by David P. Greisman
What is old?
Is it Andrew Golota getting beat up by Tomasz Adamek at 42? Or is it George Foreman winning the heavyweight championship against Michael Moorer at 45?
What is over the hill?
Is it Roy Jones Jr., then 40, getting knocked out in one round against Danny Green? Or is it Jeff Lacy, then 32, getting completely out-boxed by a 40-year-old Roy Jones?
Age, like the other elements of the proverbial tale of the tape, requires context. A taller fighter does not have a height advantage unless he knows how to use it. A boxer having the longer reach means little if he lets his opponent get inside. A younger fighter isn’t necessarily going to be faster, have more stamina or be better able to take punishment.
In other sports, there are the exceptional exceptions. Baseball had Satchel Paige pitching in the Major Leagues at 59, Nolan Ryan throwing a no-hitter at 44, and Julio Franco hitting a home run at 48. Football had two aging quarterbacks carrying their teams into the playoffs this year: 40-year-old Brett Favre and 38-year-old Kurt Warner.
More often, however, youth means less wear and tear while age means deterioration.
Physical age isn’t the most important factor to a boxer’s success. Ring age is.
How much abuse has a fighter taken from his opponents? How much have they abused their bodies themselves in making weight?
Fernando Vargas ballooned in weight and cut pounds and then went to war. He was retired by 29. He could’ve left the sport years earlier.
Ricky Hatton, at 31, has only lost twice, but his fluctuating weight and porous defense have come back to haunt him.
Jermain Taylor is also 31. Like Hatton, his only defeats have come to top fighters. But he has lost four of his last five and been knocked out in frightening fashion in three of those bouts.
Jaidon Codrington was 24 when he last fought. Two brutal knockouts were two too many. He is young and done.
And then there are the fighters who take care of themselves and adjust as they age. Bernard Hopkins, 45 – he of the seemingly religious devotion to remaining near fighting weight, he of the economical offense and aesthetically displeasing defense – epitomizes this. Boxers who rely on mostly speed and reflexes do not fare quite as well when they get older.
It used to seem as if every fight between young and old either meant talk of the torch being passed (or meant that a prospect was taking on a veteran long past his prime). There are still crossroads fights, but we seem to be in an age of the ageless.
The two best heavyweights are Vitali and Wladimir Klitschko, 38 and 33, both atop a division where younger contenders have been rare. Their predecessor, Lennox Lewis, ended his career as a 37-year-old champion.
The man atop the welterweight rankings, Shane Mosley, is 38. A year ago, he beat the man (Antonio Margarito) who beat the man (Miguel Cotto). The most recent lightweight champion, Juan Manuel Marquez, was 35 when he earned that recognition.
Though the best light heavyweight is the 27-year-old Chad Dawson, the stars at 175 in the past few years have been in their late 30s and early 40s. Joe Calzaghe was 36 when he retired as champion. Hopkins was 41 when he ascended to the division’s throne. Roy Jones, Antonio Tarver and Glen Johnson were the best light heavyweights at 35, 37, and 36, respectively.
Johnson, now 41, no longer has the speed to cut off a Dawson. But he’s retained enough that he still belongs in the title picture. Last week, he stopped 30-year-old Yusaf Mack to earn a title shot against 28-year-old Tavoris Cloud. Nobody would argue against making Johnson the favorite in that fight.
Along with conditioning, much of the reason for all this is a generation gap in experience. So many young prospects and contenders are developed through a process that often does more for building their records than improving their abilities. They start off against no-hope opponents who never belonged in the same ring, move on to journeymen who can take them rounds but pose little threat, step up against aging veteran gatekeepers, former challengers or former beltholders, and then find and face the weakest link among the world titlists.
Chris Arreola, 28, had these four fights before challenging Vitali Klitschko: Chazz Witherspoon, Israel Garcia, Travis Walker and Jameel McCline. Witherspoon and Walker were fellow prospects, but neither, like Arreola, had ever beaten a top heavyweight. McCline was long on the decline when he met Arreola. And so when Arreola got in the ring with Klitschko, he was in over his head.
You’d be hard pressed to find a signature win on Tavoris Cloud’s record before he somehow got a spot in an elimination bout. He beat an ancient Julio Gonzalez to get a title shot and then out-pointed an on-his-way-out Clinton Woods to get a belt. He has potential but has not proven himself.
There is a demand for new stars, for old faces to stop hogging the spotlight and give young names a chance. But it is not always as simple as superstars holding out for big paychecks in the biggest fights. They have lasting power, while those younger fighters who reached the top with such speed go downhill with just as much momentum.
The 10 Count
1. Last week, I noted that HBO had only scheduled three nights of boxing for the first three months of 2010. At the time, that was correct – the Jan. 23 doubleheader featuring Yuriorkis Gamboa vs. Rogers Mtagwa and Juan Manuel Lopez vs. Steven Luevano, the canceled Jan. 30 bout between Shane Mosley and Andre Berto, and the March 6 “Boxing After Dark” pitting Devon Alexander against Juan Urango.
I must add now to the list a very good March 27 doubleheader that will see Michael Katsidis face Robert Guerrero and Marcos Maidana against Victor Cayo.
The March 13 pay-per-view featuring Manny Pacquiao against Joshua Clottey was not included. The point was meant to be about boxing fans subscribing to HBO just for the fights. Seeing a replay a week later is a perk only for those not among the hardcore.
2. It’s by no means an apples to apples comparison, but Showtime has had three boxing broadcasts so far this year: two episodes of “ShoBox” and one “Showtime Championship Boxing.” Showtime’s next boxing broadcast is March 6, its only boxing card for that month.
The better comparison is to previous years on HBO. In the first three months of 2009, it put on five non-pay-per-view cards. The first quarters of other years looked like this: 2008 had five non-PPVs and three PPVs; 2007 had seven non-PPVs and one PPV; 2006 had three non-PPVs and two PPVs.
Actually, the best comparison is to other years when HBO got out of the way of the Winter Olympics, like it is doing this year. Hence, presumably, the sparser schedule for 2006. As for 2002, there were five cards in the first three months, none on pay-per-view, but nothing scheduled during the Winter Olympics.
3. Don’t know that whichever Mexican boxing commission was in charge of Saturday’s card featuring Edwin Valero against Antonio DeMarco should’ve let Valero-DeMarco continue after an accidental elbow opened up a nasty wound high on the right side of Valero’s forehead – but I’m glad they did.
The gash was reminiscent of those suffered by Ruben Galvan (against Zab Judah) and Victor Ortiz (against Marvin Cordova). No observers would’ve thrown a fit had the ringside physician waved things off. But either Valero’s cutman did his job amazingly well, or Valero’s crazy hair got into the wound and soaked up the blood. Or both.
Either way, the bout could’ve been stopped in the second round. And had that happened, we never would’ve gotten to see the excellent performance Valero put on.
Let’s not get carried away just yet with proclamations of Valero as a poor man’s Manny Pacquiao. Let’s see him against some world-class opposition first – an opportunity we thought we’d never have because of Valero’s exile from fighting in the United States.
4. The best part about Tomasz Adamek’s heavyweight run isn’t who he’s beating – so far he’s stopped Andrew Golota and out-pointed Jason Estrada – it’s that he’s staying busy and selling tickets, both in Poland and (especially) in New Jersey.
So often weight classes get bogged down as those fighters who don’t have world titles move toward fighting less and less per year, and rarely fighting against other highly ranked boxers. The tendency is to hold on to their rankings and remain available for either (a) a world title shot and/or (b) a major payday against a star opponent.
What Adamek is doing is potentially providing a secondary market for heavyweight action beyond fighters just waiting to face one of the Klitschko brothers. Talk is now turning to a bout between Adamek and Chris Arreola. Though Arreola isn’t on the same level as the Klitschkos, a fight between Adamek and Arreola could be a fun war.
Isn’t that what we expect from our heavyweights?
5. Not sure which was more of a train wreck: Mike Tyson’s appearance last week on the Italian version of “Dancing with the Stars,” or Tyson singing “Monster Mash” with Bobby Brown years ago on “Jimmy Kimmel Live.”
He can’t dance. He can’t sing. But would you have the guts to tell him that?
6. Boxers Behaving Badly, part one: A retired British light heavyweight is facing charges of fraudulently claiming pension and income support, according to the South Wales Argus.
Edward Avoth, 64, is accused of falsely claiming nearly 10,000 pounds even though he allegedly already had plenty of money to his name. He is facing three charges and has pleaded not guilty to each. He is free on bail.
Avoth fought from 1963 to 1972, winning 44 (20 by way of knockout), losing nine and briefly holding the British Boxing Board of Control light heavyweight title.
7. Boxers Behaving Badly, part two: Another retired British light heavyweight, another alleged scam.
Johnny Frankham, 61, has been found guilty of fraud after he and another man tried to overcharge a 73-year-old woman for repairs to her roof and insulation, according to the Surrey Advertiser. “Only a minimal amount of work had been carried out to a superficial standard,” the newspaper reported.
Frankham has been sentenced to two years behind bars.
He fought from 1970 to 1976, leaving the sport with a record of 28-11-1 (5 knockouts). Like Avoth, he won the BBBofC light heavyweight title, only to lose it in his first defense.
8. This humorous piece of boxing-related fiction came in last week from the desk of publicist Fred Sternburg:
“Punxsutawney Phil Predicts Pacman Will Remain World Champion Six Weeks From Now.”
According to Sternburg, the famed groundhog came out from his burrow donning “a Pacman headband and a T-shirt emblazoned with ‘100% PHILipino’ on the front.”
If there’s one common truth in the arts, it’s this: Creativity and craziness go hand in hand.
9. With that said, don’t listen to the groundhog. Pick Joshua Clottey.
Wanna know why?
The last time Sternburg’s groundhog attempted pugilistic prognostication was on Groundhog Day 2006 in advance of the fight between Joe Calzaghe and Jeff Lacy. Here’s how that press release began:
“Punxsutawney Phil Predicts Lacy Victory.”
No wonder that groundhog went into hiding for four years.
10. Then again, 20 of 27 staff members on this very Web site favored Lacy over Calzaghe. And only four of them are still here.
David P. Greisman is a member of the Boxing Writers Association of America. His weekly column, “Fighting Words,” appears every Monday on BoxingScene.com. He may be reached for questions and comments at fightingwords1@gmail.com
