18.09.07 -By James Slater: A few days back, I wrote a short article about how bad things are said to come in threes and that we boxing fans had better hope so, and not fours or fives, or more. Well guess what? Yet another big fight scheduled for this month is now off. This time it is the intriguing pairing of unbeaten light heavyweights in the Chad Dawson-Adrian Diaconu fight that has bit the dust. An injured wrist is the reason for Diaconu’s forced withdrawal.
Can things get any worse for boxing fans? Let’s not even suggest how bad we’d all feel if any more potentially great fights fall under this recent curse before the year is out.
Dawson V Diaconu was gong to be a great fight. Pitching the classic combo of boxer Vs. Puncher, there were sure to be fireworks. The fight’s outcome was pretty much 50’50 too. Now, as with Vargas-Mayorga, Marquez-Juarez and Klitschko-McCline, we will all have to wait a while longer for the action to take place. Really, I cannot remember this many postponed fights, so close together, happening in a long time. And again, without doubting the validity of either man’s injury, one cannot help being just a little bit cynical.
It cannot be denied, there are more called off fights these days than there used to be. As a result, September 2007, a month that once looked so good, is now destined to go down as a month that gave us just one great fight – Taylor-Pavlik. If, that is, nothing goes depressingly wrong with that bout.
Let’s just cross our fingers and hope that both “Bad Intentions” and “The Ghost” are going about the final few days of their training with the utmost caution. For if their fight too gets axed, September ’07 will no doubt be remembered in boxing history as one of the biggest letdown periods in recent pugilistic memory.
For great action this month (at least potentially) we must now all look to the two middleweights hailing from Little Rock and Youngstown, respectively. Jermain, Kelly – For this month of September it’s now up to you!