by David P. Greisman
For those of us who follow boxing with intent beyond a casual interest, the world within the sweet science is half fascination, half infuriation.
Epitomizing this notion superbly, three stories hit the pages of the outside press, a magnificent representation of our dear sport that, in the public’s collective eye, consists solely of Mike Tyson and whomever else can embarrass the pride of pugilism until it is furthermore niche.
If, in portions of the country, October signifies leaves changing colors, the transformation from bountiful summers of love into autumn, a fall into winter frigidity, then this month of this year has managed to spotlight in boxing the developing dearth of astuteness, replaced with shame and silliness, news so sad it’s ridiculous.
To relieve our cold, dampened spirits while communicating this recent information, this scribe is forced to take a sardonic tone, hoping to relate the comedy of errors that Riddick Bowe, Sylvester Stallone and Roy Jones Jr. have become.
Should the opinions espoused within seem like a tired refrain, fret not and blame not the medium or the messenger. We who love the sweet science deserve more than repetitive patterns from the same old names; we just await the fresh faces that shall rejuvenate us, replacing this neoclassicism with a renaissance.
Riddick Bowe: Broke Like a Joke
In April of this year, legendary boxing writer Michael Katz penned a gorgeous piece on Riddick Bowe, pondering the rationale behind his return to the ring, positing that “Big Daddy” was financially comfortable and worth about twenty million dollars.
To this less experienced but similarly curious columnist, Bowe’s comeback from a nearly eight year long layoff signaled that the former heavyweight champion was foolishly mistaking his own identity, thinking that he was still the same pugilist of the nineties, one that had been set to rule boxing’s marquee division.
Extraordinarily out of shape, Bowe mustn’t have truly believed that he could regain title hopes, and he wasn’t even able to reincarnate his old physical form. Simply put, he was huge, and stepping between the ropes too rarely to shake off the ring rust and, more important, drop the pounds.
Yet just like fiscal irresponsibility has motivated Mike Tyson’s numerous escapades, pugilism may be Bowe’s only chance at salvation. Last week, Bowe filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, citing over $4.1 million in debts claimed against him, against estimated assets with a wide difference between the figures, from $1 million to $10 million.
According to the Associated Press, Bowe’s attorney released a statement saying that the restructuring of debts is to help Bowe to “focus on his boxing career.”
No matter how often pundits decry how pitifully wide open the heavyweight division is today, it is dumb and dangerous for Riddick Bowe to even ponder attempting competition. His last fight was in April, a controversial split decision over journeyman Billy Zumbrun, a poor performance that revealed Bowe’s lack of commitment to conditioning.
Like I wrote six months prior, Bowe can speak of following the “George Foreman Comeback Plan” as much as he desires, but the only way one can expect similar success is if the now-aptly nicknamed “Big Daddy” spends time himself in the Lean, Mean, Fat Grilling Machine.
Rocky Balboa: No, Adrian!
In the first Rocky, Sylvester Stallone’s title character is asked by girlfriend Adrian why he wants to fight, to which the Italian Stallion responds, “Because I can’t sing or dance.”
This month, the forever rumored-about Rocky 6 was finally announced, and one wants to ask Stallone why he wants to add another sequel to an already faded franchise. Critics would likely respond, “Because he can’t do anything else.”
Stallone, an executive producer on boxing reality series The Contender, demonstrated in May his astonishing incapability at doing play-by-play, a performance so embarrassing that when the canceled show was revived by ESPN, there was the guarantee of proper announcing through the network’s Joe Tessitore and Teddy Atlas.
But the near sexagenarian is simply unable to remain out of the spotlight, and still sees himself as an action star. With the official declaration that he was making Rocky 6 (which will be titled Rocky Balboa), the press began an energetic ejaculation, as if it was surprising that another sequel would be made for an Oscar-winning picture whose follow-ups garnered enough Razzies to compensate for the initial Academy Award.
Rumors abound about who will play the film’s main villain, Mason Dixon (are you kidding me?), with light-heavyweight king Antonio Tarver being one possibility for the role.
Never mind that Rocky V pulled in less than $41 million in domestic box office receipts, with the considerable buzz over a movie yet to be cast, storyboarded or shot, it is likely that millions upon millions will flock to theatres to see poorly-faked boxing, a shameful idea considering that, as reported by Dan Rafael, only about 200,000 people purchased the Diego Corrales-Jose Luis Castillo rematch.
Roy Jones: Won’t Let Us Forget
For a moment, let us put aside the constantly raging debate over Roy Jones’ true capabilities and legacy, so that we may marvel at his lyricism:
“Will there be another Roy Jones? Probably not / Stopped Virgil Hill with a boy shot / See y’all musta forgot!”
Yet another athlete addicted to egotistically referring to himself in the third person, Roy Jones Jr. will never let us forget who he is, and following his third straight loss, he refuses to act like the venerable, aging hero and ride off into the sunset.
Yes, Jones showed flashes of brilliance in his twelve-round dropped decision to Antonio Tarver, but the majority of his performance was dedicated to cautiously avoiding being knocked out. He may have proven that he was still capable when desired, but that desire is the excuse that he’d floated for being kayoed by Tarver and Glencoffe Johnson.
Shortly after his most recent loss at the beginning of this month, Jones answered press questions about his retirement, responding, “I’m a true champion. Being the true champion I am, I may come back.”
Just like with Riddick Bowe and Sylvester Stallone, Roy Jones still looks in the mirror and sees his younger, better self. Jones, a four-division titlist, is not a champion anymore. The longer he sticks around, attempting to prove that he is, the more chances he will get to disprove what he was.
He was an excellent fighter, holding belts at middleweight, super middleweight, light heavyweight and heavyweight, a longtime denizen of the mythical pound-for-pound list. This is how Jones should desire to be remembered, but if he continues to fight, his next album might have to include the verse:
“Wasn’t Roy Jones once a champion? You’re probably right / But he was the victim of one-punch knockouts in two straight fights / With each year, he’s taken more shots / See, Roy musta forgot!”
And these are the stories, Riddick, Rocky and Roy, which represent boxing as shameful, silly, idiotic and infuriating, news so ridiculous it’s sad.
The 10 Count
1. A Correction: The above three aren’t the only ones making mistakes. Last week, I erroneously wrote, “Promoter Frank Warren has moved for a legal injunction stopping November’s junior welterweight unification bout between Ricky Hatton and Carlos Maussa.”
The text should have read, “Promoter Frank Warren has moved away from a legal injunction stopping November’s junior welterweight unification bout between Ricky Hatton and Carlos Maussa.”
I apologize for the blunder.
2. As briefly referred to above, Dan Rafael has reported that the Corrales-Castillo II pay-per-view only did about 200,000 buys, a figure tremendously smaller than expectations. While some have argued that the weigh-in fiasco is to blame, as it turned a championship fight into a special attraction, I believe that the Antonio Tarver-Roy Jones III PPV of a week prior sapped enough money out of potential consumers, that a good portion of the 405,000 Tarver-Jones buyers found a light heavyweight rubber match to be more important than a sequel to one of the greatest fights ever.
3. Having seen pictures from the press conference announcing November’s Floyd Mayweather Jr.-Sharmba Mitchell mismatch, it appears that Mitchell is still sporting a scar from his last fight. Mitchell, on the undercard to Mike Tyson-Kevin McBride in June, suffered a nasty gash about a half-inch under his left eye after his head collided with Chris Smith’s noggin. Four months later, the cut has turned into a large, dark bruise, and questions linger over whether it will have healed enough by their Nov. 19 fight night.
4. David Tua weighed in at 245 pounds for this weekend’s fight with Cisse Salif, the same poundage that he carried for his dismal 2003 draw with Hasim Rahman. Just like with many of his fellow heavyweights, Tua will need to control his mass in order to achieve better results, and his split decision victory over Salif indicates that he has yet to regain his impressive form from the second half of the nineties.
5. And at least Tua’s making a comeback as a 32-years-old, relatively youthful compared to men like the aforementioned Riddick Bowe (38) or, surprisingly, Bruce Seldon (also 38). If you do not remember Seldon, it’s okay, as he was essentially only a heavyweight beltholder during the doldrums of the mid-nineties, sacrificed in 1996 to Mike Tyson, a first round knockout that benched Seldon for seven-and-a-half years. After another layoff of seventeen months, Seldon is scheduled to face giant pseudo-prospect Tye Fields. The October 28 card is being billed as “Guilty Fight Night,” but I just don’t see myself taking even a guilty pleasure in giving much significance to the results.
6. DaVarryl Williamson had fifteen particles, scar tissue and two bone spurs removed during surgery on his right elbow, an injury that he seemingly covered up prior to his loss to Chris Byrd, and a condition that he blames for his horrifyingly dreary performance. Having suffered from a match that multiple pundits have quipped as being “boxing’s cure for insomnia,” I’m unsure of the following, but I believe that Williamson landed fewer punches on Byrd than he had particles removed from his elbow.
7. The decline of Jameel McCline continues, as the former top-ten heavyweight contender dropped a unanimous decision to tune-up journeyman Zuri Lawrence. McCline has now lost three of his past four outings, to Lawrence, Calvin Brock and Chris Byrd, and may now have fallen to the level of crossroads fighter, a name on rising prospects’ ledgers. It is a rapid descent, considering that McCline challenged for Byrd’s belt less than a year ago, losing a competitive, controversial split decision.
8. It took all but one minute and two seconds of his fight, as well as a bizarre string of events, but Vernon Forrest’s comeback continued successfully with a tenth round stoppage of Elco Garcia. Forrest is keeping busy so as to help gauge his remaining abilities, as he may be fighting on the undercard of December’s Jermain Taylor-Bernard Hopkins PPV rematch. If true, it will be Forrest’s third fight since July, when he returned from a two-year layoff caused by injuries.
9. With the news that Juan Manuel Marquez would only get paid $31,250 to fly to Indonesia to face Chris John in December, the nail may finally be in the coffin of one of the most-skilled, most-avoided boxers around. Sadly, for Marquez, he is the holder of the hammer, as he and his team are to blame for pricing the pugilist out of a lucrative rematch with Manny Pacquiao. Since his May 2004 draw with Pacquiao, Marquez has had two decision wins over Orlando Salido and Victor Polo, and was unfairly stripped of his IBF featherweight title. Due to the latter, Marquez was forced to relinquish his WBA “Super” belt, designed by the sanctioning body for their unified titlists so that they could create “Regular” champions and extra sanctioning fees. John is the “Regular” champion, and as such is entitled to 75 percent of the $125,000 purse bid.
10. This coming weekend, there will be four, count’em, four title fights, put on by Golden Boy Promotions and pitting together Thai and Mexican opponents. The card will be televised on HBO Latino on Oscar De La Hoya’s Boxeo de Oro program, but HBO should have considered showing the fights on its English-speaking networks as well, so as to draw in a larger audience, with the possibility that at least one of the eight fighters could be their next franchise to build on.
