Random thoughts: We boxing fans continue to be taken for granted over and over
I'm super cranky and pretty much go off on everything with a few plaudits thrown in
A note to Fight Freaks Unite readers: I created Fight Freaks Unite in January 2021 and eight months later it also became available for paid subscriptions for additional content — and as a way to help keep this newsletter going and for readers to support independent journalism. If you haven’t upgraded to a paid subscription please consider it. If you have already, I truly appreciate it! Also, consider a gift subscription for the Fight Freak in your life.
A slew of boxing random thoughts…
I love boxing and have devoted much of my life to covering it but I am grouchy about it right now. Let me count the ways.
After an excellent first half of 2022 that produced unexpected gems such as Leigh Wood-Michael Conlan and Sebastian Fundora-Erickson Lubin; the expected excellent rematch between Jermell Charlo and Brian Castano; the epic fight between Katie Taylor and Amanda Serrano; fights that were highly significant and anticipated (even if they didn’t quite deliver on their hype) — Canelo Alvarez-Dmitry Bivol, Shakur Stevenson-Oscar Valdez, Tyson Fury-Dillian Whyte and Artur Beterbiev-Joe Smith — and the emergence of Bam Rodriguez, the second half has been weak. And it appears it will finish with a pathetic whimper with no big events in the fourth quarter.
Yes, in the second half of 2022 we got Alvarez-Gennadiy Golovkin III, but it was a few years too late and GGG looked every bit his 40 years and got wiped out in a forgettable fight; the instant classic Sivenathi Nontshinga-Hector Flores vacant junior flyweight title bout; and the excellent all-women’s card with Claressa Shields-Savannah Marshall and Mikaela Mayer-Alycia Baumgardner. But what else has there been recently other than plenty of mismatches, appearance fights and overpriced pay-per-views.
Or, more to the point, what haven’t we gotten?
Well, a few weeks ago it appeared as though we would get Fury-Anthony Joshua, a heavyweight championship mega fight, and Errol Spence Jr.-Terence Crawford, a fight to determine pound-for-pound supremacy that we’ve all been dying to see for yeas. Both would be big-time events with huge appeal to both die-hard and casual fans. Guess what? Naturally, we’re getting neither.
What we are getting instead is another massive helping of the powers that be overpromising and underdelivering in the form of Fury-Dereck Chisora III (one of the most unnecessary, pointless trilogy fights of all time), and Crawford-David Avanesyan in an utter who cares fight on pay-per-view on an obscure streaming platform.
We as fans deserve better than what is being delivered. A lot better. We as boxing fans have been mistreated forever. We are always taken for granted, yet for some reason we keep expecting a different result. It’s the definition of insanity.
I count only a mere four bouts on the schedule between now and the end of the year that I am genuinely interested in: Bivol-Zurdo Ramirez, Juan Francisco Estrada-Roman “Chocolatito” Gonzalez III (both on DAZN as part of the normal subscription, albeit that price has been jacked up 50 percent), Hiroto Kyoguchi-Kenshiro Teraji (ESPN+) and Jose Zepeda-Regis Prograis (but at $60 for the PPV that is a serious reach).
Hopefully, something else will be added to the schedule, but don’t think for a moment it will be Tank Davis-Ryan Garcia, which even if it’s made won’t be until 2023.
Now get off my lawn!
So, is it still Bob Arum’s fault that there is no Spence-Crawford fight? He always got a bad rap from the Twitter mob for being the reason the fight wasn’t made in recent years but that was always nonsense. He is no longer involved with Crawford but the fight is still not happening.
Fury sure didn’t have nearly the urgency to get the fight with Chisora signed as he did with Joshua did he? One guy (Joshua) he tried to bully into signing a contract in a few days and the other guy (Chisora) he gave weeks to in order to get it signed. How in the world does Chisora warrant a title shot? Fury already has wiped him out twice, once by knockout and once by easy decision. Does he warrant the shot based on a life-and-death split decision over 41-year-old Kubrat Pulev in his last fight, which followed three straight losses? Gimme a me a break. Now get off my lawn again!