There was a time when being the heavyweight champion of the world was the coolest title in sports.
Forget world’s fastest man or world’s greatest athlete or Heisman winner or Masters champ. It was the heavyweight champ and everyone else.
Can you even name the heavyweight champion of the world today?
Boxing is on the ropes. It’s been passed by younger and more violent competition, be it mixed martial arts or something else. This is your father’s boxing, and that’s not a good thing. This dated facsimile has made it a fax machine in terms of newsworthiness and public appeal.
Still, it seems appropriate to talk about boxing this morning with the sport’s biggest moment in a generation slated for Saturday night.
In fact, since Mike Tyson was known for his game and face smacks rather than his name and face tats, there has been no bigger moment in the sport.
Saturday night’s Floyd Mayweather-Manny Pacquiao fight already has reset the records for the financial parameters in the modern era of boxing. Mayweather could make as much as $180 million, and the pay-per-view boom of this event will mean the top eight pay-per-view boxing matches ever will include either Tyson or Mayweather.
But is Mayweather, a guy with a checkered past that includes multiple domestic assault incidents, the star who could make boxing relevant again?
Well, like all individual sports, the star attraction lifts the entire sport to another level. Think about the high times of golf with Tiger Woods at his apex or NASCAR with Dale Earnhardt behind the wheel.
Could this fight deliver that kind of singular moment? Sadly, since this fight is this Saturday and not May 2, 2010, it’s doubtful.
In this March 11, 2015, file photo, boxers Floyd Mayweather Jr., left, and Manny Pacquiao, of the Philippines, pose for photos after a news conference in Los Angeles. The Top Ten boxing pay-per-view list
1. Mayweather vs. Alvarez: Sept. 14, 2013 — $150 million (PPV Gross) 2. Mayweather vs. De La Hoya: May 5, 2007 — $136 million 3. Lewis vs. Tyson: June 8, 2002 — $112 million 4. Holyfield vs. Tyson 2: June 28, 1997 — $100 million 5. Tyson vs. McNeeley: Aug. 19, 1995 — $96 million 6. Mayweather vs. Cotto: May 5, 2012 — $94 million 7. Holyfield vs. Foreman: April 19, 1991 — $80 million 8. Holyfield vs. Tyson: Nov. 9, 1996 — $77.9 million 9. Pacquiao vs. Moseley: May 7, 2011 — $75 million 10. De La Hoya vs. Trinidad: Sept. 18, 1999 — $64 million Source: Sports Interaction
“There just has not been a star we can identify with,” local boxing guru Joe Smith said Monday. “Unfortunately, I don’t know if either of these guys can be that.
“Normally in this country we gravitate toward heavyweights.”
Smith’s right, of course. He’s forgotten more about boxing than any three people you know. But the demise of the star power is only part of the decline of the sport.
There has been an avalanche of boxing bad bounces. From the out-of-the-ring transgressions of Mayweather and Tyson and a host of others, to the confusion and con games run by powers that be such as Don King, there was a time when you needed a shower after watching boxing.
This has some of those same conundrums that have made the shadow deep and cloudy in a diverse demand for the ever-shortening attention span of the American public.
“There’s so much competition for the sports entertainment dollar,” said Smith, whose latest young up-and-comer, Slade Corvin, will be boxing in the national Golden Gloves next month. “There’s not much interest and there’s so much to choose from except from us diehards.”
Ah, the diehards. The folks who love the sweet science — or whatever dated term you want for what were our modern-day gladiators in the 20th century.
Boxing is violent, and the obvious risks have become a silent understanding for those who do it and watch it.
“I love the sport and will be watching Saturday, but it’s brutal,” said Dr. Bill Finley, a local physician who has been associated with boxing and a fan for close to half a century. “That said, it’s kind of puzzling why they raise sand about (concussions) in everything else, and they have left this alone.
“The primary goal of boxing is to knock the other guy out — to give them a concussion.”
Finley’s point is valid, too. It’s just another on the long list of cons on boxing’s ledger.
So, with all its warts and worries and its desire and danger, boxing takes center stage again this weekend. It’s the latest fight of the century in a fight game that was so last century.
The diehards like Smith and Finley still love it in spite of what it has become outside and inside the ring. They love it for all the right reasons and know that everything comes with its pros and cons.
This a reminder of what a big fight could mean, not a precursor to a renaissance.
Saturday night the diehards will be there, and so will most of America. Saturday night, boxing matters again, if only for one night.
Jay Greeson’s column appears on Page A2 on Mondays, Thursdays and Saturdays. His sports columns are scheduled for Tuesdays and Fridays. You can read his online column “The 5-at-10” Monday through Friday at timesfreepress.com after 10 a.m.
Contact him at jgreeson@timesfreepress.com and follow him on Twitter at @ jgreesontfp.