by David P. Greisman
The early weeks of the year tend to be a slower time for the sport, and 2016 appears as if it will be no different.
The schedule for the first part of next year is still being fleshed out, but so far January’s highlights look to include the heavyweight title doubleheader on Jan. 16 featuring Deontay Wilder vs. Artur Szpilka and Vyacheslav Glazkov vs. Charles Martin; a crossroads fight on Jan. 23 as Danny Garcia continues to test himself at welterweight, this time against the declining Robert Guerrero; and a Jan. 30 rematch between light heavyweight titleholder Sergey Kovalev and Jean Pascal that seems even less necessary now than it did immediately after Kovalev stopped Pascal in their first meeting.
The most notable entries on the calendar for February right now all take place in Europe: a lightweight title fight between Terry Flanagan and Derry Mathews on Feb. 13 in the United Kingdom, a super middleweight title fight rematch between Fedor Chudinov and Felix Sturm on Feb. 20 in Germany, and the highly anticipated unification bout between Carl Frampton and Scott Quigg on Feb. 27 in the U.K. It remains to be seen whether welterweights Keith Thurman and Shawn Porter will come to a deal and if their fight would also be in February or would come in a later month.
There are so many moving parts in boxing that we tend to follow what’s going on on a week-by-week basis, going from big fight to big fight, with the big picture maxing out when we go division by division or when major stories break.
There are several storylines that will need to be followed as well in 2016.
The Changing of the Guard Continues
Floyd Mayweather Jr. has retired and insists he isn’t coming back. Several others may soon join him.
It’s been said that Manny Pacquiao will have his last fight in April. Bernard Hopkins hasn’t been in the ring since his 2014 loss to Kovalev and is expected to have his farewell as a 51-year-old in 2016. If Juan Manuel Marquez fights again, then he too may be one and done this year. Wladimir Klitschko’s lengthy reign atop the heavyweight division came to an end with his upset loss to Tyson Fury in November. A second defeat in an anticipated rematch would likely bring his career to a close.
A review of the list of world titleholders shows that the old guard of top stars has almost completely given way to the new generation. The coming year and the years that follow will show which of them may have the staying power to be the greats of this new era.
Champions vs. Top Contenders
My colleague Cliff Rold published his wish list last week, putting forth the fight he’d most like to see in each division. That can be seen at https://www.boxingscene.com/boxing-2016-one-christmas-wish-list--99721
Rold’s article includes three fights between a lineal champion and the top contender to their respective throne — four fights if you include Rold’s call for Mayweather-Pacquiao 2.
Boxing politics prevented a collision between Adonis Stevenson and Sergey Kovalev in 2014, and promotional maneuvering again precluded them from getting together in 2015. Both sides have deserved blame. We’ll see how earnest their desire to face each other is, or rather how eager their teams actually are for a fight to happen without it being completely under the terms they want.
Canelo Alvarez ascended at 160 by beating Miguel Cotto at a catch-weight of 155. Gennady Golovkin remains in line for a shot at the belt Alvarez holds. Alvarez and Golovkin have agreed to make voluntary defenses of their titles in the first part of 2016 and then will try to reach a deal to face each other later in the year. It’s the biggest fight that can be made for both, so this is one that we can be optimistic about so long as they are rational with their demands.
Roman Gonzalez has talked about a rematch with Juan Francisco Estrada before. The flyweight champion is now being featured on HBO. Hopefully the network’s renewed interest in the 112-pound division will mean enough money to bring them together again. (A fight with 115-pounder Naoya Inoue would also make us hardcore fight fans salivate.)
Much Needed, Long Delayed Reforms
Some of the problems in boxing are the same ones we talk about each year.
More fighters are undergoing drug testing, but it’s still not enough of them being tested, and what’s being done isn’t being done often enough or early enough. Testing seems to be the last thing agreed upon and starts just a handful of weeks before the fight. There’s a large window for fighters to use and then stop without getting caught. The advances in doping methods — including micro-dosing — also means that testing should be both regular and random enough to try to keep them honest. Too few promoters and athletic commissions are willing to put forth the money for a proper effort, and there’s also still too little transparency about what is and isn’t being done.
There’s also too much inconsistency when it comes to fighter safety. This is a hurt sport, but there are steps that must be taken to keep boxers who don’t belong in the ring from being licensed to fight, and then to make sure that a fighter who has taken too much punishment during a bout is closely monitored to keep a dangerous situation from becoming dire.
That would require responsible commissions (and corners as well). That’s a lot to ask when commissions still do too little when judges put forth dubious scorecards or referees make bad calls (or non-calls). Most of the rest of the working world is held responsible when they mess up. The powers-that-be in boxing excuse their officials under the argument that they make judgment calls. That excuse is inexcusable. Everyone has a bad night, but there are far too many who earned bad reputations. Referees and judges, like the rest of us, should be given instruction on how to improve on what they’ve done wrong. If they can’t do better, then they shouldn’t do their jobs at all.
Year Two for PBC
In 2015, Al Haymon’s “Premier Boxing Champions” bought airtime and brought a staggering number of boxing broadcasts to a number of networks. We can expect even more in 2016. But what we won’t know yet is whether PBC can grow its audience, which will be necessary for attracting advertisers, which is crucial for making a profit.
There’s a lot of money invested in PBC, and a significant chunk was spent launching the series in 2015 and then setting aside the budget for what’s soon to come. This year, then, could very well decide the fate of PBC, and the fate of PBC also may have a large impact on the business of boxing in general in the United States.
Olympic Boxing Returns in a Different Form
No more headgear. No more scoring individual points based on how many judges hit a button after seeing a punch land. Both of these changes — the scoring in particular — could make amateur boxing look more like it used to, which was more like what pro boxing is.
It’s still doubtful that Olympic boxing will get the spotlight in America that it once had. It’s been relegated to less-seen time slots, all while gymnastics and swimming and track and field get the greatest attention. But a more aesthetically pleasing product may nevertheless help bring in new fans, conditioning people to enjoy watching boxing and giving them a reason to follow these amateurs as they make their way into the paid ranks.
“Fighting Words” appears every Monday on BoxingScene.com. Pick up a copy of David’s book, “Fighting Words: The Heart and Heartbreak of Boxing,” at http://bit.ly/fightingwordsamazon or internationally at http://bit.ly/fightingwordsworldwide. Send questions/comments via email at fightingwords1@gmail.com
