Norman Mailer once called the rarest athlete in sports ?The Big Toe of God.? Certainly a lofty honorific ? sublime and sacred?
In 1949, when Joe Louis reigned, there were only eight living former heavyweight champions ? Jess Willard, Jack Dempsey, Gene Tunney, Max Schmeling, Jack Sharkey, Primo Carnera, Max Baer and James J. Braddock.
Today, the world is infested with former heavyweight champions. They are a dime a dozen. Currently, 45 former heavyweight champs are walking around on this planet.
Times have changed!
Eight former, linear heavyweight champions as opposed to 45 paper-manufactured ?champs??
Norman Mailer once called the rarest athlete in sports ? The Heavyweight Champion of the World ? ?The Big Toe of God.? Certainly a lofty honorific ? sublime and sacred.
But today, ?The Big Toe of God? is no longer rare, sublime or sacred.
Today?s ?Big Toe?, (Tyson Fury, Deontay Wilder, or Ruslan Chagaev), is discolored and diseased; yellow, thick and brittle with jagged edges; deformed, and overgrown with fungus.
It?s not Fury?s, Wilder?s, or Chagaev?s fault ? it?s the fault of a terrible system which recognizes and manufactures unworthy paper, cheese-champions.
The alphabet boxing organizations ? the WBC, IBF, WBA, WBO and IBO ? are to blame.
Listed below are today?s living, (legitimate, and paper-manufactured) former heavyweight champions. I list them in alphabetical order. There are so many, I?m sure I?ve missed a few.
How many of these 45 former ?Big Toes of God? would be recognized today if they tiptoed through Times Square in New York City?
My list does not include eight paper-manufactured champions who have prematurely passed away: Ernie Terrell, Michael Dokes, Ken Norton, Tommy Morrison, and ?Big? John Tate. (Otherwise, this ?former-champion? list would hit 50.)
1. Muhammad Ali ? WBA & WBC 1964-1979 (intermittent reign) 2. Henry Akinwande ? WBO 1996-1997 3. Johnathan Banks ? WBO 2010-2013 4. Michael Bentt ? WBO 1993-1994 5. Frans Botha ? IBF 1995-1996 6. Riddick Bowe ? WBC & WBA 1992; WBO 1993 7. Lamon Brewster ? WBO 1994-1996 8. Shannon Briggs ? WBO 2006-07 9. Frank Bruno ? WBC 1995-1996 10. Chris Byrd ? IBF 2002-2006; WBO 2000 11. Ruslan Chagaev ? WBA 2007-2008; 2014?present 12. Gerrie Coetzee?WBA, 1983-1984 13. Franscisco Damiani ? WBO 1989 14. Buster Douglas ? IBF, WBC, WBA 1990 15. George Foreman ? WBA & WBC 1973-1974; WBA & IBF 1994-95 16. Herbie Hide ? WBO 1994-1995 & 1997-1999 17. Larry Holmes ? WBC 1978-1983 & IBF 1983-1985 18. Evander Holyfield ? WBC & IBF 1990-1992 & 1997-1999 & WBA 1993-1994 & 1996-2001 19. Sultan Ibragimov ? WBO 2007-2008 20. Roy Jones ? WBA 1993-1994 & 1996-2001; IBF 1900-19927; WBC 1990-92 21. Vitali Klitscho ? WBO 1999-2000 & WBC 2004-2005 & 2008-2013 22. Wladimir Klitschko?WBO 2000-2003 & 2008-2015 & IBF 2006-2015 & WBA 2011-2015 23. Siarhei Liakhovich ? WBO 2006 24. Oleg Maskaev ? WBC 2006-2008 25. Oliver McCall ? WBC 1994-1995 26. Ray Mercer ? WBO 1991 27. Michael Moorer ? WBO 1992 28. Samuel Peter ? WBC 2008 29. Alexander Povetkin ? WBA 2011-2013 30. Hasim Rachman ? IBF, WBC, IBO 2001 & WBC 2005-2006 31. John Ruiz ? WBA 2001-2005 32. Corrie Sanders ? WBO 2003-2004 33. Bruce Seldon ? WBA 1995 34. James ?Bonecrusher? Smith ? WBA 1986 35. Leon Spinks ? WBA & WBC 1978 36. Michael Spinks ? IBF 1985 37. Bermane Stiverne ? WBC 2014-2015 38. Pinklon Thomas WBC ? 1984 39. Tony Tubbs ? WBA 1985 40. Tony Tucker ? IBF 1987 41. Mike Tyson ? WBA 1987-1990 & 1996; WBC 1986-1990 & 1996; IBF 1987-1990 42. Nikolai Valuev ? WBA 2005-2009 43. Mike Weaver ? WBA 1980-1982 44. Deontay Wilder ? WBC 2015 45. Tim Witherspoon ? WBC 1984; WBA 1986
The bastardization of the heavyweight division continues. On January 16th, the 46th ?Big Toe of God? will be coroneted when Charles Martin fights Vyacheslav Glazkov in an IBF elimination title bout at The Barclays Center in Brooklyn.
Charles who? Vyacheslav what?
Lou DiBella, the promoter of this upcoming fiasco, has labeled this a ?history-making night? because TWO heavyweight title fights will take place on ONE night. First ? the WBC heavyweight title fight between world champion Deontay Wilder and challenger Artur Szpilka; secondly, the IBF elimination title fight between contenders Charles Martin and Vyacheslav Glazkov.
DiBella?s ?history-making night? is not a night to celebrate ? it is a night to mourn.
Lou DiBella ? someone once considered a candidate to be a bold, progressive, dynamic leader for boxing ? is simply falling in line, and complicit in dumbing-down an already dumbed-down sport.
Just in case you haven?t noticed?as the heavyweight division goes, so goes boxing.
Boxing dives while UFC thrives.
I?m not jumping ship, but fewer and fewer people are interested in boxing ? a fading sport with phony manufactured cheese champs.
UFC has blossomed into the new boxing. It has become the new seductive id of sports ? a sublime and sacred title once held by Boxing alone.
Peter Wood is a 1971 NYC Golden Gloves Middleweight Finalist in Madison Square Garden; a Middleweight Alternate for The Maccabean Games in Tel Aviv, Israel, and author of two books: Confessions of a Fighter, and A Clenched Fist?The Making of a Golden Gloves Champion, published by Ringside Books.
