04.03.06 – by Chris Ireland: Sugar Ray Leonard and Thomas Hearns launched comebacks in other divisions. Roberto Duran was too old and too small. James Toney was getting too fat, and Iran Barkley had nothing left to give. By the time Roy Jones got bored in 1996, the super middleweight division had been stripped of everything. Over the next decade the middleweights and light heavyweights were thrust into the mainstream spotlight, featuring superstars like Jones, Bernard Hopkins, Felix Trinidad, and Oscar De La Hoya, while the super middleweights toiled on the scales of obscurity – a gray area stuck in-between two colorful divisions, the forgotten middle child of the boxing world. The division searched for the fighter, the fight, for anything to make it relevant once more. Finally the division’s savior has arrived – a scheduled 12 round slugfest between unbeaten champions Jeff Lacy and Joe Calzaghe tonight in England.
But what happened to the super middleweight division in the ten years in between Jones’ exit and tonight’s fight? How could a division that once featured such prominent names become so obscure? And how does Lacy-Calzaghe end a decade of decay?
Champions Didn’t Fight Each Other
Think of the heavyweight division as it is today. There’s too many fighters wearing belts around their wastes, and too few willing to put their strap on the line against other champions. That, in a nutshell, is what the super middleweight division has been for the last ten years. Four fighters in particular stand out in this category.
As the late nineties turned into the new millennium, it became increasingly clear that WBO champ Joe Calzaghe and IBF belt holder Sven Ottke were the two best super middleweights in the world. For nearly a decade the two defended their titles a combined 38 times, clearing every obstacle in the path towards a unification match. But Ottke retired in 2004 with an undefeated, but not perfect record – the lone blemish being the absence of Calzaghe’s name. Ironically, Ottke is the last super middleweight to unify titles, defeating Byron Mitchell for the WBA and IBF championships in June of 2003.
Calzaghe and Ottke weren’t the only ones to avoid facing their fellow champions. Frankie Liles, a skilled fighter from Las Vegas captured super middleweight gold in 1994, defeating Steve Little by unanimous decision. After winning the title, however, Liles failed to capitalize on the lucrative opportunities a champion earns. He defended title seven times in five years, never once putting it on the line against another champion. Markus Beyer has had 3 separate runs as WBC super middleweight champion, the first of which beginning in 1999. He’s successfully defended his title seven times in seven years and competed in 11 world title bouts, none of which were against champions of the WBA, IBF, or WBO.
These four fighters – Calzaghe, Ottke, Liles and Beyer – all spent extended periods of time at the top. Between them, there’s 52 successful title defenses and two unification matches (Ottke’s win over Mitchell in 2003; Calzaghe’s meeting with Lacy tonight). This embarrassing statistic reveals a big reason behind the division’s decline: None of the long reigning champions in the post-Jones era were willing to fight each other. Ottke indeed unified two titles, but never fought Liles, Beyer, and most notably Calzaghe. This division of power made deciding the class’ best fighter a matter of uncertainty. It also eliminated the kind of defining, lay-it-all-on-the-line fight that brings a division into the spotlight, that is until Lacy and Calzaghe get it on tonight.
They Didn’t Fight in America
Sven Ottke, Markus Beyer, and Joe Calzaghe never/have never fought outside of Europe. Other key fighters, like Eric Lucas, Danny Green, Anthony Mundine, and Mikkel Kessler have fought the overwhelming majority, if not all of their fights outside of the United States – meaning most of their fights weren’t on American television. This inability to pack up their game and take it to the US has made these they are popular in their homeland, but far from the kind of international stars the super middleweight division has been thirsting for since 1996.
Jeff Lacy, on the other hand, is quickly becoming an American star. His hard-hitting Mike Tyson-esque style and Olympic background have made him a marketable commodity, as he’s currently seen on a commercial for ESPN Mobile and is a fixture on Showtime. A Lacy win over Calzaghe would further bring the super middleweight division back to the American audience. Boxing fans in the US would have a chance to watch some of the countless European contenders challenge for Lacy’s crown in American arenas and on television.
A Calzaghe win over Lacy wouldn’t necessarily eliminate the division from the US spotlight, however. If the southpaw were to defeat the American product, it’s conceivable Calzaghe could pull a Ricky Hatton and take his game to the United States after winning a career-defining fight on his home turf. A win over a popular American fighter like Lacy would open Calzaghe up to markets in the states, especially when one considers that this fight will be seen on Showtime.
Stars Weren’t Attracted To It
When have did you ever hear Bernard Hopkins make noise about moving up in weight to tackle Sven Ottke? Did Roy Jones ever show much interest in moving down in weight to face Joe Calzaghe, or letting Calzaghe move up? For the longest time, the super middleweight division was loaded with fighters that boxing’s stars stayed away from like the sushi in a bait shop. The big time middleweights and light heavyweights could either A) Take on a risky opponent from a different weight class and fight for little money or B) Fight people from their own weight class and make more money. Bernard, Roy, Oscar, and Tito chose option B and competed in mega fights on their side of the world while the super middleweights watched from theirs – unable to take on the pound-for-pound superstars in the sport and bring a meaningful fight to their weight class.
This could change after Lacy-Calzaghe. It’s already clear that the winner will be considered a pound-for-pound elite fighter – the first the division has had since 1996. Pair that with the high possibility of an entertaining fight (meaning a high demand among viewers to see the two again), and one can conclude that this fight will probably produce a new player in the world of big money fights, particularly at light heavyweight, where there’s already noise of Roy Jones or Antonio Tarver taking on tonight’s winner some time in the future.
Rarely does a single fight achieve so much for a division. And perhaps just as rare is the occasion when two undefeated champions meet to see who is truly the best fighter in their division. Rarely does a division rise and fall – breath in and breath out – like the super middleweight division. After a decade of letting the air out – breath in, super middleweights! – Lacy-Calzaghe has pumped new life into your system.