Last weekend provided two glaring examples of how the American fight game is falling behind the rest of the world. In Germany, a Scandinavian heavyweight with nine pro fights knocked out former heavyweight titleholder Lamon Brewster. Later that day, Kazakhstan native Beibut Shumenov, with all of nine professional fights, won a piece of the world light heavyweight title. On the Shumenov card, Cuban expatriate Erislandy Lara took apart one of boxing’s premier gatekeepers. Who did American prospects of equal pedigree, with similar pro records, defeat in their most recent outings? A 15-9-1 Bernardo Guereca, 5-5 Cory Jones, and 3-5 Jose Garcia. It prompted me to ask ten boxing insiders, from America and Europe, if Americans are so in love with the undefeated record that we have stopped taking chances?
I’m not asking 2008 American Olympians Luis Yanez, Shawn Estrada, and Demetrius Andrade to go out and pick a fight with a world champion, but at least fight an opponent who has the ability to show them something new. Our kids are every bit as talented as prospects domiciled in Europe, yet their management takes fewer chances than an Amish pastor on Sunday night. Robert Helenius, the Swedish boxer who destroyed Lamon Brewster, did not even qualify for the Olympics. While 2008 American heavyweight Olympic representative Deontay Wilder (he gets special compensation because of a limited amateur career), who won a Bronze medal, has to date, faced two men with winning records of 2-0-1 and 1-0. The rest of his foes had sub-.500 records. Wilder has a perfect 8-0 resume, with eight knockouts, and has yet to see the third round. Think that will help the young pro when he meets someone who fights back?
Boxing is exceedingly healthy is Germany. It’s the reason 11 out of the last 13 heavyweight title fights (since 2005) have taken place in Germany. Much of that has to do with the Germans’ appreciation of competitive matchmaking by their promoters. When a talented-but-inexperienced Marco Huck lost to Steve Cunningham, he was not removed from future TV dates, and subsequent victories earned him the WBO cruiserweight title last year. Losses are treated for what they are in Europe, learning experiences that can aid a champion in the long run.. In England, you rarely see boxers’ records listed on promotional posters; in the understanding it has little to do with a fighter’s current abilities or attraction. Style, prior appearances, and personality are just as important as their records.
Two Americans eminently qualified to speak on this subject are the Showtime announcing duo of Steve Farhood and Nick Charles. They are the hosts of the “ShoBox” series, whose unwritten mission statement is to throw prospects in against the most difficult opposition of their young careers. To date, the series has seen 40 boxers make the jump from prospect to contender and, ultimately, champion. The promoters who put their kids on the show understand the risks, trading the possibility of a loss to display their product on a national stage that is recognized for producing future champions. Jacob Maes is the manager of Archie Ray Marquez (who looked good on last week’s show besting an experienced opponent), and he has the right attitude towards his boxer and the “ShoBox” experiment. “We are not here to build a record. We are here to build a champion.”
Steve Farhood, also a former editor of The Ring magazine, told Maxboxing. “I believe American fighters follow the lead of the TV execs, who determine how significant a record should be when determining who fights and who doesn’t. If anything, there’s recently been more of an acceptance of losing, which is a good thing. It’s all about how you lose.” A second reason Farhood presents goes to the state of neighborhood boxing cards, and the need to build an attraction, if the event is not featured on television. “The other factor is a fighter’s appeal in drawing a live gate. There are very few American fighters who can pack 5,000-plus fans into a local arena. As a result, American fighters have become more reliant on TV money and the choices of TV executives. In theory, a fighter who can draw a strong live gate should be matched softer than one who can’t because there’s more to protect. But for some reason, that doesn’t seem to have been the case in recent years.”
Blow-by-blow announcer Nick Charles believes soft matchmaking hurts a young boxer’s appeal. “We see that most potential prospects in this country get a free pass to rip thru badly overmatched opponents for at least their first 10 fights. The highly decorated amateurs such as Andre Ward are in soft so long, they make you wonder. Ward, however, removed all doubt when he finally stepped up and destroyed a faded Edison Miranda, and dismantled Mikkel Kessler.” Like his partner Steve Farhood, Charles finds as many positives in a quality loss as an easy win. “Amir Khan was on a rapid-but-carefully-constructed rise until he got his pants pulled down, so to speak, and knocked out early in his career. It turned out to be the best thing that could happen. In general, I agree that when a promoter has a potential star, they want to protect that perfect record.”
I wanted to be sure to get some input from overseas on this subject, and German boxing announcer Tobias Drews of the RTL network volunteered an opinion on the matter. He is a leading voice in German boxing circles, working thousands of fights in Europe at every weight class. He has witnessed, and his career has mirrored, the rise of Germany to that of a superpower in boxing. “My guess is that we Europeans learned from American matchmaking, some years ago. While the promoters in the U.S (at least some of them) are taking lessons from our matchmaking of the last decade. That was when we had a lot of ‘XX-0’ records from guys that looked like they were unbeatable, just to get exposed some fights later.” Now the situation seems reversed. It is Americans who are more interested in a perfect record, instead of a perfect fighter.”
English boxing scribe Anson Wainwright (who has a knack for snagging interviews with young fighters before they break onto the world stage) of 15Rounds.com sees the problems for Americans starting in the amateurs. “I’d say that, in large part, it’s because many guys stay in the amateurs until a later age in Europe than they do in America. It’s similar with many of the top Cubans who have turned pro in the last few years. They are at a more advanced stage of their careers, so they don’t have to go through the same learning curves.” He also cited a case of an American fighter who he believes was rushed. “A loss at a young age can really be detrimental to a fighter. Look at [Francisco] “Panchito” Bojado, he was proclaimed as a future superstar. When he was stepped up too quickly, he wasn’t up to it, and has never come close to fulfilling his potential. At the end of the day, it’s a fine balancing act that the promoter and the fighter’s teams are undertaking.”
Radio commentator Bill Calogero, who devotes a syndicated two-hour show to boxing daily at www.talkinboxing.com, was a local promoter who is old-school on the subject. “I think that in the marketing aspect of dealing with the networks, the ‘0’ seems to be taking more value. It really goes back to the promoters. European promoters, like Frank Maloney and Frank Warren, are putting their guys in with much better opposition. The fans love it, and the fighters are getting better.” Calogero brought up last week’s ESPN show to make his point. “A great example is Curtis Stevens. He has no skill, one of the worst corners I have ever seen, and was a win over Jessie Brinkley away from getting a title shot! Thank God he was exposed. It’s like I always say. ‘Everyone wants to fight, but no one wants to fight anybody.’”
Veteran Vegas boxing columnist Kevin Iole, now writing for Yahoo Sports, puts the blame on the suppliers. “I believe promoters and managers are to blame here, because they’re highly risk-adverse and looking for a big score. As a result, they look to fatten a fighter’s record by accumulating a bloated record, when the fans really want to see the fighters challenged.” So, does it come down to a lack of trust? “In the U.S., too often, the promoters and managers don’t give the public enough credit, and believe the only way they’ll get attention from media and television networks is to have an artificially-enhanced record.” Iole thinks there is an overriding problem. “Lastly, I believe the amateur system is failing fighters here and many simply aren’t ready for tough competition, early in their careers or ever. Too many boxers aren’t learning the fundamentals, and don’t have the long history in the game that top amateurs from other parts of the world do.”
HBO’s “unofficial ringside judge” Harold Lederman, who has witnessed nearly every major boxing star of the last five decades from the front row, is more pragmatic and forgiving. “I think that American promoters who have Olympic kids try to build them up to become a real attraction, before throwing them into title fights. The success of guys like Andre Berto, who fights for Lou DiBella, often proves that by building a former Olympian you can make him a genuine attraction who fans really want to see. And, who will get high profile appearances on major TV stations. I think Amir Khan was another Olympian who was brought along slowly, and is developing into a major star.”
Our friends at The Ring magazine see a potential crisis. Editor-in-chief Nigel Collins does not view it as an American problem alone though. “The formula of matching top prospects extremely carefully has always been a world-wide practice. The big difference in recent decades is that the value of an undefeated record has become wildly inflated, which results in numerous mismatches even after a fighter should have graduated to legitimate challenges.” He fleshed out the quandary promoters have. “The art of successfully building a prospect depends on gradually increasing the quality of the opposition, until the fighter is ready for the best in his division. Unfortunately, in many cases, this practice has been replaced with a misguided attempt to make sure a fighter stays undefeated, even if he learns next-to-nothing in the process.”
Joseph Santoliquito, managing editor of The Ring, has a slightly different view than Nigel Collins, and brings up a major point in his evaluation of the situation. “We’ve been seeing this trend now for some time, where Europeans- especially Eastern Europeans- are making far greater inroads, at a far faster pace than American fighters. They’re advancing further because they’re hungrier; they come from an environment that doesn’t push for the quick fix, as we have a tendency to do in this country.” Santoliquito joins Wainwright and Iole in his evaluation of the American amateur program. “European fighters are much more entrenched with the fundamentals of boxing today. With access now to far more, much better teachers of the craft than we regrettably have here today in the United States. Teaching boxing, I hate to say, is becoming a lost art in the United States.”
ESPN blow-by-blow announcer Joe Tessitore is well versed on the subject, an influential part of a team that has provided the most balanced coverage of boxing on television year in and year out. “Obviously, it is up to each manager and fighter to chart their own course and take it at their chosen speed. Boxing is unique in that way. In other sports, you must conform to the pre-existing path to a championship.” He then touched on the heart of his argument. “However, boxing more than any other sport, is pure business. It is supply and demand. It is capitalism as much as pugilism. If TV networks pay for glossy records, then part of a manager’s responsibility is to deliver that. They must maximize income and minimize risk of losing it. The issue becomes questioning whether or not they are serving their fighter by doing this. Is the fighter growing into the championship-level income earner he hopes to be? Or is he just being cautiously propped up for a chance at a cash-out before the inevitable fall will occur? ”
A final thought that Tessitore communicated resonates loudest. Especially for the fans who ultimately support this sport. “Skill and thrill is the only thing that matters to me.”
