I can?t recall a boxing year more bogged down in nothingness than 2016. It?s enough to test the patience of even the most hardcore of boxing fan and I wouldn?t be surprised one bit if a good number of fans have already abandoned boxing in favor of a sport that actually delivers something worth watching.
With Floyd Mayweather retired and Manny Pacquiao teasing retirement while trying to push a third bout with Timothy Bradley that nobody?maybe not even his own promotional team?wants, boxing?s biggest draws are out of the picture. And that would be okay, if some of the other top names would step up and bring the fans some big ticket drama. But, literally, nothing is happening.
The few intriguing match-ups scheduled this year are dropping off the schedule, one by one. Shawn Porter-Keith Thurman and Badou Jack-Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. were put off indefinitely due to vague, unsubstantiated injuries suffered by Thurman and Chavez. The Tyson Fury-Wladimir Klitschko rematch had been confirmed and thought to be a cinch to take place in the first quarter of the year, but then it was rumored to be pushed back to May 7, then to June 4…but a real date and venue have yet to be confirmed. There?s even a case to be made that the April 9 Pacquiao-Bradley III card could fall apart if my colleague Tony Deebs?s theory is correct.
ESPN, which ditched its Friday Night Fights content for a handful of Premier Boxing Champions (PBC) events, was told that they won?t receive any boxing content from that deal this year until June.
Meanwhile, boxing?s biggest active stars, rather than rallying together to give fans something to look forward to, seem content on lining their pockets with soft touches and fights that nobody, but nobody called for.
Miguel Cotto, who is still arguably one of the top five draws in boxing, is looking for an undersized fall guy for his June 18 return. Efforts to wrangle Juan Manuel Marquez into a mismatch failed, so the Puerto Rican four-division champ is reportedly eyeing junior welterweight Ruslan Provodnikov and unproven British paper junior middleweight champ Liam Smith as suitable patsies.
Saul Alvarez and Gennady Golovkin will be facing Amir Khan and Dominic Wade, respectively, in intentionally-crafted soft touches that are supposed to lead to a middleweight mega-fight later this year, but probably won?t. Blame who you wish in this diva drama, but Alvarez-Golovkin looks less and less likely each day.
Adonis Stevenson may be sitting on a pile of cash following his deal with Al Haymon back a couple of years ago, but, competitively, he has lost all his mojo and fan respect since then. Reportedly, he?s angling for a rematch with Andrzej Fonfara, which would be fine if he had not managed to lose out on career-defining opposition like Sergey Kovalev, Bernard Hopkins, and Jean Pascal.
Terence Crawford, Guillermo Rigondeaux, Kell Brook, Danny Garcia, Demetrius Andrade, Peter Quillin, and Andy Lee are drifting in boxing purgatory, all without suitable, big ticket opposition. Even Luis Ortiz, who is a heavy-handed heavyweight KO artist with a mega-marketable back story, can?t find a big bout to help him reach his potential.
So, what gives? Why this shroud of nothingness?
We could blame the usual culprit of boxing politics. Or maybe this is just the natural progression of a pretty rotten business model the sport has employed for the last forty years or so. Maybe the business dynamic has changed to such a degree that fighters are making more money for lesser challenges and have simply opted to rake in as much cash as possible.
Whatever the case, the fans are getting screwed in the deal and one has to wonder how long this purgatory can last without it having a permanent effect on the overall health of the sport.
Boxing has survived all kinds of scandals and tragedies, but it would be foolish to think that it could survive without actually producing fights people want to see.
