The Big Mega-Fights: Serve It While It’s Hot

By Cliff Rold

As his face was turned into Bitochki by Antonio Silva last weekend, as what appeared to be the last vestiges of the prime Fedor Emelianenko, arguably MMA history’s greatest Heavyweight, were beaten down, one sound could be heard in the minds ear…

…Flush…

Make that a double, no triple, flusher.

Emelianenko’s second consecutive defeat, outside of the well branded confines of a UFC he never signed with, sandwiched around the year’s biggest story in that league: top draw Brock Lesnar’s first round thumping at the hands of Cain Velasquez for the UFC Heavyweight crown.

With those three losses, a lot of payola has hit the commode. 

When 2010 began, the dollar signs around a marquee reading “Lesnar vs. Emelianenko” (or vice versa) swirled as if caught in a tornado.  One day, those two may still eventually find their way towards a cage together.  But what could have been won’t ever be again.

The best of the big fights are like that.

They belong to their moment in time and the timing is everything.  Like a perfectly seasoned steak or brilliantly aged bottle of wine, served too late and some of the essential flavor is gone.  One still might get a tasty dish.  Think about Evander Holyfield-Mike Tyson in 1996; it wasn’t the best of either man but it still satisfied the fistic appetite.

It never erased the dream of what might have been in 1990 or 1991 between the two.

It is with the fear of lost promise in mind that fights fans, boxing fans in particular this weekend, can breathe a sigh of relief.  The Angus beef is ordered at medium rare and the ‘91 Cabernet is being brought up from the cellar.

The consensus choice for best fighter in the best division in boxing right now, WBC/WBO Bantamweight titlist Fernando Montiel (44-2-2, 34 KO), is defending against one of the most talented fighters in the world, former Flyweight titlist Nonito Donaire (25-1, 17 KO).

What’s the soup of the day?

Relative to its division, meaning Bantamweight fights just ain’t ever quite as high dollar as the ticket sellers up the scale, it doesn’t get much bigger than this.  We won’t know until they get in the ring, until the leather starts to fly, whether this is a good fight but no one can say it is ill timed. 

Montiel-Donaire isn’t an idea that just came up.  It’s been bandied about since at least 2009.  Last year, each picked up a win that can be argued as their very best.  Montiel came from behind, on the road, to stop the outstanding Hozumi Hasegawa in the only Bantamweight unification since the Richard Nixon administration.  Donaire, arriving at 118 lbs., decimated quality former titlist Wladimir Sidorenko.

They arrive, this Saturday, at that perfect intersection of marketability, exposure, and competition. 

Even if the fight is a dud, no one can say they didn’t get what they are asking for.

It isn’t advanced calculus to pull this stuff off.  It’s why fans can be forgiven (and, for now, it’s more true in boxing than MMA) when the expressions of frustration for what they did not see come off louder than appreciation for what they do. 

It is now, and always has been, a lie for boxing followers to say that the best are not fighting each other.  It is not a lie to say that the singular fights the most people are willing to pay to see are getting stymied too often. 

In boxing, that means Floyd Mayweather-Manny Pacquiao at Welterweight and Wladimir Klitschko-David Haye at Heavyweight. 

There is still time for either or both of those events to come together.  The time is running short for fans to get the best bang for their buck.  The chance that these dishes could grow cold, that the seeping of stale air could turn vintage to vinegar, lurks.

The plain truth for three of the four stars named is that athletic youth is not their guarantee much longer. 

Despite the look of dominance Klitschko wears, he’s a 34-year old veteran of 58 professional fights since late 1996, and those after a lengthy amateur career.  Elder brother Vitali has shown the family can hang around into their late 30s, but Wladimir isn’t likely to have the leg rest which had to benefit Vitali has he healed from other ailments over an almost four year layoff.  If Wladimir were to begin to slip, or lose focus and interest, it would be no shock.

For now, Klitschko can be assumed capable of continuing without missing a beat for at least another year or two.  That doesn’t mean Haye couldn’t get beat while drawing out the build of this superfight.  Murphy’s Law…yada, yada, yada. 

In the case of Pacquiao and Mayweather, the sad truth is that best possible fight between the two may have already slipped away.  Manny is 32, getting up there for an action fighter who takes some licks.  Mayweather is days away from 34.  These two might fight yet, but will the world be certain they are seeing the absolute best of both?

If the answer is yes, how much longer can that be the case?

It’s not to say age is everything.  Making the right match can defy the calendar.  Bernard Hopkins getting an immediate return for the Light Heavyweight crown he almost captured, at age 46, from Jean Pascal last December is the right fight for Light Heavyweight. 

It’s coming out shortly at table number 521H.

The two best Jr. Welterweights in the World, Amir Khan and Timothy Bradley, are quietly discussing their affairs in back booth 723.  Super Middleweight Super Six semi-finalists Carl Froch and Glen Johnson are staring at each other on table 521S when they’re not glaring across the room at table 514 occupants Andre Ward and Arthur Abraham. 

We’re still waiting on the reservations for later this year from the finalists who emerge. 

Those are only some the tables that are full.  It is enough to say that boxing is, more than not so far in 2011, planning its courses wisely.      

For now, that means all eyes on table 219.

Montiel-Donaire comes sizzling off the grill sometime after 9:45 PM EST at the Mandalay Bay on Saturday night.

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