10.09.07 – By James Slater: They say bad things come in threes. We boxing fans better hope so. With Vitali Klitschko’s boxing comeback bout with Jameel McCline added to the Vargas-Mayorga and Marquez-Juarez fights as postponed events, we have now seen three intriguing fights delayed in very quick succession this year. Actually, maybe the Klitschko-McCline fight will never actually happen at all.
With the thirty-six year old Klitschko suffering yet another injury to his massive body, his fighting days don’t look too promising right now. What worries me though, is the possibility of other big fights being put off in the coming weeks. Without doubting the seriousness of all three men’s ailments, pulling out of fights seems to be a growing trend at the minute. Three big fights being postponed is bad enough.
First Fernando Vargas is diagnosed as suffering from a iron deficiency, then Juan Manuel Marquez hurts his hand in training and now Vitali’s spine needs serious treatment. There can’t be any more bad news around the corner, can there?
2007 could not stand the cancellation/postponement of another big fight. We’re all looking forward to a great end to the year. What with Kelly Pavlik about to tackle Jermain Taylor at middleweight, Chad Dawson set to meet the big-hitting Adrian Diaconu at light-heavy, Joe Calzaghe and Mikkel Kessler about to see who the world’s best super-middleweight is, Shane Mosley in training to meet the unbeaten Miguel Cotto in a superb welterweight showdown, and, finally, to cap the year off, Floyd Mayweather scheduled to square off with Ricky Hatton at 147 pounds also. How bad will we all feel if just one of these fights is called off too!? Without wanting to appear pessimistic, it could happen. Obviously and hopefully not though, of course.
Injuries cannot be helped, naturally. But for them to scupper – or at least delay – three big fights in the space of as many weeks seems like awful bad luck. And there do seem to be more and more boxing matches delayed due to one guy getting himself hurt or saying he’s under the weather these days. Correct me if I’m wrong, but guys like Marvellous Marvin Hagler, Larry Holmes, Salvador Sanchez and Roberto Duran, to name but four boxing legends of years gone by, hardly ever pulled out of fights. Are the top men not as tough these days? We are talking about professionally trained, fit and dedicated athletes, after all.
As such, one would think mishaps in preparations would be extremely rare. Just lately, however, this has not been the case. Let us all keep our fingers crossed that this current ‘pulling out at the last minute’ trend has now come to an end. I for one could not stand the agony of Taylor-Pavlik or, heaven forbid, the Mayweather-Hatton fight, being a no-show.
“Bad things come in threes,” they say. Again, we all better hope so, and not fours, or fives, or sixes, or…….!