Saturday, October 08, 2005
Sometimes (often) professional boxing is just embarassing
One of the most-anticipated fights of the year won’t be a title fight, cos Jose Luis Castillo hasn’t made the weight in time. What’s the reason from Bob Arum, his promoter? He says his fighter hasn’t had a trainer for two weeks after he was fired by the doctor… WTF? Can anyone imagine another sport where this would happen? This was a fight not anticipated so much like Rahman-Klitschko, and Byrd-Williamson, because it was for the title and the future of the heavyweight division, but rather because their last meet was greatly entertaining, and people hoped for another possible fight of the year.
Over at Audley Harrison’s forum, we’re all lamenting how a possible “future of the heavyweight division” might be able to box anyone useful, cos his name isn’t big enough to mitigate the risk of names losing to his great talent. One needs the matchmakers to think of one as a big name, but one that is over-hyped and really very beatable, so that their fighters can add rep by winning a fight that really isn’t that hard, whilst everyone knows that Audley has great talent (albeit in a not particularly TV-friendly style, focussing on winning, as we said about Sven this afternoon), and yet where it matters in the US, his is not a massive name that will make people hugely anticipate a fight. Ironically, some of the guys with such names are also famed for being very boring to watch, yet still, there is more incentive to fight them… What’s Audley’s problem? Well boxing is so corrupt that he decided to be self-promoted so as not to be sucked into that corruption, and so he has been continuosly resented by promoters (see Frank Warren), and he has never had a manager with fighters to put in with him, in the way Don King can make one of his champions bigger by having him beat another of his champions, and thus can match the two without worrying so much that his fighter will lose (as his fighter must also win). Lastly, without one of the big promoters, one doesn’t have even the contacts and the network to find out fights that could be made, or the position of being someone to whom others must answer the phone, and are obligated occasionally to say yes.
It’s a frustrating game: the best sport there is, and yet run worse than no other so popular…
Over at Audley Harrison’s forum, we’re all lamenting how a possible “future of the heavyweight division” might be able to box anyone useful, cos his name isn’t big enough to mitigate the risk of names losing to his great talent. One needs the matchmakers to think of one as a big name, but one that is over-hyped and really very beatable, so that their fighters can add rep by winning a fight that really isn’t that hard, whilst everyone knows that Audley has great talent (albeit in a not particularly TV-friendly style, focussing on winning, as we said about Sven this afternoon), and yet where it matters in the US, his is not a massive name that will make people hugely anticipate a fight. Ironically, some of the guys with such names are also famed for being very boring to watch, yet still, there is more incentive to fight them… What’s Audley’s problem? Well boxing is so corrupt that he decided to be self-promoted so as not to be sucked into that corruption, and so he has been continuosly resented by promoters (see Frank Warren), and he has never had a manager with fighters to put in with him, in the way Don King can make one of his champions bigger by having him beat another of his champions, and thus can match the two without worrying so much that his fighter will lose (as his fighter must also win). Lastly, without one of the big promoters, one doesn’t have even the contacts and the network to find out fights that could be made, or the position of being someone to whom others must answer the phone, and are obligated occasionally to say yes.
It’s a frustrating game: the best sport there is, and yet run worse than no other so popular…
