Have you seen a fight where you hear boos from the crowd in most, if not all, of the rounds of the fight? I just did in the Wright-Mosley II main supporting bout.
Number 7 IBF rated fighter Tokunbo Olajide (20-2, with 17 KO’s) was “contesting” with Ian Gardner (18-1, with 17 KO’s) for the NABO and NABC junior-middleweight championship. I used the milder word “contesting” instead of “fighting” because I could hardly see a fight in all uneventful twelve rounds.
One might say “who cares about the main supporting bout?” Well, the fighters involved should. Making good in a main supporting bout brings a fighter to the door of stardom.
Fighting in the main supporting bout to the Oscar De La Hoya Vs Javier Castillejo title fight in June 2001, Manny Pacquiao introduced himself to the boxing world when he dominated Lehlonoholo Ledwaba for five rounds and stopped him in the 6th to win the IBF super-bantamweight championship title. I heard no boos, only applause from the surprised crowd.
Again fighting in the main supporting bout to the Lennox Lewis-Mike Tyson title fight, Manny established himself as a fighter worth paying to watch when he entertained the crowd by banging and blowing away Jorge Eliezer Julio in less than two rounds. No boos but only applause from the appreciative crowd.
In the Gardner-Olajide fight, the crowd booed as the first round ended where the fighters barely touched each other for the whole three minutes. A commentator mentioned that it appears that either Gardner was affected by nerves or he was “just shadow boxing”. Hi jabs and straights were inches short of the target. When Olajide attacks, Gardner retreats. Olajide likewise did not live up to his world ranking by throwing only intermittent and non-landing punches.
The “non-fight” continues in the 2nd round prompting the referee to momentarily stop the contest and instructed the “fighters” to fight. Boos were let out at the end of this round. And again in the 3rd, 4th, 5th. In the 6th the commentator described the fight as a “sparring session” as the crowd again booed.
In the 7th round, the referee again called the fighters’ attention to mix it up. In the 8th the referee has to egg on the two to “box, box” as the crowd again booed. Boos in the 9th, 10th, even towards the end of the 11th where Olajide, at last, rocked Gardner with some shots. But he could not follow it up with the fast backtracking opponent. The loudest boo I heard was as the bell ended the 12th round. Finally the crowd was relieved of its agony!
Both fighters boasted 17 knockouts on each of their records going into the fight, but these were hardly shown in this contest. Gardner garnered a majority decision win, the same verdict made Winky Wright retain his world title over Sugar Shane Mosley. But the comparison of these two fights ends there as the main event lived up to its billing.
When fighters are introduced in the ring, some in the crowd let out boos directed at their fighter’s opponent. This kind of a boo is understandable and promotes fights. The other kind of a boo, the one directed at a fight as the ones above described, show displeasure which is not good for boxing.
Having excelled as a main supporting event fighter, Manny Pacquiao has risen to become the star fight attraction that he is now. Aspiring fighters should take note and learn the lesson.
I hope the “low level” Gardner-Olajede fight, as the commentator put it, is the last of its kind we have seen. For boxing to live on, fighters should fight with passion to generate applause, not boos.
