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The Sweet Science
Ali-Frazier I
What if ,after winning the NFC championship, the then-reigning world champion Seattle Seahawks decided, “You know, that Tom Brady guy is pretty good, so instead of playing the Patriots we are going to play against the New York Jets in the Super Bowl.” The fans wouldn’t like it and the league wouldn’t allow it. That, however, is exactly how the sport of boxing works.
When I was growing up in the ’70s and ’80s, boxing was my favorite sport. Fights were on TV all the time and the heavyweight division was packed with talent. The first Rocky movie came out when I was 11 and after that my friends and I started putting on the gloves and pounding on each other in my basement. Fearing a lawsuit, my father told me I would have to go to a real gym if I wanted to box.
The “real” gym wasn’t so much a gym as the garage and basement of a tough old trainer named Eddie. When you opened up the garage door to get in, there was a 15-foot ring. Off to the sides there were heavy bags made from old canvas mailbags. There were double end bags which consisted of basketballs attached to the ceiling and the floor with inner tubes from bicycle tires. There were platforms and swivels for speed bags — but you had to bring your own speed bag. Eddie told me that, when buying a speed bag, “Get the smallest damn one you can find.” This turned out to be good advice because, once you get the hang of it, a larger bag really is too slow. This was certainly not a fancy place, but there were a few guys there that I would later see fighting on TV.
For the first month, no matter what bag I was working out on, I was only allowed to throw left jabs. It didn’t seem fun at the time, but to this day if get near a heavy bag I instinctually start to flick the jab and circle to my right.
I still remember the first time I got to get in the ring and do some real sparring. Because I was a big kid, I had to go up against guys two or three years older than me. That is not such a big deal — except with puberty those are like dog years. Still, I had quick hands, a nasty left hook, and was a natural counterpuncher. After that first sparring session, everyone, including my opponent, told me how dominant I was in the ring. For me, however, that was the most I had ever been hit in the face — and I didn’t like it. Even when the punches didn’t hurt, there was a feeling of, “Hey, not the face!”
After a year or so, I took a hiatus from boxing so I could play football. I fully intended to go back to the gym once football season ended but I never did. Somewhere along the line I guess I realized that I was better suited to getting my aggressions out on the football field while wearing a full face mask. Although I never became a boxer, this experience made me an even bigger fan of the sport.
In the 70’s, heavyweights were king. You had Ali, Frazier, Foreman, Norton, and lots of quality contenders. As those guys got older, Larry Holmes came along with his devastating jab — and it was several years before there was another interesting heavyweight fight. No matter. With guys like Roberto “Hands of Stone” Duran, Tommy “The Hitman” Hearns, “Sugar” Ray Leonard, and my favorite, “Marvelous” Marvin Hagler, the lighter weight classes provided more than enough excitement. Hagler, I remember, had been the world’s best middleweight long before he ever got a title shot. Which brings me back to the opening paragraph.
Boxing is corrupt. Where the NFL, MLB, and even the UFC have strong central governing bodies, boxing has several weak, corrupt sanctioning bodies. It is not uncommon for the champion of the WBA to not even be a ranked contender by the WBC, WBO, or IBF. In a way, boxing is more of a free market — but it is not the fans or the fighters who benefit from that. Promotors control most of what goes on. Thus, if a fighter has an exclusive contract with a promotor, the promotor has a financial interest in seeing that fighter hold onto his title as long as possible. And guess who hires the judges for the fights?
Championship fights bring in more money than non-title fights so, in addition to having multiple groups handing titles, they have added weight classes. All sorts of “junior” and “super” classes were created so that you now have a champ for almost every pound on the scale. At one point I could probably name the champs of each weight division. Now I can’t even name all of the weight divisions.While boxing was once my favorite sport, somewhere along the line I stopped trying to follow it — and I don’t think I’m alone. It is still the purest form of sport. Two men in a ring, no kicking, no biting (yeah, Tyson, I’m looking at you). Just a good clean fight. Violence, like it or not, is part of the human experience and the controlled violence we get from a sport like boxing lets us enjoy it while still feeling civil. I could definitely be sucked back in.
While boxing is not as much a part of the day-to-day sports scene as it once was, big fights still bring in big money. The Mayweather – Pacquiao fight could break pay-per-view records. While it is nice that they are getting this fight in before either boxer turns 40, it would have been an even bigger draw five or six years ago, when the fighters were still near their primes.
Another thing that got me thinking about boxing again is a commercial I saw the other day. While watching the decidedly non-violent sport of golf, NBC ran an add for some primetime fights on free TV. While TV advertising can’t support the big money fights (not when there is a chance of a 1st round KO), more exposure to the up-and-coming fighters is needed if the sport wants to find new fans. I’m interested, but I am already expecting to be disappointed.
So Ricochet, is there a good fix for boxing? One strong sanctioning body with lots of money could help, but what if they’re corrupt? Is boxing doing just fine as is? Should this old man stop yearning for the good old days? Or is it time for me to bite the bullet and start watching that silly cage stuff?
Published in General
Watch the silly cage stuff. Most of it is based on merit.
Dude, Hagler was my freaking hero. Fellow m[REDACTED] and whatnot plus tough as nails.
I love boxing and this is a great article.
There’s you’re problem, all wrapped up in a bow. I watched some boxing on Showtime maybe two weekends ago. The fights weren’t bad, but they weren’t particularly good.
The good fights are almost all PPV, and while that might generate the biggest box office for a given fight, it guarantees that the sport has a limited audience.
It’s a vicious cycle: the audience shrinks, it’s most ardent members are willing to pay, those who are mildly interested say, “Meh, I’m not gonna pay that for entertainment which might only last for 90 seconds.”
Of course, if you’re into boxing you know that the undercards can plausibly make it worthwhile… but that assumes you’re the guy who watches the NFL Draft on Day Two, not the guy who only watches the SuperBowl.
Oh, and yeah, Boxing is corrupt. Much like skating or many other “judged” competitions.
Of all the sports I’ve covered in my professional life I’ve despised boxing the most. There’s nothing like the sight of well-dressed white folk sitting around cheering for a couple of minorities to beat the crap out each other for their amusement.
Nor is it appealing to be backstage at one of these events and watch both winners and losers go through concussion protocols or suddenly fall to their knees and blow chunks all over the camera cables.
I once did a card at a casino/resort in West Virginia where someone had a record of 6-47. How do you grant a license for that?! Son, if you have 20 fights under your belt and you ain’t at least at .500 – do something else with your life!
My dad quit boxing when I was about 3. I remember being at one of his fights, but don’t remember anything about the fight.
He was 6’2″ and usually fought as a lightweight (he was about 135-40 lbs). He told me he quit because he needed to move up to welterweight, but they hit too hard. When I was in college, one of my mom’s uncles asked me if I remembered him boxing, and said that it was fun to watch because because he was a lot taller than anyone in that weight class, and quicker than most any of them, and he sometimes went a whole tournament without anyone laying a glove on him. I wished he had warned me about that earlier.
He brought home some gloves when I was 10 or 11, and gave my younger brother and I some lessons. Other kids played catch with their dads, but not us. Living in a very rural area in the 70’s there weren’t enough kids or interest to have a club anywhere nearby, so we sparred with each other in a shed or in a field.
This ended when I was 14 and nearly as tall as the old man. He was trying to show me how to set up a right to the body after a hard left jab and a quick right fake and come back with the right underneath your opponent’s defense. I wasn’t getting it done, and he kept swatting away my rights and saying “quicker.” Being 14 and knowing everything, it stood to reason that the only possible explanation for being too slow was because he knew that the first right was a fake. So naturally, and without thinking much about it, instead of faking, I stepped hard into that right and put it right over the top of his glove and into his jaw. He went down, and for about a quarter second I thought I done something really cool.
Then reality set in, as he got up, shook his head, and gave me a dead-eyed stare. His eyes weren’t glazed, and didn’t look angry, or hurt, just kind of determined. I didn’t know what to think, and figured that neither running nor trying to apologize were viable options, so I got back into a stance and figured it best to man up and try to block and counter punch.
As near as I can figure, he threw eight punches, rights and lefts, starting at about my belt and working up. I blocked the first five, but he was throwing them faster than I could raise my gloves, so I got the last three in the head, and it was my turn to go down. I couple of seconds later, as I was trying to get up and shake it off, he laughed and asked if I was alright. I said yes, and he said “We probably shouldn’t do this anymore, someone might get hurt.” Then he gave me his last piece of wisdom about boxing, “It doesn’t matter how quick you are, or how strong, or how good your technique is, if you can’t take a punch in the jaw, you shouldn’t be boxing.”
He claimed that all judged sports were crooked, from bronc riding to gymnastics, so he advised sticking with timed sports, like roping, or team sports.
Brockton has produced two of the all-time greats, but I never heard the word m[REDACTED] before. I will be working that into my conversation next time I talk to one of my Bay State friends.
That is the thing. Boxing is kind of off the radar for the casual sports fan. Sometimes I see big promotions for a pay-per view fight and realize, “I don’t even know who these people are.” That, and my overall cheapness, stop me from going the pay per view route very often.
Muleskinner, great story.
When I was a teenager I would do a lot of bag work and wonder if I should give boxing another try. Looking back, I’m glad I didn’t. I like that my brain still works (well, as good as it ever did).
Also, I used to go watch some of the local pro fights, mostly 4 to 8 rounders. Whenever there was a new prospect, he would be matched up to one of the 8-15 (or worse) professional opponents like the one EJ makes reference to. There is an ugliness that surrounds the sport, but when you have the right guys in the ring it is still a beautiful thing to watch.
My Dad was a fighter in the twenties. He had ten fights. He was 9 and 1. Guess which fight was the 1. Yep,his last. He was fighting at a fair grounds and by the time he woke up they had dismantled the ring and he and one spectator were the only ones left behind. He was propped against a tree. The spectator told him he was knocked clear out of the ring and he should take up another livelihood. He said he stayed around to see if he was going to live. Dad taught me how to fight but he didn’t teach me the Marquess of Queensberry Rules. Street fighting was common in Pittsburgh in my day and I more than held my own.
It’s even better when you stick a name like “Muleskinner” on the narrator.
Don’t believe I’ve ever actually watched a boxing match, certainly not all the way through. I’m fascinated with it as an aspect of the culture of the first half of the previous century, a culture which we’ve by and large left behind in it’s entirety.
Thanks for the interesting post, Vance. I don’t know or care anything about boxing, but for some reason was mildly obsessed with the Rocky movies in my youth. I was well into adulthood before I understood that actual boxing matches were, ah, somewhat different than Rocky’s film bouts.
PPV is viable only when the product is already popular and in demand. Even still, it’s a risky proposition. In Chicago, the Blackhawks famously suffered a diminishment of the brand due to away games available only on cable and home games not being televised at all. The new owner has changed that policy and has seen a renaissance (a Stanley Cup or two don’t hurt either).
EJ–This is a cheap shot.
You summed up My thoughts on boxing perfectly. Boxing throughout the ’80s was fantastic.
Saturday afternoons watching ABCs Wide World of Sports.
This time of year, after football but before baseball, is when Wide World of Sports really filled a void. Only now ABC sports gives us stuff like this . . .
JGW – It, and it’s equally brutal cousin, MMA, is a disgusting business. People do not cheer at a boxing match when partipants score points. They cheer blood, brutality and someone being knocked unconscious. It is neither sweet nor science.
I have a very good friend who was raised in nearly every small nothing town in Nevada by a trucker mom with 8 kids from 8 different dads. As gifted an athlete as they come, Gary hit puberty late so a lot of team sports were out. Boxing was his ticket from the gutter. He fought 168, got a scholarship to UNR, and was Nevada athlete of the year. His college record was 87-3 and he fought in Madison Sq Garden etc. His mentor Mills Lane, when asked about going pro, told Gary to walk away from it. He said the business would chew him up,spit him out, and he’d never be the same. It is corrupt. Gary is a cop with 4 great kids and a wonderful marriage. About every 5 years somebody makes the mistake of taking a swing at him somewhere. One punch. Down. Night night.
The last fight I paid for was Lennox Lewis vs Mike Tyson over a decade ago. Other than the Klitcshko brothers, I couldn’t name another heavyweight after Lewis retired.
Vance – ABC Sports doesn’t exist. Of the four networks only ABC lets its cable cousin run the show. If it’s on ABC, it’s ESPN.
Doc – How old is your friend? The NCAA hasn’t sanctioned a fight since 1960 after San Jose State’s Stu Bartell killed Wisconsin’s Charlie Moore in the ring.
If you visit New Hampshire, you’ll hear it a LOT.
Especially in the southern half of the state, the area colonized by them.
Whoever it is, combining gymnastics and figure skating is just scary. I’d much rather watch Curt Gowdy go hunting.
I was just thinking that Heavyweight Champ of the World used to be a big deal. Now I don’t know who has that title. One of the Klitcshko brothers, but I don’t think the title is undisputed. No Idea who the other champ is.
Part of that is America-centric, I think. The last great American heavyweight was Evander Holyfield, and he is still a household name long after his retirement (as is his old nemesis, Mike Tyson). In Europe, heavyweight boxing is now a much bigger deal than it is here.
FWIW, I like it better when boxing focuses on the lighter weights, anyway. Heavyweights have topped out in size to the point where I just don’t like the style that seems to go along with those physical dimensions.
Loved boxing for a long time…saw many a CCTV fight back in the day.
46 yrs old, fought for UNR around 1990. Unsure about NCAA type status. I’ll ask him.
No NCAA indeed, but here’s what you’re looking for: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Collegiate_Boxing_Association
Never realize the NCBA existed. And my bad on the spelling of the late fight Charlie Mohr (Not Moore). Mohr died of a hemorrhage several days after his bout, Wisconsin terminated its boxing program and the NCAA followed suit within a month.
No question that it’s a violent bloody sport. I enjoy it for that reason in a twisted way, which probably doesn’t say much good about me.
When you consider how long it takes to book a championship fight, think about how Joe Louis fought every 5 months over an 11 year period.
Joyce Carol Oates in her essay On Boxing says:
Oates also says:
So, it is awful but we love it.