By Martin ‘The Brain’ Potter of the Boxing Clever Podcast – Maybe it’s a bit premature to write the obituary for the boxing year of 2010, given that over four months still remain, yet it seems to me that 2010 will be forever remembered for the fights that didn’t happen rather than the ones that did.
I, like many fans, writers and pundits alike, started this year with a huge amount of optimism for the twelve months ahead. The really big fights would surely happen and the world outside of boxing would sit up and take notice. TV companies would get on board and casual fans would return, safe in the knowledge that boxing was firmly back in the mainstream. Pacquaio Vs Mayweather – the biggest non heavyweight clash in two decades – was firmly on the cards, just some final negotiations would sort it. Haye Vs either Klitschko, following Haye being thrust into the limelight after his world title win, still looked a distinct possibility, big money and a football stadium in Germany or the UK beckoned. Amir Khan, Britain’s rising star, would meet a genuine light welterweight puncher in 2010, maybe his mandatory Medina, and prove he really was world class. Everything looked like it would fall into place…….
Alas, as we all now know none of the above have happened (or will happen) this year and boxing as a whole has missed a massive open goal. So where did it all go wrong and was I an idiot to think there was a chance that the aforementioned bouts might actually happen?
The answer to my second question is straightforward (clearly yes – I am an idiot) but things get far murkier when trying to address the first issue. Pacquiao Vs Mayweather didn’t happen, in my opinion, because the key players involved didn’t want it to happen enough and because massive egos plus huge money equals a negotiation nightmare (especially when the negotiators have even bigger egos and more cash at stake than the fighters). Either Manny or Floyd could have chosen to step up, swallow their pride and accept the others terms in order to make the fight but I get the feeling that, certainly in one of the fighters cases, they were probably encouraged not to and the other was never going to forsake his huge ego. To sum up how bad for boxing this fight not happening is, I will use my boxing clever podcast co host’s analogy – If Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal refused to play each other at tennis then the game would become a laughing stock, yet that is exactly what is happening in boxing with this non fight.
Haye Vs one of the Klitschko brothers follows a similar theme to Pacquiao Vs Mayweather and it is hard to know who to blame. Should Haye concede to the inevitable rematch clauses and tie ins that the Ukrainians would want to impose and risk losing for less than a fifty percent share of the cash? Should the Klitschkos agree to a tie in free contract and risk losing their stranglehold on the heavyweight division? Who is fooling who?
As for Amir Khan I can understand the path he is treading at present and he does have great talent but I can’t call him a genuinely world class fighter until he fights someone the same size as him who can actually punch their way out of a paper bag. If Freddie Roach has really improved Amir’s defence that much and his chin problem was as a result of making lightweight as claimed then fighting a less talented fighter like Medina shouldn’t be a problem should it? Beating up on lightweights, light punchers, old men or lightweight light punching old men doesn’t a world class fighter make.
We shouldn’t fool ourselves into thinking that these fights not happening is a problem solely of the making of the fighters and promoters as unfortunately it goes far wider than that. The proliferation of world governing bodies and world titles available means that the best don’t have to fight the best in order to win a ‘world’ title and start receiving the big bucks from TV companies who will pay for any fight involving an alphabet belt. Pacquiao can continue fighting other Arum fighters for vacant belts in vacant weight divisions. Mayweather can fight old men and lightweights and still make a mint. The Klitschkos can proceed with the annual ‘Beat-up Sam Peter’ festival and Haye is free to make a British fortune fighting the likes ‘A-Farce’. Are us fans and pundits free from blame? If we continue to watch and pay for sub standard bouts then I’m afraid that we can’t complain when boxers chose to take the easy option (as they have in 2010), safe in the knowledge that we will continue to lap it up.
The super six has been the one bright spot for boxing this year and in an ideal world would act as a blueprint that all the weight divisions would follow, but that’s me being optimistic again and in 2010 you know where that has got us. Roll on 2011 when the really big fights will surely happen……
The hear more from Martin ‘The Brain’ Potter, download the boxing clever podcast from iTunes or at www.boxingcleverpodcast.libsyn.com