As I sat down to watch the finale of Showtime`s bantamweight tournament bout, I realized how much I love weight class tournaments in boxing. I have to give a lot of credit to Showtime, especially for the Super Six tourney because the format had been so great. Even though I didn`t have much rooting interest in either tournament, I was intrigued by the idea of the best fighting the best. Four of the top Bantamweights and six of the top Super middleweights all clashing for a title, a trophy and bragging rights to be called the best in their respective divisions. The idea was almost perfect. Showtime`s execution of it was not.
I hate being critical of good things and good ideas for boxing, especially in a time that has been woeful for the sport. Bad match ups, bad refereeing, bad judging and plain old bad performances by fighters have hampered the sport for much of the 2011 campaign. We`ve all seen what has gone down this year and it has made my stomach turn on several occasions. No wonder so many fight fans have turned to the dark side (MMA) and left the sweet science in the dust. I watch MMA from time to time and noticed that UFC and other MMA outlets make great match ups and you never quite see the side story take charge like a bad referee in the Mares-Agbeko fight or bad judging like in several of HBO`s recent fights. Dana White promotes a good product and it all seems to be on the up and up. He takes responsibility for their product, something boxing hasn`t done in a very long time. How does boxing regroup? How does boxing get back in the good graces of the viewing public? By taking responsibility.
I am going to use both of Showtime`s tournaments as an example and maybe a few of HBO`s latest debacles as well.
1 - The only thing that had me interested in the Bantamweight tournament was the fact that it was a tournament! Not one fighter really had a huge following with the exception of Darchinian. Abner Mares was an up and coming star, Agbeko had been around the block a few times but nobody really talked up a Ghanaian fighter since Ike Quartey. Yhonny Perez? Aside from the people in this tournament, who has Yhonny Perez fought? He has three fights on his resume where guys have more than 20 losses, with two as recent as 2008.
2 - Showtime made a tournament in a division without including the star of the division. (They actually did this in the Super Six as well, more on that later.) Why wasn`t Nonito Donaire in this tournament? If they had Donaire and perhaps Fernando Montiel in the tournament this may have been a much bigger tourney and could have attracted the casual fan and perhaps made the finale a PPV event with an undercard of 3rd and 5rd place fights. Maybe Showtime should have picked a different division. 126? 135? 140? 147? There is heavier competition in those divisions and more household names than the Bantamweights. You don`t believe me? Just look at how many people were in attendance for the Mares-Agbeko Bantamweight finale. Remember, with boxing suffering, it needs to get viewers. That is done by giving the public who and what they want to see and that is Showtime`s responsibility.
3 - The Super six has been fun to watch, but I had a problem right off the bat when Jermaine Taylor was involved. Kessler, Froch and Abraham had all made names for themselves and Andre Ward and Dirrell weren`t too well known but were promising to say the least. Jermaine “Bad Intentions” Taylor`s only intentions were to fool us into thinking he can still fight. Losing three of his last four fights with his only win coming against another washed up disappointment in Jeff Lacy in a terrible fight, I hope Jermaine`s future intentions are to stay retired.
4 - As I mentioned earlier, Showtime put this tournament together without involving arguably the divisions` best fighter in Lucian Bute, but I did like the format better, getting a bigger sampling of each fighter in a longer, more drawn out tournament helps solidify any questions as to who is the best super middleweight. The problems really started when guys dropped out of the tourney due to injury. Taylor wasn`t on this level anymore after getting KO`ed by Arthur Abraham in the tourney`s first match and Kessler suffered an eye injury after his very close decision win over Carl Froch. This left the door open for Showtime to bring in some fresh faces that would be competitive and exciting to a tournament that lost some luster along the way. Showtime missed the boat.
I wasn`t opposed to Allan Green filling in for an injured fighter, but I definitely wasn`t for Glen Johnson being part of the Super six. It would seem like I had this backwards right? Here`s my thinking. Allan Green was not a household name (Then again, who is these days) but had compiled a good record and had youth on his side. It’s not Showtime`s fault that Allan Green wound up being a bust, that’s Allan Green`s fault. He was a no show vs Ward and got KO`ed by Johnson. He screwed himself out of any future big fights with his poor performances. I had two problems with Glen Johnson being involved. The first being his age. You just never know when father time is going to catch up to you, and the second was what we`ve all seen over the years. Glen Johnson had been one of boxing`s sacrificial lambs, usually on the short end of a bad decision and I had hoped this wouldn`t rear its ugly head yet again. It didn`t, but Johnson`s age would eventually catch up as he was unable to keep up with the younger Carl Froch in the tournament`s semi finals. All the while I just keep asking myself, Where was Lucian Bute? Again, Showtime missed and the tournament suffered.
There are a few examples of HBO`s part in boxing`s recent demise. As much as I would love to involve the last Klitscho catastrophe, I cant. That, like Allan Green, was all David Haye`s fault. That may have been the most un-backed up smack talk by a fighter in the last 20yrs. David Haye should give his purse back. HBO seems to suffer from varied reasons to turn off your television, like poor judging. The Paul Williams-Erislandy Lara fight was a disaster. Williams probably didn`t win 5 rounds and was given a gift for the ages. Lets not forget Devin Alexander`s last performance and what the judges did for him, then again he is a Don King fighter and we all know what that means. HBO has to realize that these examples are a black eye on them as well as boxing and needs to take responsibility and make sure the trend doesn`t continue.
My last gripe is with one person in particular. Bob Arum. He may be the most powerful man in boxing but he is killing the sport. It has been said many times that he is wasting Manny Pacquiao`s prime years on mediocre opponents, I don`t disagree. Because of his issues with Golden Boy, he has kept Pacquiao away from what would have been the fights boxing needed to see in order to stay on the forefront. After the De La Hoya and Hatton fights, we knew Manny was something special. He should have fought Mosley instead of Cotto (who was coming off a questionable win over Clottey). Mosley was willing to go down to 140 lbs at one point just to get the fight. This was the right time for that fight, not a year and a half later. Besides, Arum could have made the Pacquiao-Cotto fight at any time because they were both fighters in his stable.
The Clottey fight was a waste of time and more about selling the venue than a great matchup. The Margarito fight was a joke and proved that Margarito was never that good to begin with. Arum really exposed one of his own fighters in Margarito as a cheat (Margarito deserved it) and his dumb corner almost got him killed (He deserved that too). Pacquiao could have fought Marquez instead of Clottey and at a fair weight…. Say 140 lbs, not 144 lbs where Marquez doesn`t really have a chance. Most importantly, I blame Arum as well as Mayweather for the Pac-Floyd fight never taking shape. Mayweather`s outrageous demands and Arum`s talking out of both sides of his mouth killed this fight twice and now we`ll never know if it will ever happen. Through all the hype, all of the ridiculous prices for a ringside seat to a prize fight and the rising costs of a PPV event at home, it is Arum`s responsibility to make sure that “We” as fans get a great product. For if we don’t get what we deserve as loyal fans, there are other options out there and boxing is already behind the eight ball.
Joey Santana can be reached via email: theboxingkidd@verizon.net
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