Success breeds success.
Oscar De La Hoya, Roy Jones Jr. and Floyd Mayweather Jr. kick-started their professional careers with their amateur accomplishments ? De La Hoya captured Olympic gold in 1992, Jones won silver in 1988 and Mayweather picked up the bronze in 1996. From there, it was the big time in no time. Television appearances. Title shots. Championship reigns. Pound-for-pound rankings. Multimillion-dollar contracts. Pay-per-view main events.
Success begets excess.
De La Hoya, Jones and Mayweather became integral components of HBO Boxing. The power, suddenly, was in their gloved hands. De La Hoya could essentially fight whenever he wanted and whomever he wanted ? fair leverage for a fighter who, no matter what, could draw tens of thousands of fans and hundreds of thousands of pay-per-view buys. Jones and Mayweather, with their guaranteed contracts, could get away with bouts against limited opposition. Why not? Their stellar showings only cemented that the top talent in the Sweet Science fought on one premium cable channel.
Boxing isn’t what it once was. A sport that once filled stadiums, aired on broadcast networks and existed as one of the top athletic institutions remains healthy but merely thrives in its niche, operating out of casinos and ballrooms and available only through cable television, subscription-only outlets and exorbitant pay-per-view prices. The stars don’t shine as brightly as their preeminent predecessors.
Hence the importance of crossover appeal. De La Hoya, Jones and Mayweather have all made forays into the music business, each to varying degrees of success. They have been interviewed on late-night talk shows, received mainstream mentions and brought the sport attention. But even if their Q-ratings are far lower than they would have been in previous generations ? and let’s face it, it’s feasible that more people know Oscar the Grouch, Tom Jones and Floyd Landis than Oscar De La Hoya, Roy Jones and Floyd Mayweather ? these three have nevertheless long been the flag-bearers of the Sweet Science, and their compensation has taken that into consideration.
Why pass the torch when the fire still burns within?
De La Hoya has fought four times since 2004. Jones appeared twice that year, then once each in 2005, 2006 and 2007, and scored a unanimous decision over Felix Trinidad on Saturday night. Mayweather twice ascended to box office prominence last year and twice announced his retirement immediately afterward.
They’re here and then they’re gone. And yet they’re still here.
De La Hoya spends more time running Golden Boy Promotions than boxing between the ropes, but he remains, from welterweight to middleweight, what an inactive, ineffective Mike Tyson was at heavyweight. Fighters call him out no matter the reality of their situations, hoping the smallest scratch at the surface will reveal a winning lottery ticket. And the world still stops at the announcement of when and whom De La Hoya will fight.
It won’t be Ricky Hatton, not after the Mancunian Mauler’s knockout loss last month to Floyd Mayweather. And, it seems, it won’t be Miguel Cotto either.
No, De La Hoya apparently has his sights set on Mayweather again. The world didn’t necessarily await their first go-around, but a record 2.4 million pay-per-view buys and the possibility of revenge make the rematch the most profitable option. As for Mayweather, well, any more talk of retirement or two-year sabbaticals will leave him treated like the Floyd who cried wolf. It’s just another chance for “Money” to cash in.
Jones, meanwhile, has inserted himself into the running for the winner of the upcoming clash between the current super middleweight and light heavyweight champions.
“I’ll fight anybody, anywhere, anytime,” Jones said to an interview following this past weekend’s win against Trinidad. “If [Joe] Calzaghe and [Bernard] Hopkins ain’t fought, I’ll go to Wales and fight Calzaghe. I don’t care.
“I’m still capable of doing a lot of things,” he said. “I’m capable of beating anybody I get my mind right for. Any time I’m like this, I’m pretty much unstoppable.”
And there appears to be nothing ? or no one ? stopping such a match.
Hopkins won the “Ring Magazine” 175-pound belt in 2006, easily outpointing Antonio Tarver. His lone defense of the distinction came 13 months later, and the challenger, Winky Wright, was a former junior middleweight champion and middleweight challenger fighting far beyond his comfort zone.
But you can’t tell your meal ticket what to do ? not when he can pick up and walk away and not when the opponents he ends up meeting make for major events. The upside of the Hopkins-Calzaghe bout is that, unlike Jones-Trinidad, this senior tour pairs two champions who have recently ruled adjoining divisions.
Adding Jones to the recipe would fit the pattern but could leave a bad taste in some mouths.
Chad Dawson’s reign at light heavyweight has included a campaign for the aging superstars to take him seriously and take him on. But the younger, hungrier man remains too high a risk for too low a reward.
That is also the scenario at welterweight, where several claimants to the 147-pound throne see their aspirations held stationary for as long as Mayweather holds onto his championship. Cotto, a titlist and Mayweather’s most celebrated potential challenger, wanted the Golden Boy or the Pretty Boy but ended up with neither.
The collateral damage isn’t limited to the contenders either. For as long as the flag-bearers of old remain in action, the faces of the future will receive less attention. More coverage and conversation will go to Mayweather’s second business transaction with De La Hoya than to the upcoming Kelly Pavlik-Jermain Taylor and Juan Manuel Marquez-Manny Pacquiao rematches and the anticipated but still underrated rubber match between Israel Vazquez and Rafael Marquez.
The products of success have kept the superstars from retiring. In the process, they reap rewards, but the sport refuses to move forward.
The 10 count 1. On the undercard to Jones-Trinidad, four-time heavyweight title challenger Andrew Golota went a rough-and-tumble 12 rounds en route to a unanimous decision victory over prospect Mike Mollo.
It’s been more than a decade since Golota, on the verge of being atop the world, instead went below the border, losing via disqualification for repeated, blatant low blows in back-to-back bouts with Riddick Bowe. In the succeeding years, well, Golota didn’t. Rather, he showed a lack of confidence and heart, getting blasted out in the first round against Lennox Lewis in 1997, going ahead on the scorecards against Michael Grant in 1999 but refusing to continue after suffering a 10th-round knockdown, and quitting on his stool against Mike Tyson in 2000.
Thus it surprised many when Golota returned from a three-year sabbatical following the Tyson bout and fought in three consecutive title bouts, battling to a draw with Chris Byrd, losing a close decision to John Ruiz and then being sent back to the sidelines after Lamon Brewster dropped him three times in less than a minute.
Golota came back again last year, racking up stoppage victories over never-weres Jeremy Bates and Kevin McBride. Against Mollo on Saturday, Golota proved that he could fight through adversity, battling both an opponent who just wouldn’t quit and a swollen left eye that appeared to have closed completely. At 40, and despite his checkered past, he remains a guaranteed draw in cities with sizable Polish populations.
2. Golota-Mollo, by the way, paired a Polish transplant now fighting out of Chicago against an American of Italian heritage who lives in the Chicago suburb of Oak Lawn, Ill. And yet they fought for something called the World Boxing Asssociation’s Fedelatin heavyweight title. Yes, that’s Fedelatin, as in Federacion Latinoamericana.
3. By the way, how about that blue corner? Fighter: Mike Mollo. Trainer: Mike Garcia. Cutman: Mike Rella.
4. Also on the Jones-Trinidad undercard, lower-tier junior middleweight Alex Bunema scored a surprising victory over Roman Karmazin, upsetting the former 154-pound titlist with a 10th-round technical knockout.
On the surface, Bunema appeared to be a stay-busy opponent for Karmazin. He was a foe who had come up short in the past against Anthony Jones, Kassim Ouma, Bronco McKart and Robert Kamya and had once been fed as a sacrificial lamb to a developing Jermain Taylor. But Bunema was no designated opponent either ? he held wins over J.C. Candelo, Tony Marshall and Vince Phillips. And now he has added Karmazin to that list.
Karmazin, less than two months off of a quick knockout of former beltholder Alejandro “Terra” Garcia, showed far less fire against Bunema than he had in his previous outing. Bunema more than held his own, and in the 10th round, he floored Karmazin with a left hook and then sent him down for good with a big right hand.
For Karmazin, the Bunema loss stings far worse than his July 2006 dethroning at the hands of Cory Spinks. The longer the 35-year-old sticks around the sport, the sooner “Made in Hell” will become fuel for someone else’s fire.
5. And in the pay-per-view’s opening bout, junior welterweight prospect Devon Alexander added a big name to his resume with a crossroads victory over a fellow southpaw, former 140-pound titlist DeMarcus “Chop Chop” Corley.
Corley, who once provided stern tests for Miguel Cotto and Floyd Mayweather, was a major step up in competition for an Alexander who had yet to face a capable veteran fighter. Alexander passed this exam with flying colors, with the judges ruling in his favor by scores of 118-109 (twice) and 116-111.
Alexander has been in the professional ranks for less than four years, running up a 14-0 record with eight knockout victories. He should be given more time to develop, though a potential clash with another unbeaten 140-pounder, 24-0 (11) Lamont Peterson, looms as an intriguing option. Corley, meanwhile, has lost four in a row and seven of his last 10, and he seems resigned to playing the sparring partner while in the gym and the opponent while under the bright lights. Fortunately, Corley said in the post-fight press conference that he will hang up his gloves once his promotional contract with Don King runs out.
6. HBO ringside scorer Harold Lederman, Alexander-Corley, round four: “Jim, I gotta tell ya, Devon Alexander, you know, in every round, they sort of neutralize each other with right jabs, but Devon Alexander lands some vicious, hard, straight left hands, and that’s what Corley’s not doing.”
Lederman, Alexander-Corley, round seven: “Jim, I gotta tell ya, I think it’s time for DeMarcus Corley to go to plan B.”
Lederman, Alexander-Corley, round 10: “Jim, I gotta tell ya, one thing that impresses me about Devon Alexander is, for a southpaw, he’s got a hell of a right hand.”
Lederman, Bunema-Karmazin, round four: “Jim, I gotta tell ya, Alex Bunema’s putting on a clinic in how to move your head.”
Lederman, Bunema-Karmazin, round 10: “Jim, I gotta tell ya, Alex Bunema, just like Emanuel said, is strictly a right-hand puncher.”
Lederman, Golota-Mollo, round four: “Jim, I gotta tell ya, Andrew Golota, you know, I thought he lost the first round because Mollo outworked him so badly early in the first round.” Followed soon thereafter by: “Andrew Golota, I tell ya why he belongs on a pay-per-view show: because he sells tickets, that’s why.”
Lederman, Jones-Trinidad, round seven: “Jim, I gotta tell ya, I see signs of Roy’s brilliance when he starts backing Trinidad up.”
Lederman, Jones-Trinidad, round 10: “Jim, I gotta tell ya, in the last four rounds, Roy Jones has beaten him up, and that’s all there is to it.” Followed soon thereafter by: “And I tell ya, I think he’s doing it because he’s walking him down.”
7. For those of you playing along on the Fighting Words home game, that’s one night, four hours of boxing, four televised fights, 12 in-fight chances for Harold Lederman to speak, and, I gotta tell ya, he came through on eight of them.
8. In other action, Ruslan Chagaev retained his WBA heavyweight title with a 12-round unanimous decision over British big man Matt Skelton.
Chagaev was making his first defense of a belt he won early last year when he took a majority decision against Nicolay Valuev. Since then, Chagaev had signed to fight a unification bout with Sultan Ibragimov but ultimately was forced to withdraw due to health concerns.
Ibragimov is now set to face another heavyweight titlist, Wladimir Klitschko, next month at Madison Square Garden in New York City. While Chagaev could have established himself as the man one must face in order to assert a claim to boxing’s marquee division, he instead finds himself waiting for an opportunity of his own. Before one can come, however, Chagaev must first fight the winner of February’s elimination bout between Valuev and Sergei Liakhovich.
9. Boxers Behaving Badly: Twenty-year-old welterweight Bradley Elsliger was arrested last week for allegedly assaulting and killing a 17-year-old boy who died a day after he was found unconscious in an apartment stairwell in downtown Winnipeg, Manitoba, according to the Winnipeg Sun. Elsliger and another man, 19-year-old Daniel Matthew Henderson, have been charged with second-degree murder.
Elsliger, who fought as an amateur in the Canadian Junior Boxing Championships, turned professional last year, winning once and losing once. His last appearance was Oct. 26, a six-round decision defeat to 1-8-1 Stephane Chartrand.
Elsliger has another court date scheduled for July, when he goes on trial for possession for the purpose of trafficking and possession of property obtained by crime. The article was not specific on just what Elsliger was accused of attempting to sell illegally.
10. R.I.P. Duilio Loi, 1929-2008.
Loi captured the lineal junior welterweight championship in 1960 with a 15-round majority decision over fellow future Hall of Fame inductee Carlos Ortiz. Loi would lose the title two years later to Eddie Perkins ? who himself entered Canastota this year ? but the duo would fight again just three months later. Loi outpointed Perkins in that bout to regain the championship, and with that one last win in his native Italy, he would promptly retire the following month. Loi’s impressive ledger included 115 victories, 26 of which came by way of knockout, three losses and eight draws.
