If I had a dollar every time I?ve heard I was about to watch the next big star take the ring, boxing writing would no longer just be a hobby. In fact, it?s this exact statement that makes me cringe every time it?s used by someone who is supposedly involved with the sport. From promoters, fighters and managers to advisers, the list doesn?t stop in terms of the different types of boxing experts that try and pass off their guys as the next best thing.
As is the case with most sports, in boxing, however, the age-old adage ?What you do in the dark will come to light? is always the case. As fans, we can really see just what an athlete has been up to prior to his most recent competition by the way they perform under the bright ring lights (think Juan Manuel Lopez?s last fight), while other personalities in the sport try to disguise what has or, for that matter, has not been happening (in terms of training) from the public by offering up soft competition for their charges. Fans, especially hardcore nuts, can see past these types of performances that are meant to elevate a certain young boxer and give him highlight reel victories.
Unfortunately, over the course of time, these types of victories, should they continue to occur, become more harmful to the professional growth of the young boxer. Often times, when a fighter continues to have a certain measure of success and surrounds himself with a certified group of ?yes? men he doesn?t have the direction to try and take his natural talent to the next level. As long as everything continues to go as planned, many of the young talent that are the next generation of this sport will continue to avoid the one aspect of the game that will always show up in the ring on fight night.
I?m talking, of course, about putting in the work. No, not just waking up in the early morning hours to go running and do your strength and conditioning training (of course, a vital part to one?s training). No, not just making sure that you are at the gym on time and go through the motions of your boxing workout.
What I?m talking about are the things that a young professional boxer must do inside of the ring when he is trying to make his boxing I.Q. match up with a fighting I.Q. If this is done properly, the result is a boxer that is not just technically sound from his amateur days and early professional career. This addition of work inside the boxing ring makes a young boxer a young fighter. Those earlier skills that were learned in the gym were the skill sets that allowed young professionals to make the transition into the professional ranks.
What makes them fighters are the countless hours they spend inside of the ring learning how to not just box but how to fight. Boxing is part of the equation but it?s not the only skill that is needed. The beautiful thing about the sport that we all love is the fact that when a fighter is paired up with another fighter of similar skill, an ebb and flow usually occurs throughout the fight. Just think of great fights like Julio Cesar Chavez vs. Meldrick Taylor I, Sugar Ray Leonard vs. Thomas Hearns and Diego Corrales vs. Jose Luis Castillo I. What all three of these fights had in common was the fact that all of the combatants were pushed to the edge of their greatness by their opponents.
I bring them up because those kinds of fights are becoming harder and harder to get as a fan. What we are getting are fights that could have come close to being classics, had both boxers been involved in the proper process of gaining the experience needed. For example, while the fight a few weeks ago between Andre Berto and Victor Ortiz was an entertaining, high-profile fight. It was experience that Ortiz gained in losing at a young age (against Marcos Maidana in June of 2009) on the big stage he clearly wasn?t ready for that got him over this time around. That very experience got him past a more technically talented boxer (since Ortiz never throws a jab) but it was Ortiz was simply the better fighter and Berto couldn?t hang with the pressure that Ortiz applied.
Andre Berto is a perfect example of this new breed of boxer who relies solely on his natural God-given abilities along with a solid boxing background to get him to high points of the sport. Add to that a soft r?sum? in the professional ranks and you have star potential. Notice I didn?t say, ?star quality.? In order for young boxers to realize their full fighting potential, the work is done in the dark.
It?s done when no one is looking. It?s done when the internet and television cameras aren?t at the gym for your media day in order to promote you and your upcoming fight. It happens when your manager and trainer stop becoming ?yes? men and stop riding their thoroughbred to its ragged end across some symbolic finish line. It happens the moment one of them picks up the phone and calls in a big, strong, veteran professional to work with their kid and turn that kid into a man.
Many times at ringside, I?ll ask a trainer or manager whose kid has been working with in the gym, preparing for his fight, what the specific regimen involves. I get the same response, more often than not. ?We had him working with a lot of the young local talent, fresh guys that could give him different looks so he can be ready for everything in the ring.? All of that is fine while their fighter is the main event at club shows and on the promotional circuit of ?big show? undercards (boxers lucky enough to be signed to a big promotion company). What happens when it is time for them to step up and start making a move to main events or television co-features? The answer is always simple and the outcome usually isn?t good (Maidana vs. Ortiz).
I go back to the manager or trainer and ask a second time when, this time, the fight is on a bigger scale and the response is the same one that I got a year prior. What is sad about this is these managers are not letting their young boxer mature into a young fighter.
See, most of the time when these boxers first turn professional after a solid amateur background, they are in their late teens or early 20s. So when they first turn professional, they are built-up young men who still have the frames of boys. It is not until they reach their physical maturity and their bodies expand into that of a man that they should be placed into these major fights. While that maturity takes place, work should be happening inside of the gym in order for these young boxing prot?g?s to turn into men that can fight.
I know this doesn?t sound good for the managers and promoters that are trying to score a quick buck on the next best star in the sport but if they really cared and tried to do well for these young boxers, they would make sure that they were not just fighting against padded opposition but experienced professionals that had seen their best days, so that their young boxer would gain some quality experience on fight night. While this is occurring in their fights, these same young boxers would be learning the little tricks and special moves from bigger, experienced professionals who are busting them up inside of the gym. Teaching them how to push off and hit, how to spin an opponent in order to gain the proper position for your next combination.
The list goes on and I will share these little tidbits with you all one day.
As the quality of opposition on fight night increases so too does a fighter?s work rate with these quality sparring partners. They become fighters that have seen and done it all on fight night because just being around those tough guys only helps out your young boxer. This way, when the promoter and manager comes knocking and tell your young boxer he is ready for main event status, his fully developed set of skills, both physically and mentally, will be ready for the next step. When the lights get bright, he will no longer get dark and he will be ready to become the FIGHTING man.
