Boxing at critical point for future
I was frustrated last week when I read that Canello Alvarez had tested dirty for a banned substance.
Alvarez’s May 5 rematch with Gennady Golovkin should have capped a really fun and profitable winter and spring for boxing.
Alvarez will still fight Golovkin, but much of the shine is now gone. (For the record, Alvarez says the substance in his test came from tainted Mexican meat and he has since tested clean three times.) Still, if he wins, the victory will have an asterisk beside it.
Heated rivalries (Hearns/Hagler, Duran/Leonard, LaMotta/Robinson) make the sport exciting for boxing fans. Golovkin-Alvarez had the potential to turn into the centerpiece of several rivalries that could each have given us a great series of fights.
But boxing is really only relevant to the masses when the heavyweight division is interesting.
The best is when you get heated rivalries in an interesting heavyweight class (Ali/Fraser, Ali/Forman, Holyfield/Tyson).
Boxing has the look of a potential resurgence. We see the start of some good rivalries and the heavyweight division finally got good again.
For years a group of Russian and Ukrainian boxers dominated the heavyweight division. They were very large, with long reach. They were robotic and very successful but boring. Their fights were plodding and fans lost interest in their bouts, the heavyweight division and the sport.
Last year Anthony Joshua beat the Ukrainian world champion and immediately infused a surge of energy into the division.
Big Puncher Deonty Wilder had the opportunity for some big fights, but his opponents got injured or failed drug tests and fans had to wait to see if he was a legitimate contender for Joshua. With a knockout last week of King Kong Ortiz, Wilder has proved he is. A small group of outstanding young heavyweights has also emerged and the division is exciting again.
Meanwhile the spectacle of the Floyd Mayweather-Conor McGregor fight frustrated some boxing purists but turned the spotlight back to the sweet science. Mayweather’s style alone couldn’t do it, but the added drama of a UFC fighter that would force Mayweather to fight, did.
Shortly after that fight, Canello Alvarez and Gennady Golovkin fought to a 12-round draw in a very good fight that made the purists happy.
The superfly weight division also got a burst when Thai boxer Srisaket Sor Rungvisai twice beat the top pound-for-pound boxer in the world, Roman Gonzalez. Then last month Sor Rungvisai beat Juan Francisco Estrada in a really fun contrast of styles. The win sets up a series of potentially exciting fights in that lower weight class.
The welterweight division is very deep with an American, Errol Spence, as the best and most exciting name.
All that to say, 2017 was a really good year for boxing and it looks like 2018 has even more potential. But then rears the fatal flaw with boxing. It is a great sport, but too often it shoots itself in the foot. Crooked promoters, confusing amateur rules, judges who do not answer to anyone and dirty drug tests, the sport has always been full of shady characters. UFC and big time wrestling have similar concerns, but they have to a point embraced it and appealed to that audience.
Right now boxing is on the precipice of something great. There is the potential to see a real revival. But like so many good fights, one big hit and we could see the sport back on the canvas.