by David P. Greisman
The two fights topping this coming Saturday’s boxing card on Showtime have been marketed as “a history-making night.” But let’s not mistake any historical significance as meaning the two fights — the main event of Deontay Wilder vs. Artur Szpilka and its preceding co-feature of Vyacheslav Glazkov vs. Charles Martin — are incredibly historical or significant.
They are the first two heavyweight title bouts to take place in Brooklyn in more than 115 years, dating back to the days when you could say a match went 23 rounds, which is how long it took for James J. Jeffries to finish James J. Corbett back in May 1900 in Coney Island. In this case, this historical entry comes as the result of an oddity.
This “history-making night” is due to a lack of heavyweight title fights in this one borough of New York City over the course of more than a century. The last heavyweight title fight in New York City, however, came less than a year ago and less than a half hour on the 3 train from the Atlantic Terminal just outside of Barclays Center west to Penn Station, which sits right underneath Madison Square Garden in the borough of Manhattan.
Wladimir Klitschko topped Bryant Jennings on that evening in April 2015. It’s likely that at least one of the title fights this coming Saturday will be far more entertaining than Klitschko-Jennings was. That, and not history, is what makes these fights matter. Well, that and the fact that this sport, for all of the frustration over the number of world titles, often still cares when a belt is on the line.
One of the title fights wouldn’t even be a title fight if Klitschko were still champion. Glazkov vs. Martin will be for the belt bestowed by the International Boxing Federation, a belt left vacant shortly after Tyson Fury defeated Klitschko.
Fury had been the mandatory challenger for one of Klitschko’s three major world titles, a position that meant he didn’t need to accept a contractual rematch clause in order to challenge the longtime heavyweight champion. Fury accepted the clause nevertheless, likely getting paid more money for doing so. And he’ll get far more money to face Klitschko a second time than he would’ve to face Glazkov, who was the IBF’s mandatory challenger.
Fury remains the true champion of the division. He also still holds two major titles. Wilder has the World Boxing Council’s title, one that once been held by Klitschko’s older brother, Vitali, before he retired. That vacant belt was then won by Bermane Stiverne when he topped Chris Arreola in 2014, and then by Wilder when he outpointed Stiverne about a year ago.
The IBF title fight is so uninspiring on paper that the publicity team working on Saturday’s show wisely put Glazkov and Martin on the first part of a media conference call last week so that reporters would need to ask at least a few questions before moving on to Wilder and Szpilka, who were called into this duty even though they had already done a media call just weeks before.
Glazkov is undefeated at 21-0-1, though there are those who think the draw with Malik Scott in 2013 should’ve been a victory for Scott instead, and that victories over Derric Rossy in 2014 and Steve Cunningham in 2015 very well should’ve gone the other way. He has not shown himself to be among the best that the division has to offer.
Martin is also undefeated at 22-0-1, but he hasn’t been in anywhere near the spotlight he’ll have on Saturday. He was on the same show as Wilder’s last fight, but he was relegated to the less-seen NBC Sports Network portion of the broadcast. Before that, he was on the non-televised portion of the Klitschko-Jennings undercard.
Having a world title alone won’t automatically insert the winner into the list of the top heavyweights. Instead, this would serve as the beginning of that campaign — a first truly notable win over a fellow prospect/contender.
Wilder, meanwhile, had been hoping to face Klitschko in 2016 (all potential obstacles from the very political boxing business aside) and now would seemingly set his sights on the winner of the Fury-Klitschko rematch.
He also owes a mandatory shot at Alexander Povetkin. No deal has been made yet. The WBC hasn’t ordered a negotiating period to begin. And so Wilder continues to fight other opponents, even if these other opponents aren’t of the level that Wilder’s detractors and doubters would prefer.
Wilder had compiled a gaudy knockout record before his title shot last year, with the lone win of note coming in a quick knockout of Scott. He beat Stiverne, whose best wins had come against the questionable Arreola, whose best wins had come against even more questionable foes. Wilder then went on to make two successful title defenses in 2015, topping Eric Molina and Johann Duhaupas, getting shaken by Molina in the process and fending off a stiffer than expected challenge from Duhaupas.
But Wilder did fend them off and stop them both. There still were questions about how he would deal with better opposition — if his considerable power, speed and athleticism would bring him victory, and if his continued work in the gym would show in the form of, well, improved form and technique on fight night. Those questions won’t be completely answered against Szpilka.
Wilder’s team initially wanted Glazkov. The two sides didn’t come to a deal, and Glazkov opted to pursue the IBF title instead. Szpilka is 20-1, that one defeat coming in a 10th-round stoppage loss to Jennings in 2014. Prior to that, Szpilka triumphed in a pair of wars with Mike Mollo, who will never be confused with being on Wilder’s level, whatever Wilder’s level will turn out to be. Szpilka says he’s improved since then. He’ll be there on Saturday to try to win. But he’s otherwise there to put up a spirited effort and put forth as good a show as he can before Wilder puts him away.
Those aren’t the only two heavyweight fights of note this coming weekend. Across the Atlantic Ocean, David Haye will return from a lengthy stretch away from the sport on a show in London. This’ll be his first time back in the ring in three and a half years; he’d pulled out of fights that had been scheduled in the time since due to injuries, then remained on the sideline.
Haye will face Mark de Mori, an Australian fighter who in recent years has fought mainly in Germany and Croatia but who had not yet elevated himself to a level where he could be considered a contender or even a serious prospect. Haye will hope to shake off rust and reinsert himself into the heavyweight equation.
That equation is still being sorted out. We can’t quite say yet that there’s been addition by subtraction; Klitschko isn’t gone yet, even if his era as king came to an end with last November’s lackluster decision loss to Fury.
But the prospect of a changed landscape is an exciting one. Boxing is a weird sport. We appreciate the clarity of knowing for certain that one fighter is the best of his division. But we also enjoy the chaos as fighters vie for that throne, facing each other and seeing who can distance himself from the pack.
Klitschko had achieved that clarity years ago and remained in that top spot, dominating a slew of contenders and a bunch of others who never stood a chance.
It used to be that a number of has-beens and never-weres stuck around or came back because they saw Klitschko as vulnerable and they were awaiting a shot at cracking his chin. Now we’re seeing an emphasis on the future. Even if Klitschko beats Fury in the rematch, he’ll turn 40 this year and may accelerate his plans to exit the sport rather than keep going for as long as he once believed he could go.
Forget the supposed historical significance of Wilder-Szpilka and Glazkov-Martin. What’s important is where the winners go from there, and how David Haye, Alexander Povetkin, Anthony Joshua, Joseph Parker, Luis Ortiz and perhaps a few others will go about seeing who belongs. If Fury wins again, then he will have a target on his back and the lucrative allure of ascendant stardom in the United Kingdom. If he loses, then he will still have a place at heavyweight as he attempts to rebuild.
We’ll have to see what goes down among them in order to see if any of them will go down in history.
“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
