Boxing Is At Rockbottom

By Scoop Malinowski

Boxing was once the most fascinating sport until Mayweather and Haymon wrecked it with greed and fear of taking risks. While it’s still sinking into the abyss, one or two figures could change the game and make it great again.

I remember the excitement of attending even press conferences to listen to and observe mind game artists like Bernard Hopkins and Lennox Lewis, and the words and messages they would send to opponents. Hopkins would go much deeper and also send messages to the establishment.

I remember excitedly reading Boxingtalk.com for the latest interviews by Greg Leon getting elite fighters to talk smack and real talk about their next opponents or targets they wanted to tear down.

I remember driving to big fights in Atlantic City and New York and trying to analyze what would or could happen in the fight, who had the mental edge, who seemed more confident in the pre-fight build up.

I remember debating and arguing with boxing media and fans about what might happen in the fight.

I remember the thrill of interviewing fighters about their rivals and targets and feeling the tension.

The sport seemed real back then. Then along came Mayweather and Haymon who ruined everything with their cowardice, greed and refusal to take big risks. And their many accomplices in the media and TV networks who enabled Floyd to handpick low risk easy fights that either were easy or were rigged to be easy.

Everybody in the boxing media protected them except for yours truly. I was ostracized and the sport has since crumbled to become a sad joke where the biggest events are with 50 year old legends and social media pretender boxers.

Manny Pacquiao tried to save the sport and would have saved the sport but he was prevented from slaughtering Floyd in 2007-2011 when he surely would have beaten Floyd to a bloody pulp, just like he did to Oscar and Cotto and Hatton.  Floyd was protected and Pacquiao was fenced out until finally Les Moonves forced the fight six years later when it was too late.

Floyd’s influence on the sport has been horrific. The next generation stars like Canelo, Fury, Wilder, Tank, all took the paths of least resistance. The best no longer would face the best. And if they did, it would be too late and the fights looked like controlled soft sparring where the money fighter always won.  Shock KO upsets of money fighters like Rahman KO Lennox, Glen Johnson and Tarver KO Roy, Danny Williams KO Tyson just never happen anymore. The Andy Ruiz KO of Joshua looked phony because moments after the loss both were photographed in the ring smiling with each other.

Of course, as it may seem boxing is at the edge of the cliff and on the verge of turning into WWF, there is always the chance the right certain electric personality figure can come along and change the game. Mike Tyson and Muhammad Ali were such giant figures but the problem is America does not produce heavyweight talents anymore. Wilder was a total rigged fraud. All the best big talent is coming from Europe and Eastern Europe.

Oleksandr Usyk came along and performed the most perfect career in history. The Ukrainian never had one single bad night and he never made a single mistake in the ring. However boxing has fallen so far down that what Usyk achieved was hardly noticed and the sports media largely ignored him. Usyk is probably the greatest heavyweight champion of all time but the sport he performs in is not respected by the world media as it used to be in previous eras.

Right now, there’s very few intriguing events to look forward to. AJ vs Fury is five years too late. Canelo is shot. Crawford just retired. Golovkin, another perfect fighter, aged out. Stevenson and Haney are no Duran and Leonard.

Right now if you ask 100 people on the street, Who is the heavyweight champion of the world? Not one would answer it correctly. And that tells you all you need to know about where boxing is now on the map.