A colleague at the Long Beach Press-Telegram said to yours truly the other day: “Why are guys like Bernard Hopkins, Oscar De La Hoya and “Sugar” Shane Mosley still fighting?”
The answer was simple: They are still competitive enough to be fighting.
The real question is, what is going to happen to boxing when those three, as well as Floyd Mayweather Jr., retire?
There was a resurgence of sorts in the sport in 2007. A lot of that had to do with the super fight between De La Hoya and Mayweather. It broke every record imaginable, from pay-per-view buys to live gate proceeds.
Bottom line, there is a chance that none of the aforementioned fighters will be active after this year. Hopkins is 43 and coming off a loss to Joe Calzaghe on Saturday. Hopkins already had hinted that might be his last fight and although he has not yet made an such an announcement, he probably will soon.
De La Hoya, 35, was the guy who said early in his career he would not fight past 30.
He’s still here, but the biggest money-maker in boxing history will likely hang up his gloves after a tentatively scheduled rematch with Mayweather in September. (De La Hoya will fight Steve Forbes in a tune-up May 3).
Mosley is 36. He put on a more-than-admirable performance in a narrow loss to Miguel Cotto last November, and Mosley will be taking on Zab Judah on May 31 in Las Vegas. But Mosley will be 37 in September, which means he is probably not long for this game. Mosley is not the pay-per-view attraction of a De La Hoya – then again, who is? – but he is nevertheless a very popular figure who is almost a shoe-in for the Hall of Fame.
As for Mayweather, he has finally become a legitimate pay-per-view draw. It’s true, he really did not come into his own in that regard until his fight with De La Hoya, which sold a whopping 2.4 million buys. But because of his persona – and the idea that he is that fighter so many fans love to hate – chances are he is going to do well in that regard the rest of what is left of his career.
Mayweather, at 31, is the youngest of this foursome. But he has already announced his retirement once. He came back to fight Ricky Hatton, and he is probably going to fight De La Hoya again. But Mayweather has said many times that his body is starting to break down. He has brittle hands. And he has a variety of outside interests. It would not be a stunner if he were to take the many more millions he will earn in the rematch with De La Hoya and ride off into the sunset.
If he doesn’t, he will almost certainly have to square off with either Miguel Cotto or Antonio Margarito, or both, and the feeling here is that Mayweather doesn’t want to do that.
If you think about the accomplishments of these four fighters, you realize that they are four of the most popular figures of the past two decades. They have brought lots of joy to their followers, and lots of scorn from their haters. Either way, considering what they bring to the game from a success standpoint and all that entails, they have been the backbone of a sport that at times has had difficulty keeping its head above water.
Flash forward to this time next year. Can you imagine what boxing is going to be like if those four are no longer active 12 months from now? This scenario is very possible. Last year was a great year for boxing. This year shouldn’t be too shabby. But 2009, sans the Fantastic Four, could be a year that has a lot to say about the immediate future.
Who’s left once they leave? Who are the fighters that will pick up the popularity slack
and give fans a reason to continue to dole out their duckets for the sweet science? There are some good ones, but are they heavy box-office or pay-per-view attractions? That’s the key.
Manny Pacquiao, from a numbers standpoint, is probably the best we will have left.
He and Juan Manuel Marquez generated 400,000 pay-per-view buys in their March ematch won by Pacquiao. That is a pay-per-view record for lower weights, but it’s still only one-sixth of what De La Hoya-Mayweather did. That’s not Pacquiao’s fault. He is very popular, especially in his native Philippines. But the lower weights never have had the same affect on the sport as have the upper weights.
There are other outstanding fighters out there that the hard-core fan is embracing and will continue to embrace. Guys like Calzaghe, Kelly Pavlik, Margarito, Cotto, Rafael Marquez and Israel Vazquez. But it’s doubtful that any of them will ever come close to producing a million pay-per-view buys in one fight because it’s only the hard-core fan who is going to support them. And of those six, probably only Calzaghe and Pacquiao can regularly pack a venue with 15,000 fans. Calzaghe can only do that in Wales, and chances are he won’t be fighting past this year, either.
And by the way, the Marquez brothers – Juan Manuel and Rafael – most likely won’t be fighting more than another year or two.
Which brings us to the heavyweight division. Wow, it really stinks. How badly? Well, one major governing body has John Ruiz ranked No. 2, Michael Moorer No. 5 and Andrew Golota No. 7. That says it all.
What used to be boxing’s bread and butter division is a giant joke. That is the main reason why, when Hopkins, De La Hoya, Mosley and Mayweather leave, boxing could have on its hands its biggest struggle. If this were the 1970s, when heavyweights Muhammad Ali, Joe Frazier, Ken Norton, George Foreman, Larry Holmes and Earnie Shavers, to name several, were gracing the ring, it would not hurt nearly as much to have a few star fighters in lower divisions leave.
But when your best heavyweight is Wladimir Klitschko, who is scared to take a solid punch, that is a very bad thing.
The pay-per-view numbers that have come from heavyweight fights recently are barely worth mentioning. Lennox Lewis, Mike Tyson and Evander Holyfield did well, but most of their damage was done in the ’90s, and none of them are fighting any longer. (Forty-five-year-old Holyfield will probably fight again, but no one will care).
Yes, 2007 was a very good year. This year should be decent enough, but not as good as 2007. Unless you think for one second that De La Hoya-Mayweather will again top 2 million buys. De La Hoya, president of Golden Boy Promotions, is a good promoter and we have no doubt he will do everything he can go promote the heck out of that fight. But too many fans were peeved at the lack of hard-hitting action in his first fight with Mayweather, who rarely engaged the bigger De La Hoya. The guess here is that the involved parties will be lucky to get 1.5 million buys for the rematch.
Therein lies one of the major points of this whole thing: That could be De La Hoya’s last fight. It could also be Mayweather’s. Yet, even if it does only 1.5 million buys, that will be more than three times what anyone who is left will be able to do.
This is not good. You’ve heard the term, “A star is born.” Boxing needs several of those. A couple in the heavyweight division would be preferable.