Ring Observer Boxing by Scoop Malinowski
By Scoop Malinowski
Daring to be great is a rare behavior in boxing today. Ducking and dodging and handpicking easy money fights is the most conventional method of business now.
Devin Haney just boxed another masterpiece to beat Regis Prograis and has set up a perfect showdown with Tank Davis. But Davis and his team are in full out duck mode and instead of building up the fight they are making excuses and roadblocks such as ridiculously suggesting Haney should fight Boots Ennis at 147 first.
Haney vs Davis isn’t going to happen any time soon or forever.
Keith Thurman is another high profile ducker. He hasn’t fought in a meaningful fight in ages and has been challenged by rising star Boots Ennis earlier this year. But Thurman dodged that offer and now that Ennis has a world title, courtesy of the IBF stripping it from Terence Crawford, Thurman is still silent about challenging Ennis. Thurman simply knows his limits and Ennis is too high risk at this point where any loss would destroy Thurman’s value and leverage.
Canelo Alvarez vs David Benavidez is prime time right now for a major All-Mexican showdown. It would be the most lucrative and intriguing event since Morales vs Barrera or De La Hoya vs Chavez. Everybody knows Benavidez is the young tiger ready and raring to go but Canelo is the reluctant one. Canelo has stayed very quiet since Benavidez manhandled Andrade and it’s not optimistic that the fight will happen any time soon, if ever. Canelo is going to get another Al Haymon hired patsy next, likely the other Charlo brother.
Deontay Wilder is fighting Joseph Parker on December 23 but that’s a sparring session. Wilder is doing a lot of media self promoting lately, about how exciting he is and how valuable he is for the division and how he can beat anyone. But if Wilder were so confident and not a fading con artist, he surely would have demanded to fight Anthony Joshua on December 23, not Parker. And Wilder’s big mouth would have forced AJ to do the fight, which he’s always wanted to do anyway. Wilder is talking about not fighting AJ next but going for Francis Ngannou or th Usyk/Fury winner. It’s clear by Wilder’s recent statement he’s not going to fight Joshua after Parker.
And though Tyson Fury is signed to fight Oleksandr Usyk in February in Riyadh, who would be surprised if Fury concocts some kind of injury scheme to postpone or cancel the fight, which would force Usyk to fight one of his mandatory challengers while Fury rehabs and recovers?
Daring to be great… remember when Oliver McCall went to London to fight Lennox Lewis? Fury went too Germany to fight Wladimir Klitschko? Bernard Hopkins went to Madison Square Garden to fight Felix Trinidad? Wouldn’t it be fantastic if that old “dare to be great” spirit was born again in boxing?
