By Norm Frauenheim –
Finally, it’s time to trash the calendar for a year that will be remembered for what didn’t happen. It belongs in the spit bucket, alongside all of those futile stories about failed negotiations.
A new page offers relief and perhaps some optimism as 2022 gives way to 2023. But beware of the optimism. It might be a feint, another false hope.
Boxing begins a New Year that looms as critical. It still has a pulse, but it’s faint, fading because of the usual suspects. 2022 came and went without Terence Crawford-Errol Spence Jr., yet hope lingers that it still might happen.
Forget about it. A new year is about predictions. Here’s one: Spence-Crawford won’t happen within the next twelve months. Maybe, it does in 2024, or 2025, or 2026. By then, however, both fighters would be a year or two beyond prime time.
it would prove to be about as memorable as Canelo Alvarez-Gennadiy Golovkin 3 last September. Fans have already forgotten about that one. Some have also left the building, disenchanted, first by the disappointing conclusion to a much-hyped trilogy on September 17 and then by the Spence-Crawford a few weeks later.
That was a combo that generated the usual Twitter tantrums. In the long-term, however, there’s silence. Both Crawford and Spence said they were moving on. They are, but both with a smaller following that might have been there had the two fulfilled expectations – from them and the media – that their long-awaited welterweight showdown was a done deal.
Here’s another prediction: A lot of the disenchanted fans aren’t coming back, not in 2023 or any other year. But there is a younger generation, which has already attached itself to the fighters of their time.
There’s Philadelphia welterweight Jaron Ennis, Phoenix super-middleweight David Benavidez, lightweight Devin Haney, soon-to-be lightweight Shakur Stevenson and San Antonio flyweight/junior-bantamweight Jesse “Bam” Rodriquez.
Ennis is 25; Benavidez is 26; Haney is 24; Stevenson 25 and Rodriguez 22.
Collective record: 120-0.
They are five names, five young faces for the future of a game that sometimes looks as if it doesn’t have one.
They are poised to resurrect the business. But there’s a caveat. The balkanized business has to let them, but the last year is full reasons to fear that it won’t. Business-as-usual will only mean more futility in a sport that chases away fans with a flawed model. Floyd Mayweather’s Jr.’s risk-to-reward ratio doesn’t work anymore. It’s been knocked out of balance by the 30-something generation of fighters who followed Mayweather and his model.
Too much reward and not enough risk will only guarantee a shrinking audience.
Ennis kicks off the New Year on Jan. 7 against an unknown, Ukrainian Karen Chukhadzhian, in Washington DC on a card that is supposed to feature Gervonta Davis against Hector Luis Garcia. Davis, talented and troubled, was arrested in Broward County, Fla., Tuesday on a domestic violence charge. He was released Wednesday. He denies the allegations. It’s not clear whether his arrest will affect his spot on top of the Showtime-televised card.
Ennis is still scheduled to fight. He might have been the card’s most interesting fighter anyway. His expected victory – he’s been listed a 45-to-1 favorite by FanDuel – sets the stage for a year that could end with him as a dangerous challenger to the Spence/Crawford supremacy. First, he hopes for a shot at Spence.
Even if Spence and Crawford sidestep the emerging welterweight, Ennis figures to be there with a pretty powerful argument of his own. He’ll launch it on Jan 7.
Benavidez, who has long pursued a date with Canelo, might get closer to one with the Mexican pay-per-view star. He and Caleb Plant have agreed to fight. Plant announced the agreement on social media in early November. But, as of Thursday, there was still no date for the proposed fight. It’s designated a title eliminator for a shot at the World Boxing Council belt held by Canelo. WBC President Mauricio Sulaiman said before Christmas that he expects the bout happen during the New Year’s first quarter.
Meanwhile, Haney is also pursuing a bout against Ukrainian great Vasiliy Lomachenko, now 34 and still a more of a featherweight than a lightweight.
Stevenson is also interested in a date with Lomachenko. Stevenson, already a two-division champion, is expected to make his 135-pound debut against Jamaine Ortiz. A chance at Haney Stevenson in a lightweight classic could be on the agenda in late 2023.
Then, there’s Rodriguez. He’s the best American in boxing’s lightest weight classes since Michael Carbajal, a Hall of Famer from Phoenix. Rodriguez vacated a junior-bantamweight title and plans to pursue a vacant flyweight title against Mexican Cristian Gonzalez.
All five are there, unbeaten, unscarred and poised for a New Year with enough talent and will to achieve their ambitions. Now, it’s up to the business. There’s an old line from Muhammad Ali that applies to a New Generation’s first five.
Rumble young man rumble.
In 2023, it might be the only way to launch and sustain a successful comeback.
