?Sometimes you get great fights when you match up two limited guys because they actually got a feeling they can win??
Boxing is in a celebratory mood. The fight of the century we?ve all been waiting for between Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao is just weeks away. Bigger than Gans-Nelson (1906), Johnson-Jeffries (1910), Dempsey-Firpo (1923), Louis-Schmeling II (1938), Graziano-Zale II (1947), Ali-Frazier I (1971), and Hagler-Hearns (1985) combined?this is the fight that will finally wash boxing of its sins. And what about those nagging spots that this soaking won?t remove? Not to worry. The new Premier Boxing Champions series on NBC will take cleanse the rest.
But it?s worth remembering that the bigger the front, the bigger the back.
Far from the bright lights of Las Vegas, the bittersweet science marches on, where no-name fighters get clouted for pay, as exploited as hookers for work that is no less onerous, but even more dangerous.
I?m as guilty as anyone when it comes to covering the major fights at the expense of prelims. Undercard fighters are frequently unknown. They are of limited talent. They generate little interest. They?re like the comics who warm up a TV audience before a big show. They create laughter, of a sort, or momentary thrills, before it?s forgotten they ever existed.
The longtime Executive Director of the Pennsylvania State Athletic Commission, Greb Sirb, understands the comparison. Intense and outspoken, he doesn?t care if he?s liked or loathed. He would rather fight for what he believes is right and let the chips fall where they may.
One of the tasks Sirb has assigned himself is to create a list of ?Boxers over 40? who might consider another profession. We?re not talking about Bernard Hopkins. He can fight until he?s 90 if he so chooses. We?re talking about fighters of limited skill, fighters who fight because it?s what they know or because of poverty, as they pad other fighters? records from coast-to-coast and beyond.
Sirb assembles these lists and sends to them the boxing commissions in the hope that, best-case scenario, ?They match them accordingly.?
With the erosion of knowledge and the corresponding depletion of taste, watching one man beat up another is often enough to suit those who know no better.
Sirb, however, isn?t so sure.
?I think that fans just want to see a good fight,? he said. ?Some fans obviously just want to see their boy get a win, but sometimes you get great fights when you match up two limited guys because they actually got a feeling they can win.?
Some of the ?limited guys? who sometimes feel ?they can win? are on the spreadsheet Sirb sends to the commissions.
In the February 2015 edition, 61 fighters are listed. Their ages range from 23 to 44, and they fight out of Ohio, Tennessee. Oklahoma, North Carolina, Mississippi, Rhode Island, Kansas, Virginia, Indiana, New Jersey, Montana, Louisiana, Alabama, Arkansas, Texas, South Carolina, West Virginia, Kentucky, Minnesota, and Wisconsin, as well as Canada and Mexico.
That so many states are represented is troubling, but less troubling than the fighters? records. Thirty-one-year-old Rodney Freeman, for example, has a 5-24 record and has lost 23 straight fights, with 21 of those losses coming by early stoppage. David Green is only 25, but his record is 2-21-1. He has lost 12 in a row, with 8 of those losses coming by KO/TKO. Thirty-year-old Marteze Logan has lost his last 29 fights. His record currently stands at 26-61-2. Twenty-eight-year-old Randolph Ronchi is just getting started, but has lost all 9 of his fights, all in the first round.
The list goes on and on and on.
When pressed, Sirb admitted that ?There are some who definitely shouldn?t be fighting,? adding that, ?For me the commission is the final word. The promoters can say this is going to be the fight, the fighter can accept the fight, but the commissions have the final say, so it falls on them to say no.?
How do the commissioners react when they receive his awful emails?
?For the most part,? said Sirb in their defense, ?a lot of them do a good job. I think there?s some who, whether they don?t understand match ups or just always look the other way, it just seems like this happens.?
But numbers don?t lie, and these numbers, skewed radically toward the loss column, less resemble boxing than suicide or worse.
?That?s why I put it out there,? Sirb said. ?It?s very easy to read and it?s in black and white.?
That makes it all the more shocking, in my opinion, that these men are licensed to fight.
?Yeah, I hear you. I put it out there and these are the facts. There it is.?
