LAS VEGAS ? the mecca of boxing for the last 25 years ? finally seems to have gone senile. The weekend before last bought us Bernard Hopkins-Roy Jones II. Unfortunately, this rematch was 17 years in the making and by the time it arrived no-one cared for the sequel. Last weekend played host to another senior tour event: Evander Holyfield-Frans Botha. However, unlike golf, there is no market for a Champions Tour; in boxing, it is not only tedious but highly dangerous.
The fact that the ?Real Deal? beat Botha by an eighth-round stoppage is irrelevant as the ?White Buffalo? (41) ceased to be a factor in the division in the mid-to-late 1990s and retired in 2002. Holyfield was arguably the best of a stellar cast of heavyweights in the 1990s. His battles against ?Iron? Mike Tyson, James ?Buster? Douglas, Lennox Lewis and the epic trilogy he fought with Riddick Bowe are legendary. Only Muhammad Ali has faced a higher calibre of opposition than the Georgian. However, it has been a long time since boxing has been anything but a bad deal for the ?Real Deal?.
How the Nevada State Athletic Commission (NSAC) allowed such activities is further proof that it is no longer fit to oversee boxing. How can this commission justify licensing Holyfield, 47, when the New York sanctioning body denied the same fighter a licence five-and-a-half years ago for being non-competitive? The NSAC also knew of Oliver McCall?s penchant to self-destruct, yet responded by granting him a boxing licence last year. Last month McCall was arrested for possession of cannabis. Former NSAC Chief Ringside Physician, Dr Margaret Goodman, angrily states, ?What is the role of the regulator ? to collect taxes or to make the sport as safe as it can be??
The NSAC are aiding and abetting Holyfield?s quest to become boxing?s first four-time ?world? heavyweight champion. ?I?m driven by what people say I can?t do ? to prove I can,? says a delusional Holyfield. Despite the division?s inadequacies over the past decade, such talk is still fanciful for a man who turns 48 in October. Unless you are named Archie Moore, the legendary American who got his first world title shot at 39, boxers do not generally mature like fine wines.
The commission is giving Holyfield the opportunity to be what Roy Jones Jnr has become: a sad embarrassment to himself and to the sport he once ruled. Jones? unanimous decision loss to ?the Executioner? was predictably dull and uninspiring. What is most worrying is that the fight meant nothing and would lead the winner nowhere, yet the pitiful Nevada body still sanctioned such a shambles.
The realisation of how far Jones (41) has declined from the towering standards of the past is alarming. The blurring handspeed and the dancing mobility that enabled him to become the first man, since Cornishman Bob Fitzsimmons in 1897, to successfully bridge the gap from middleweight to heavyweight supremacy, has unceremoniously vanished.
The historic 2003 heavyweight clash with John Ruiz was Jones? last virtuoso performance. The writing was on the wall the following year when Jones suffered brutal knockouts against Antonio Tarver and Glen Johnson. Dr. Goodman, was ringside for both, but recalls the latter most vividly, ?I remember how scared we [the physicians] all were at the length of time it took Roy to regain consciousness that night.? Bearing this in mind, how was Jones allowed to waltz back to Vegas and pick up a licence following a first-round massacre at the hands of the powerful, but limited, Danny Green? The cynical answer would be that the NSAC no longer care for his wellbeing.
Unfortunately, Holyfield and Jones are not the only members of a sad cast trying to relive their glory days. Recent arrivals include the legendary super-featherweight Erik Morales and the former WBC super-middleweight champion, ?ric Lucas. Morales may have won his opening salvo against Jose Alfaro, but to think he can add to his trilogy of fights against Manny Pacquiao, is delusional. He may have been the last person to beat the ?Pacman,? but 30 months of inactivity is no way to prepare for the Filipino fighting machine. Why Lucas at 38, feels it is prudent to fight the dangerous Mexican, Librado Andrade (on May 28), after a four-year sabbatical is equally perplexing.
Why are graceful exits so rare in professional boxing? Maybe the fighters? egos have been indulged in a lifetime of bravado. However, the longer these ring warriors choose to fight on, the more faded our memories will be of their true greatness. They are not alone. Ali sought too many retirement paydays. Following humiliating reverses to the formidable Larry Holmes and the less formidable Trevor Berbick, he knew the game was up. We can only hope the current crop of boxing icons are on the verge of a similar feeling.
