By Vivek Wallace: Each year around this time I dedicate an article to the sport we love and the general state of it. For the second year in a row the overall outlook on things, particularly here in America have continued to take a nose dive, instigated by politics, egos, and sanctioning bodies that are more concerned with fees collected than being respected. Looking back in the proverbial ‘rear view mirror’, 2010 saw a hand full of memorable moments that remain overshadowed by several attempts that simply never stacked up.
On any given weekend via international telecast, we see Mexican rising stars of tomorrow, Puerto Rican rising stars of tomorrow, European, and beyond. The boxing scene in America remains on life support, kept alive by a very intriguing personality who actually hails from another mans land. With De la Hoya retired, Jones, Hopkins, and Mosley very close, and Mayweather uninspired, the American fight landscape breathes solely on the efforts of Filipino congressman Manny Pacquiao, who stands as the only fighter today with enough star power to routinely fill up venues such as Las Vegas’ MGM Grand, and beyond..
A deeper look into the sport in America presents a selection of contenders such as California natives such as Andre Ward and Timothy Bradley, Michigan native Andre Dirrell, Haitian born Andre Berto, and a few others; but of that group, one would be hard pressed to truly visualize any of them being a leader of the new school, taking the sport on their back and rekindling a flame which once shined bright, yet now barely provides light!
The best example of this could be found last Saturday evening when, for the first time in a long time two young American fighters, undefeated and in the prime of their careers took center stage. Coming into the evening expectations were high, but a terribly low attendance mark gave a quick dose of reality, and even that did little to prepare fight fans for the abysmal effort that took place once the bell finally rang.
The snapshot of how different the sport is viewed from one geographical location to the next can be found in this very same division. The brightest star of them all in the jr. welterweight division is England’s Amir Khan. The oddity here is that his status isn’t exactly a sign of great merit, as he was greatly humbled in the past, wherein Timothy Bradley and Devon Alexander have rarely been knocked down. The difference between them, however, comes in the fact that Khan hails from a land where the sweet science is still highly respected and the level of passion is paramount…..where in America, there’s a vastly different outlook on things.
Many American fight fans will say that America needs to bring the fight game back to local networks and do more to cross promote, but the issues that the American fight game face go much deeper. In example, Top Rank promoter Bob Arum is in the process of promoting what could go down as the biggest fight of the year and it will be heavily promoted on a local network, (CBS), however, it will feature one mega star who’s not American born, coming in against a future hall-of-famer who’s one more bad performance from retirement.
So, now our quest to see network television host boxing related events is in motion, and it’ll feature the most transcendent figure the sport has seen since the early days of Tyson and Ali, but don’t get it twisted………we may occasionally see him on “60 Minutes”, but you’ll never see him croon a few tunes on MTV, and you’ll most certainly never see him grace the cover of Ebony Magazine. Long story short, a boxing promotion will be on mainstream television, but only the hardcore faithful with a vested interest will be watching.
At the end of the day, boxing in America lacks far more than a local television presence. This means we’re no closer to seeing the game rise today than we were yesterday…..which also means there’s very little hope today for tomorrow! Where’s another Muhammad Ali or Mike Tyson when you need them? Stay tuned…….
(Vivek Wallace can be reached at vivexemail@yahoo.com, 954-292-7346, Youtube (VIVEK1251), Twitter (VIVEKWALLACE747), Skype (VITO-BOXING), and Facebook).