Square Garden.
After that, he should take his cash and ride off into the sunset. It’s always worrisome when a fighter has suffered a couple of vicious knockouts. Jones had that happen to him in successive fights against Antonio Tarver and Glen Johnson in 2004. Jones has had three fight since, but he did not engage in a rubber match loss to Tarver and his other two were against Prince Badi Ajamu and Anthony Hanshaw, not exactly vicious fighters.
One can’t help wonder if Jones, with his 39 years and two brutal knockout losses, is not very susceptible to serious injury. If he comes out of his fight with Trinidad in one piece, it would be a good time to hang up the gloves.
(8) Someone take a big bar of soap and wash out the mouth of Ricardo Mayorga.
To say this guy crosses the line with his insulting attitude is an understatement. Growing up on the rough streets of La Puente (Calif.) from age 5 to 13, teachers at our school did indeed wash our mouths out with soap if we were deemed deserving of such a fate. Mrs. Barrows, where are you now? We need you to do something for the boxing community.
(9) Floyd Mayweather Sr. and Floyd Jr. end their feud.
It was really kind of heart rendering watching these two bash each other on HBO’s 24/7 promoting Mayweather-Hatton. Then on the other side of the coin you saw Hatton and the loving relationship he has with his family. When fathers and sons are estranged, it’s a hurtful thing. I’ve been there with my father, but we’ve been good for a long time. That feels so much better.
(10) Make judges who come up with ridiculous scores undergo a psychological examination to make sure they are not playing a couple of sandwiches short of a picnic.
Since we know that none of them could actually be on the take, they must be lacking the mental capacity to come up with a reasonable score for a given fight.
All we have to do is go back to March 17 and the junior welterweight fight between Steve Forbes and Demetrius Hopkins in Las Vegas.
There wasn’t a reporter on press row who didn’t think Forbes had thoroughly thrashed
Hopkins. Some of us – including myself – had Forbes winning by as many as eight points. Yet the judges’ scores came back 117-111, 118-110 and 118-110 in favor of Hopkins. It was one of the very worst decisions this reporter has seen in 14 years on the beat.
(11) The eradication of all four governing bodies and the implementation of one entitythat would oversee the entire sport.
There would be one champion in each division and promoters would have very little say about who their fighters square off with in the ring. There would also be respectable and fair rankings, not like the laughable ones we now have.
The current organizations will not be named in this space because yours truly no
longer mentions their names in any stories unless absolutely necessary. But they don’t do boxing a bit of good. All they do is take, what with the alarming amount of money they charge to sanction a title fight. Each association also has a slew of minor belts nobody gives a darn about.
(12) Manny Pacquiao move up to 135 and fight Juan Diaz, the college kid from Texaswho is the best lightweight in the world.
Pacquiao first must get past Juan Manuel Marquez in their super featherweight rematch in March, and that won’t be easy. First, Marquez is a great fighter in his own right. Secondly, he could have a psychological advantage over Pacquiao because he got up from three first-round knockdowns to earn a draw with Pacquiao in their first fight in May 2004.
But if Pacquiao is successful, his next fight should be against Diaz. Their styles would make for an absolutely terrific, fan-loving fight.