Once upon a time in boxing there was the heavyweight division, and in this division there were champions. Champions with names like Tyson, Holyfield and Lewis, Ali, Frazier, Holmes and Foreman just to name a few. These champions brought excitement, courage, bravado and trash talk to boxing when boxing was at its peak. Remember when it was fight week for a Mike Tyson fight? The week couldn't go by fast enough, right? Ahh those were the days, kinda like when the U.S. used to rule the basketball world. Well those days don't exist anymore.
These days most heavyweights are spawned somewhere in eastern Europe with names we can hardly pronounce, let alone spell. These days most people don't care about the heavyweight division, let alone boxing period. These days the heavyweight division is ruled by the Klitschko's. Going back to basketball for a moment, when the San Antonio Spurs were piling up world titles, all I kept hearing was how boring they were. I thought "but they are winning, isn't winning enough?" Nope. The past few years for boxing's big boys have been a lot of the same, the Klitschko's win, but win ugly or boring in non competitive fights. Throw in the fact that the Brothers' Klitschko won't fight each other to unify titles just multiplies the boxing public's disgruntledness towards the heavyweight champs.
I've often said that boxing needed the heavyweight division to be good for boxing to stay mainstream, but its safe to say I was wrong. Boxing doesn't need a great heavyweight division. It needs a great heavyweight boxer, a champion with cojones, someone who talks trash yet backs it up. Sure the Klitschko's win, but its not exciting and no one cares what they have to say. They're like robots, just in the ring to do a job, no personality. That's not what we love, that's not why we watch. We want to see victory and outrageousness. I know what you're thinking, guys like Pacquiao don't trash talk, but they win exciting fights for the most part. You are shocked when a Pacquiao fight is boring, and you are even more shocked when a Klitschko fight is exciting right? The bottom line is this, I sat back in April and watched Vitali fight a Cuban Olympic gold medalist Odlanier Solis for 1 round and was disgusted with the outcome. I actually looked forward to the Wladimir disaster vs David Haye this past July and almost threw my flatscreen out the window.
Come Sept 10th, Vitali Klitschko will fight Tomasz Adamek for the WBC heavyweight championship on HBO. I'll find something better to do. I'll let my DVR do what it was made for. Then maybe I'll watch it sunday morning when there's nothing else to do. I can watch during breakfast or as I do the dishes. Maybe I'll watch while I'm nursing a hangover, if all else fails it should help me fall back asleep at the very least. I know one thing, I won't sit home on a Saturday night and be fooled again.
Joey Santana can be reached via email: theboxingkidd@verizon.net
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