2011 was a bit of a let down from previous years, as more got confused, and little got settled. Action was plentiful, but the overall satisfying feeling fight fans are waiting for, largely eluded us. Here’s what I would like to happen in the following year. I’m not a religious man, nor do I have the need for any of the following items to be delivered on a sleigh. Promoters are sadly my Santa, and fighters my elves. Let’s get the factory up and running.
1) No more bogus injuries. Kidney stones are real, but so is Wladimir Klitschko never following through with a December fight. Does cold weather do it to him? I wasn’t exactly pining for Erdei-Cloud before, but now that we’ve been teased, let’s make it happen. The thought of that fight got Shumenov and Cleverly talking, and reminded everyone to nag Hopkins, Pascal, and Dawson to clarify things. If Erdei’s hand is really hurting, and the cancellation is not really the result of a slow ticket sales (my theory), then we will see this fight. I wanted to see it take place here, but if you want to make money, and Don King isn’t afraid of the judging, maybe Europe is a better place.
2) A tournament at middleweight. It’s a mess beneath the top. It doesn’t have to be the 3 year venture that was the Super Six, but an 8-man single elimination, with consolation bouts sounds great to me. Given how many cancellations, controversies, and pullouts there are likely to be, it may still take 2 years. Chavez, Pirog, Sturm, Golovkin, Ishida, Jacobs, Lee, and Proksa. Martinez will face the winner, after defending against Arthur Abraham and Sergio Mora in the interim.
3) Bradley vs. Khan. Neither has any right calling out Mayweather or Pacquiao. The winner of their long awaited bout would, however. Let this be a Golden Boy-Top Rank test run in the spring, for the big one in November. The winner of Khan-Bradley need only remain unbeaten in the fall, in order to call out the big fight winner in 2013. Bob Arum cannot sell Pacquiao-Bradley, no matter what he thinks, but I would pick Bradley to topple one Freddie Roach fighter, and then we can start talking about the big fish.
4) A tournamnent at cruiserweight. Same reason as middleweight. Huck vs. Lebedev is a great fight, and should be mandated, but Sauerland is doing everything to keep live bodies away from their Golden Boy. Wlodarczyk was a joke, but beat a shot Green to retain his title, and renew interest. Tarver needs to have someone forced into fighting him, and Cunningham needs an excuse to bring his fights back to U.S. soil. Hernandez, Jones, Palacios, Tarver, Cunningham, Huck, Lebedev, and Wlodarczyk.
