Death's Door

There was a major sports spectacle in Las Vegas last weekend. It may very well have been the last of it's kind. Oscar De La Hoya and Floyd Mayweather fought a championship fight and set the all time pay per view record of just over 2 million. The fight drew more viewers than any Tyson fight or Holyfield bout. Now some of the super fights of the past would probably have been able to do a much higher number, but the technology was not widely available until recently. Can you imagine what Louis Vs. Schmeling would have done? Or the first Ali - Frazier fight? However, it is safe to say that the record will be safe for some time to come.

Oscar De La Hoya is the last real draw in boxing. He has name recognition that goes beyond the hardcore enthusiasts of the sport. Boxing has always had at least one name to carry the sport to the masses. Whether it was Joe Louis, Rocky Marciano, Ali, Foreman, Duran, Leonard, Tyson, Holyfield or Lewis. There was always at least one boxer that the average man on the street knew. I'm not sure that even the average sports fan would be able to name another boxer besides De La Hoya. The Heavyweight championship, once the most prized possession in sports, is split between five different fighters. Most of them are from the former soviet union. I'm confident that even avid sports fans couldn't name all of the supposed heavyweight champions of the world.

The sport of boxing has become more marginalized as time has gone on. It was a victim of it's own success to a certain extent. Championship fights used to be a staple of TV through the eighties. It was only the rare fight that was shown via close circuit. However, once pay-per-view became a reality, the biggest fights were no longer available on free TV. The consumer had to pay extra to see a big fight. This led to fewer and fewer casual fans watching the sport. Therefore, fewer and fewer people knew the fighters, or cared what happened to them. The pay-per-view model is great in the short run, but for boxing it was the beginning of the end. The sport isn't lacking for great fighters, but so few have been able to capture the imagination of the general public because they just haven't been exposed to them. There are dozens of pay-per-view boxing events in a year, but now they are mostly marketed to the Hispanic viewers. The PPV cards are mainly filled with Hispanic boxers in the lighter weight classes. The fights may be great, but the general public isn't watching.

The Olympics used to provide the springboard for boxing careers in the past. Ali, Foreman, Leonard and De La Hoya, to name a few, have used the Olympic stage as a stepping stone to fame and fortune. This doesn't really happen anymore. The US used to be a dominant player on the Olympic boxing stage, but this is clearly not the case anymore. I may be mistaken, but I believe that De La Hoya is the last American to win an Olympic gold medal. The inner city used to give birth to some of the best fighters in the world. Both Tyson and Riddick Bowe were from the Brownsville section of Brooklyn and there were hundreds of others who rose from poverty to riches by following that same path. Kids today don't view boxing in the same way that they used to. It used to be one the only ways out of poverty. Sports still can provide that out, but the kids are much more likely to pick up a basketball than to lace on a pair of boxing gloves.

There are those who would say that boxing is a savage and barbaric sport, if it is truly even a sport at all. They would be happy to see boxing become a thing of the past. I don't necessarily disagree with the fact that boxing is just one step above our caveman beginnings. That doesn't mean that I want to see it disappear. To me boxing is one of the few sports that maintains the essence of what sport is supposed to be. It pits man against man in an athletic competition to determine who is better. There isn't a bat, ball, skate, stick or basket in the way. There are no teammates. It's simply one man against another. There is nothing more pure in sport.

Ultimate fighting is attracting a growing fan base in this country. They have a full slate of PPV events every year and can lay claim to as much revenue from the bouts as the WWE (wrestling) pulls in each year. UFC has multiple shows running on free TV to spark interest in their mega fights which they stage in a PPV event. It seems to be working for them. Perhaps boxing could take a page out the UFC's book in order to build up their audience. The problem with boxing is that no one is really in control. There are governing bodies in each state, that have no national component. There are multiple sanctioning bodies which has led to multiple champions in each division. The sanctioning bodies are also ripe with corruption and have been manipulated at times by unscrupulous promoters.

What boxing really needs is a commissioner and an international governing body. They could determine what was best for the sport and perhaps bring it back to relevance. Unfortunately that is probably never going to happen. There are simply too many people who stand to make too much money in the short run. They have no motivation to take the long view of the sport when there's money to made today. They don't care about the sport of boxing, just the money that boxing can make them. That may very well be the attitude that dooms boxing in the future to being nothing but a sideshow in the sports arena.

Of course if another Tyson or Ali were to come along...

Simply the Best

Ali-Frazier III. The Thrilla in Manila. The final meeting of boxing titans. Ali had christened the fight in his then famous "poetry". He said, "It's gonna be a killer, and a chiller and a thrilla when I get the gorilla in Manila." As if the fight needed any more buildup, Ali decided to dub Frazier the gorilla, which did nothing to lessen the already substantial animosity from the Frazier camp. On October 30, 1975 Ali and Frazier would wage the greatest heavyweight fight of all time. The battle was so monumental that neither man would ever be the same again. They left not only their blood and guts in the ring that night, they left whatever was left of their youth as well.

Ali and Frazier fought for the first time on March 8, 1971. The fight that was billed as the fight of the century and lived up to that billing. It was quite possibly the greatest sports spectacle of the century. It featured the first meeting of undefeated heavyweight champions. Ali was coming back from a three year layoff after having his title stripped and being prohibited from boxing due to his refusal to enter the armed services. Frazier had stepped into the void created by Ali's absence and had won the title in the heavyweight championship tournament. Ali had a couple of tune up fights and declared himself ready to reclaim his rightful place atop the heavyweight division. Ali and Frazier were friendly during Ali's boxing exile, with Frazier even giving Ali money during a particularly rough stretch. Once the contracts were signed however, Ali began to taunt Frazier in public. He called him ugly and an Uncle Tom. He painted Frazier as the "white man's champion". He claimed to be the people's champion. He turned the fight into a battle between the status quo and the voices for change, between the old and young, between black and white, between rich and poor. Frazier didn't want any of it and he grew to hate Ali because of the taunting. The fight itself was an epic battle. Ali dominated the early rounds with his speed and his jab. Frazier, a notoriously slow starter came back in the middle rounds. The fight was fairly even as they entered the last five rounds of the fight. The years away from boxing had robbed Ali of his ability to dance around the ring for 15 rounds. As the latter rounds became more of a flat footed slugfest, the fight swung in Frazier's direction. Frazier knocked Ali to the canvas in the 15th and final round with a thunderous trademark left hook. Ali somehow managed to pull himself up at that count of 4, but the decision was never in doubt. Frazier had defeated him and could now lay rightful claim to the true undisputed heavyweight championship of the world.

The second fight in the trilogy took place in January of 1974. Neither man was champion at that point. Frazier had been knocked senseless by George Foreman in Jamaica a year earlier and Ali had lost to a previously unknown boxer named Ken Norton. Both were at the crossroads of their careers. The fight was held at Madison Square Garden in New York, which was the same venue as their first fight, it had none of the majesty of that fight however. Ali continued to taunt Frazier and Frazier continued to build animosity toward Ali. They even tussled on Wide World of Sports while doing an interview with Howard Cosell. Ali was probably just acting, but Frazier was dead serious. The fight in the ring was neither as interesting nor as close as their first fight had been. Ali won easily, although Frazier did score with a number of punches. The fight was really the beginning of the end for Frazier. He would fight only four more times before retiring. Ali went on to fight 15 more times after the second Frazier fight.

The third fight was supposed to be easy for Ali. He had just recently regained the heavyweight title from George Foreman in Zaire and Frazier was perceived to be at the end of the line. Ali didn't train heavily for the fight but Frazier threw everything he had into preparation. He wanted to shut Ali up once and for all. The fight took place at an indoor arena that had no air conditioning. Under the TV lights the temperature soared well above 100 degrees in the ring. The humidity was stifling. The only ventilation in the building was in the form of fans that were ineffective in battling the heat and only served to circulate the already searing air. Ali was confident as he entered the ring. He felt that he would be able to take Joe out in the early rounds. Joe had another thought in mind. The fight started in the familiar pattern of Ali - Frazier fights. Ali dominated the early rounds. He peppered Frazier with jabs and power punches that Frazier seemed unable to stop or dodge. The fight began to turn once again in the middle rounds. Frazier pinned Ali to the ropes and began to pound at Ali's midsection and score left hooks to the head. Ali tried his rope-a-dope technique which had been so successful against Foreman, but Frazier proved too smart an opponent to simply punch himself out. He was much more economical and precise in his attack than the outclassed Foreman had been. As the fight wore on Ali knew that he was in for a battle. In one of the clinches he said, "Joe, they said you were done", "They lied to you champ" was Joe's only response.

The later rounds saw Ali's punches begin to take a toll on Frazier's face. His head became a misshapen lump of bruises. His eye were swollen and his vision became compromised. Ali seized the advantage. He produced pinpoint power shots to Frazier's head and started to build a lead. Frazier did not stop punching however. He hurt Ali on numerous occasions as the fight wore on. Ali was later quoted as saying that those later rounds were as close to death as he as ever felt. The heat and Frazier's relentless attack pushed him to the brink of quitting. His corner pushed him out for each round and he continued his attack on Frazier's face. A series of shots in the 13th round sent Frazier's mouthpiece flying into the crowd, but he never stopped coming forward, absorbing punishment, but also dishing it out. Frazier's corner wanted to stop the fight after the 13th round but he convinced them to give him one more round. In the 14th round a nearly blinded Frazier absorbed a vicious beating from Ali and his corner did indeed call it quits before the start of the 15th. In the tape from the fight, you can see Frazier arguing with his corner about stopping the fight, but in the end his trainer, Eddie Futch, had the final say. Frazier was so upset by that decision that he never spoke to Futch again. Ali, upon seeing that the fight was being stopped, got off his stool, raised his hand and then collapsed onto the canvas.

Both men had absorbed a tremendous amount of damage in the fight. And while Frazier's face looked the worse for wear, it was Ali's body that had suffered the most in the fight. Ali always gave up his body in order to protect his face and Frazier exacted an enormous toll during the fight. Ali was under a doctors care for several days after the fight, while Frazier was able to walk away in generally good condition. Joe Frazier would once again lose by knockout to George Foreman in his next fight after which he retired. Frazier had a short lived comeback a few years later in which he fought only once, but basically his career ended that night in Manila. Ali said after the fight that he was going to quit and most people believe that he should have. Of course he wouldn't. He would go on to lose and then win the title one more time and he would suffer ignominious defeat at the hands of Larry Holmes in an ill advised comeback. Ali is now afflicted with Parkinson's Syndrome, which means that although he doesn't have Parkinson's he has all the symptoms of a sufferer of the disease. It's a more scientific term for what used to labeled "punch drunk". His speech has been affected to the point that he doesn't speak in public anymore. His limbs shake uncontrollably and his movement is limited. His continued boxing activity after that night in Manila is probably the main reason for his condition today.

The thrilla in Manila was an epic struggle between two extraordinary fighters. Both men were past their primes, both had already secured their places in boxing history, both had nothing left to prove, but on that night they showed the world something more than just a championship bout. They were no longer fighting for the heavyweight championship, they were fighting for the championship of each other. They had split the first two fights and the winner of this fight could forever claim victory over the other. Neither of them was willing to give up that fight. They both fought to the edge of death to prove something, not to the world, but to each other. Ali won that night, but paid a heavy cost by continuing his boxing career. The effects of his decision to continue to fight have made him a shadow of the person he used to be. Frazier is still relatively healthy today and while he says that he harbors no ill will toward Ali today, there has to be a lingering thought in his head that perhaps by losing, he was the ultimate victor that October night in Manila.

Punch Drunk Love

I'm going to do something that I never thought I would do. What is that you wonder?I'm going to long for the good old days. It always sounded like sour grapes when some old guy would talk about how much better sports were when they were young. I always thought that because athletes have gotten stronger and faster as time has gone on, that they were clearly superior to the ones who had come before. Therefore the quality of the games being played today were better. I still believe that the athletes of today are superior to those of the past, but that won't stop me from lamenting the demise of big time boxing.

Boxing is called the sweet science. Now, I was never sure what science had to do with beating the hell out of somebody, but there's certainly no sweetness in the sport. I'm not here to talk about Don King or Bob Arum or any other of the big time promoters and their underhanded dealings. Boxing has always had it's share of crooked deals and fixed fights. For example, Joe Louis had to give away a portion of his earnings as heavyweight champion to James J. Braddock in order to get a shot at the title. Braddock built a house and started a business based off of Louis' hard earned victories for ten years. Like I said, unsavory characters and deals have always been a part of the sport.

What I miss is the drama of the sport. I miss being able to turn on the TV on the weekends and see big fights for free. I miss the charismatic figure that can make people listen to what he says. Of course I miss Ali, but it's not just him. I miss George Foreman, Joe Frazier, Ken Norton, Sugar Ray Leonard, Marvin Hagler, Tommy Hearns and a host of others. There was a time when even the casual sports fan knew about the kings of ring. Today, you'd be hard pressed to find people who know who the heavyweight champion of the world is (It's kind of a trick question because I believe there about 10 of them and nine of them are from the former Soviet Union).

There was a time when the Heavyweight championship was the most coveted title in sport. The unofficial "baddest man on the planet". Like the title of "world's fastest man" it meant something special. It really doesn't mean anything anymore. Mike Tyson is a punchline, Evander Holyfield is punch drunk and outside of Oscar De La Hoya, there isn't a boxer who can really capture the imagination of the public. Perhaps this is all cyclical and the next Olympic games will produce a group of great fighters that will become household names, just like the '76 games did with the Spinks brothers and Ray Leonard.

Great fights still take place, it's just that there is no anticipation leading up to them and there is no rooting interest in the outcome. Frazier - Ali divided a nation. Liberals and Conservatives, young and old, black and white. It was one of the defining moments of the Vietnam era. I'm not sure that there will ever be a sporting event that captures that attention of this nation as that one did. You would have to go back to Joe Louis defeating Max Schmelling to find a sporting event that equaled the anticipation and social impact of first Ali - Frazier fight. Louis winning to avenge his only loss and striking a blow against the rising Nazi power in Germany was a polarizing moment around the coutry. There was no middle ground in those fights and everyone took a side. While the great fights that followed couldn't live up to the social significance of those two, they were still great sporting spectacles. Leonard, Hearns, Hagler, Aaron Pryor, Alexis Arguello and Larry Holmes created magic moments in the 80's. Tyson, Holyfield, Chavez and Foreman made the 90's a great decade.

The thrill of a fight night in Vegas is still fantastic, but the only place that magic is felt is in Vegas. People used to pay money to go to movie theaters to watch big fights. Of course we have pay per view today, but can you imagine how motivated someone would have to be to actually pay to go to a theater to watch a fight? Most don't even order fights that they can watch in their own homes. The magic of a big Ali fight could draw people to a theater back in the 70's, whether it was to watch him pull of a miracle and beat George Foreman or lose a classic battle to Joe Frazier. It was thrilling, but for now the thrill is gone, the thrill has gone away.

I know boxing is a brutal sport, and at it's worst, it's absolutely unwatchable. I just long for the days of the BIG FIGHT. Perhaps they'll come back, or perhaps we've just moved on as a society. I can't say for sure and don't really have any important social commentary to make on the subject. I just miss the good old days.