The more we attempt to progress, the more people call for a return to the way things were.
There are far too many champions in the sport, it is often said. We need to return to a time when there was only one champion per division if we are to bring the mainstream back into the fold. Nobody knows who the real champs are anymore, because everyone and their mother seems to carry around a title belt today.
While there’s a lot of truth to the claim that multiple champions leads to mass confusion, what’s never taken into consideration is how the sport would actually flow if we returned to only one true champion per weight class.
If we used this year as an example, you’ll see why it’s not the cut-and-dry solution boxing historians and the next generation of wanna-be experts claim to be the case.
Certainly no system is perfect, and in theory, it makes far more sense to declare one guy champion than to have three or four guys at a time running around claiming to be king. But what happens when that one guy whom everyone identifies as “the man” is unavailable for a considerable stretch of time.
Welcome to 2009.
Undisputed middleweight champion Kelly Pavlik suffered yet another setback on a reign that’s been long on possession and short on accomplishments. For the second time in as many tries, a staph infection has postponed his planned title defense against multi-division contender Paul Williams. The two were slated to meet on October 3, before the fight was pushed back two months to December 5, but now once again postponed, if not canceled altogether.
Pavlik has managed just two defenses against non-descript opposition over the course of his reign, which passed the two-year mark in late September.
As unbelievably disappointing as Pavlik’s title reign has been, he’s hardly alone in terms of divisional leaders failing to… well, lead.
There are eight fighters whom can currently claim true championship lineage: Wladimir Klitschko (heavyweight); Tomasz Adamek (cruiserweight); Zsolt Erdei (light heavyweight); Kelly Pavlik (middleweight); Manny Pacquiao (super lightweight); Juan Manuel Marquez (lightweight); Daisuke Naito (flyweight); and Ivan Calderon (junior flyweight).
Of the eight (including Pavlik), only Pacquiao and Marquez appear on everyone’s pound-for-pound list, Pacquiao at or very close to the top spot while Marquez can be found somewhere in the top five. Both have long ago earned a reputation for taking on all comers, and spanning several weight classes.
The only problem is, few of among the “all comers” actually come within the weight classes over which they preside.
If the odds hold true, then November 14 could very well bring Manny Pacquiao a title of sorts in his seventh separate weight class, four of which are of the lineal variety. Such achievements are as amazing as they are historical.
What they haven’t proven to be is, indicative of his dominance over any particular weight class. He’s proven the ability to beat the division’s best fighter – or at least its champion – but it’s been years since he’s truly defended against all comers.
Marquez is a three-division champion, including his current tour as lightweight king. Five months after his title winning effort over Joel Casamayor came a doozy of a first defense, rallying back hard to eventually blast out top contender Juan Diaz in an instant classic.
While awaiting his next challenge to surface, his braintrust decided it was wise to leapfrog two weight classes in pursuit of a returning Floyd Mayweather Jr. The pay was great – $4 million, minus $800,000 for his promoter, but also picking up a bonus for Mayweather exceeding the contracted catchweight limit.
However, the reward didn’t necessarily prove to outweigh the risk; Marquez was way out of his element and on the wrong end of a virtual shutout. The result: a demotion on the pound-for-pound lists of more than a few major publications.
Not immediately clear is what presently lies ahead. Awaiting him is mandatory challenger Michael Katsidis, although not a name that has immediately surfaced in recent discussion regarding Marquez’ future.
There have been talks of a showdown with Ricky Hatton, which would undoubtedly take place at 140 or higher, as well as the possibility of a third Pacquiao fight.
What hasn’t been discussed with great enthusiasm is an immediate return to a lightweight division in which he is still looked upon as its leader.
It’s quite possible that the cruiserweight division once again suffers the same fate, depending on how well Tomasz Adamek wears a heavyweight frame.
The picture will be clearer after his all-Poland super fight with countryman Andrew Golota this weekend, though the current cruisertweight king is already pondering a showdown with either of the Klitschko brothers by this time next year.
Not on the tip of his tongue – a proposed rematch with Steve Cunningham, against whom Adamek scored three knockdowns to capture the lineal crown last December in one of the best fights of 2008.
A return go seemed like a natural, only Main Events has experienced difficulty in obtaining network interest. From a business standpoint, it’s impossible to blame Adamek for testing the heavyweight waters. If a rematch to an instant classic can’t garner more than lukewarm interest from network executives, then what’s the point of sticking around.
However, his cruiserweight future is on hold until at least after Saturday’s bout. He claims to feel good at the weight, but would be willing to drop back down for the right opportunity.
Not exactly the talk of a man any longer interested in taking on all comers in his weight class.
For champions such as Zsolt Erdei and Ivan Calderon, such interest has proven to be all but non-existent.
Erdei’s embarrassment of a light heavyweight title reign could potentially come to an end next month, if only by default. On tap is a foray to the cruiserweight division, where he will challenge alphabet titlist Giacobe Fragomeni.
The scheduled fight represents a stiffer challenge than anything he’s attempted in more than five years as lineal light heavyweight king, where he feasted on the division’s bottom feeders far more than he’s attempted to face any semblance of respectable contenders.
Calderon has held a title around his tiny waist for more than six years, the past two of which have been spent as leader of the junior flyweight division.
Five defenses have followed, including a repeat win over the man from whom he wrested the crown, Hugo Cazares. The return go with his Mexican rival marked the first of three straight fights that would abruptly end due to a cut caused by an accidental foul.
Talks continue to swirl around possible unification matches with Edgar Sosa and Brian Viloria, but remain just that – talks. In the meantime, he’s approaching his 35th birthday, and is long overdue for the type of fight that suggests he wants to lead by example rather than simply claim to be a leader.
To date, there hasn’t been much to criticize about Daisuke Naito’s flyweight title reign. July marked his two-year anniversary as champion, having unseated the longest reigning champ in flyweight history in old adversary Pongsaklek Wonjongkam, against whom he also defended his title with a draw last March.
Next up is a November showdown in Japan with wildly popular countryman Koki Kameda, a former junior flyweight titlist and current Top 10 contender.
The irony in Naito being one of the few to truly defend his crown is that it comes in a division where four separate titlists reign and the possibility of unification is rarely if ever seriously discussed. Yet it’s a division where its champions – lineal or otherwise – can all claim to be the goods based on what they’ve achieved and where they’ve accomplished it.
Wladimir Klitschko is the latest in the sport to earn lineal champion status, thanks to his one-sided ninth-round stoppage of Ruslan Chagaev earlier this summer. The win filled a vacancy more than five years old atop the heavyweight division, one that spiraled out of control in the wake of Lennox Lewis’ announced retirement in 2004.
With his lineal title win was supposed to come heavyweight stability. Yet the careers of not one but two top challengers are presently on hold as Klitschko sits out the rest of 2009 and perhaps a few months of 2010 as he allows his shoulder to heal after undergoing surgery.
No fewer than nine months will have passed between ring appearances should his targeted return date of March 2010 prove true. In a division already starving for even a glimmer of its past glory, its very best fighter sitting idly on the sidelines can hardly be viewed as a good thing.
So how ironic is it that boxing fans continue to complain of he and older brother Vitali serving as a two-headed monster, when in fact Vitali’s willingness to fight everyone Wladimir can’t get to is in fact the very thing keeping all top heavyweights active.
While Wladimir will log just one fight in his 2009 campaign, December 12 will mark Vitali’s third fight this year and fourth in a span of 14 months – all of which will have come against legit Top 10 competition (Samuel Peter, Juan Carlos Gomez, Chris Arreola, Kevin Johnson).
Take away the alphabet belt around Vitali’s waist, and such activity isn’t happening. Not in this day and age.
Sure, historians will argue that the absence of alphabet options means the best of the rest face each other in order to get to the very best. But multiple champions per division wasn’t detrimental to the sport’s ratings or success as recent as 20 years ago.
More than one champ per division is only a problem if their paths never cross and no other worthwhile contenders are given the chance to unseat them. Yes, it leads to confusion over who in fact is the very best, but there at least exists the possibility of a road leading to solving such a riddle.
But it certainly beats a leader who’s no longer willing to lead, which is what we’re left with in nearly every division in which a single fighter can claim to be king.
