Ring Observer Boxing by Scoop Malinowski
By Scoop Malinowski
The Canelo Alvarez vs Danny Jacobs fight did not live up to expectations. Lennox Lewis said he expected more from Jacobs, Gennady Golovkin said the fight was boring. Many other ring observers compared it to a “sparring session.”
A pattern has developed in American boxing since Floyd Mayweather was the face of boxing, to Canelo Alvarez, the new face of the sport in America.
All of their fights look the same, careful, low-intensity, chess duels, or sparring sessions where the big money fighter with the nine-figure promotional contract always comes out the winner. The loser gets his career high payday and moves on.
But the loser, Jacobs in this most recent case, always gives a performance that looks like he wasn’t really trying to upset the money making franchise (Canelo). As if it’s forbidden.
Canelo and Oscar De La Hoya have their $300,000,000 guaranteed contract. How would a KO loss effect that contract? Who would lose value?
You have to find it curious that no A Side franchise superstars like Canelo ever seem to lose anymore, not since Roy Jones got knocked out by Antonio Tarver and Glen Johnson over a decade ago. It’s been smooth sailing for Mayweather, Deontay Wilder and now Canelo ever since. And you get the sense it will be smooth sailing for Canelo until his guaranteed contract runs out or the establishment finds a proper successor.
Is it a coincidence that jaw-dropping knock-down, drag-out, brawls like Lennox Lewis vs Vitali Klitschko, Ron Lyle vs George Foreman, Thomas Hearns vs Marvin Hagler, Sugar Ray Leonard vs Thomas Hearns, Kelly Pavlik vs Jermain Taylor, James Toney vs Vassily Jirov, Riddck Bowe vs Andrew Golota, just don’t happen anymore? Or could it be by design?
Could it be that the gravy train appointed installed stars are now so carefully protected that the revenues of the product have to be sustained for as many years as possible, which is the most advantageous for the bottom line of the business side of the sport?
But when every single big money fights ends up looking like a sparring session where even establishment figures like Lennox Lewis and Gennady Golovkin admit they were disappointed, at what point does the paying customer walk away and seek alternative entertainment?
