by David P. Greisman

We don’t go to a restaurant just for the appetizers.

We don’t go to the movie theater just for the previews.

And we don’t watch boxing just for the fights in which top stars stay busy against lesser challengers.

Yet that, by and large, is what we’ve gotten in 2010. When the big fights aren’t being made – and so many either aren’t or weren’t – the fighters either sit on the sidelines or substitute a designated opponent in place of the desired opponent.

Sometimes a star fighter keeping busy is the fault of the star fighter himself. Sometimes he wants more money. Or a different location for the fight. Or a different weight class for the bout. Sometimes his promoter would rather he face someone else and he won’t argue otherwise.

Sometimes a star fighter keeping busy is not his fault whatsoever.

That was the case this past weekend, when Lucian Bute, either the No. 1 or No. 2 fighter at super middleweight, took on Jesse Brinkley, and Vitali Klitschko, the No. 2 fighter at heavyweight, took on Shannon Briggs.

Jesse Brinkley is a hard-working fighter, but he is a fighter whose title shot against Bute came about for precisely the same reason that Bute was defending against Brinkley and not someone better – the “Super Six” super-middleweight tournament.

Bute was not invited to the tournament, which started about a year ago with Arthur Abraham, Andre Dirrell, Carl Froch, Mikkel Kessler, Jermain Taylor and Andre Ward. In a suddenly shallower pool of available talent, Brinkley beat Curtis Stevens for a shot at Bute. The tournament also took away six possible opponents for Bute, not just for his next fight, but potentially for the next 18 to 24 months as well.

Since then, Bute has defended his world title in a rematch with Librado Andrade (whom he knocked out easily), Edison Miranda (whom he knocked out easily) and now Brinkley (whom he outclassed over nine rounds before putting him away).

Barring a jump up to light heavyweight to face champion and fellow Montreal attraction Jean Pascal, Bute is kept waiting – and keeping busy – until his chance to affirm his standing at 168. A defense against former middleweight champion Kelly Pavlik is thought to be next. That would be a step-up in class from that of Andrade, Miranda and Brinkley, but it would still a fight in which Bute would once again be the clear favorite.

Shannon Briggs had not had a notable victory in the heavyweight division in nearly four years. Few, if any, expected Briggs to still be standing after 12 rounds against Vitali Klitschko. Nobody expected him to win.

That Briggs was such a decisive underdog usually would’ve made him a questionable opponent. But the right question to ask about this choice of opponent is: “If not him, then who else?”

Vitali Klitschko and his younger brother, division champion Wladimir, have pummeled through both the heavyweight contenders and the heavyweight pretenders. Vitali has now defeated six opponents in the past two years. Wladimir has successfully defended against nine opponents in the past four years.

Aside from a brother-versus-brother clash that will never happen, there are three heavyweights people would most like to see the Klitschkos face: Tomasz Adamek, David Haye and Alexander Povetkin.

Adamek has kept busy in his own way, fighting three times in 2010, defeating Jason Estrada, Chris Arreola and Michael Grant. He is scheduled to face Vinny Maddalone this December and is thought to be in line for a shot at one of the Klitschkos in early 2011.

That would be a tremendous step up in opposition for the former light heavyweight beltholder and former cruiserweight champion, and that is why Adamek has been testing himself in the division for the past year.

Haye has turned down or pulled out of fights with both Klitschkos. The only other beltholder in the division, and a former cruiserweight champion who has seemed to retain much of his speed and power since rising to heavyweight, he is the one opponent most desired for a Klitschko challenge.

He is the one who is at fault for such a challenge not happening.

He, too, is keeping busy in the meantime; he is scheduled to face Audley Harrison in November.

The Vitali Klitschko camp has kept on the table its offer of a 50-50 split with Haye, according to reports quoting Vitali’s manager. If Haye doesn’t take it, there’s always keeping busy for Vitali – a bout against his mandatory challenger, to be decided next month in a bout between Ray Austin and Odlanier Solis.

Povetkin had earned a shot at Wladimir Klitschko nearly three years ago. But he pulled out of one scheduled shot back in December 2008 due to an injury suffered on a training run, and then declined a second shot earlier this year because trainer Teddy Atlas felt Povetkin needed more seasoning.

More seasoning that comes by keeping busy.

There is nothing wrong with keeping busy. We absolutely want to see our fighters fight more often, not less. But this year few fights have been marquee match-ups. Rather, this year’s fights have, on occasion, been top talents against foes who are good enough but not great, but more often the have been been top talents against second-tier fighters and below.

In some divisions we’ve had a year’s worth of keeping busy.

Juan Manuel Lopez and Yuriorkis Gamboa fought on the same card in January, Lopez stopping Steven Luevano, Gamboa demolishing Rogers Mtagwa. Those two showcases logically suggested a Lopez-Gamboa bout should come next.

“I know what people want, and then can go fuck themselves,” Bob Arum, who promotes both Lopez and Gamboa, said at the time. Arum said he wanted to build up the fight rather than rush into it. And his logic made sense – at the time.

The year has gone by. Lopez has beaten down Bernabe Concepcion and is scheduled to face Rafael Marquez in early November. Gamboa has taken decisions over Jonathan Barros and Orlando Salido.

Yet in attempting to build the suspense of seeing these two guys in the ring together, in attempting to build the fight, there is the danger of the promotion losing momentum, the danger of people losing interest.

We want main courses to follow our appetizers.

We want feature attractions to follow our previews.

And we want major boxing matches to take the storyline forward and decide the superior fighter in the division.

We are finally getting to that point in a few divisions.

We are finally getting a rematch between Sergio Martinez and Paul Williams, a November bout that comes nearly a year after their first fight.

We are finally getting a bout between junior-welterweight titleholders Devon Alexander and Timothy Bradley, scheduled for January 29, a pairing that’s been talked about for most of 2010.

We are finally getting a bout between bantamweights Nonito Donaire and Fernando Montiel, scheduled for February, a bout that had been floated for much of the year, all while Donaire – you guessed it – kept busy.

We’re still not going to get Manny Pacquiao vs. Floyd Mayweather Jr.

There is a point at which anticipation gives way and frustration takes hold. Too many of these fighters have been keeping busy for too long. As referee Mills Lane would say: “Let’s get it on.”

The 10 Count

1. Shannon Briggs had to be taken to a German hospital due to the 12 rounds of punishment he took against Vitali Klitschko. The punches broke his left orbital bone and his nose, and Briggs also tore his left bicep, according to ESPN.com.

The fight never should’ve gone the distance. It should’ve been stopped far earlier.

And this isn’t just a case of hindsight being 20/20.

The referee, Ian John-Lewis, was quoted by German newspaper Bild as saying he was “one or two shots” away from stopping the fight. “It was a heavyweight world championship,” the referee was quoted as saying. “These are tough guys, and as long as a man fights back you have to give him a chance.”

Not when a guy is that far outclassed. And not when his chances of coming back are getting even slimmer the later the fight gets and the more punishment he takes. If the corner doesn’t stop the fight (and his trainer should’ve), then it’s up to the referee to protect the fighter when the fighter is too tough for his own good.

2. “As long as a man fights back”? Did John-Lewis not see how few punches Briggs was throwing? And how few of those few were landing?

Briggs threw 316 punches over 12 rounds. That’s 26 per round. That’s just nine punches thrown a minute.

He threw only 137 power punches in those 12 rounds. That’s 11 per round. That’s just four power punches thrown a minute.

He landed 73 punches over 12 rounds. That’s 6 per round. That’s two landed punches a minute.

Of those, he landed 39 power punches over 12 rounds. That’s three a round. That’s just one landed power punch a minute.

Klitschko, meanwhile, landed 302 shots on the night, nearly as man as Briggs threw. That’s 25 shots a round. Of those, 171 were power punches. That’s 14 of the hardest punches in boxing landing per round.

3.  Press Release Déjà vu:

Oct. 13, 2008: “ ‘Bernard is going to discover on October 18 that his new world really is flat ... flat on his back,’ said Pavlik’s trainer Jack Loew as they broke camp today to head to New York for Tuesday's news conference at BB King’s in Times Square and then Caesars Atlantic City.”

Oct. 12, 2009: “ ‘Froch is going to discover on October 17 that his new world really is flat ... flat on his back,’ said [Andre] Dirrell.”

Oct. 11, 2010: “ ‘Brian Vera is going to discover on November 13 that his new world really is flat ... flat on his back,’ said Pavlik’s trainer Jack Loew, from Team Pavlik’s training camp in California, PA, located outside Pittsburgh.”

You can say that again…

4.  But wait, there’s more:

Oct. 13, 2008: “ ‘Kelly has had his best training camp ever and he is ready to shiver Hopkins’ timbers from stem to stern.’ ”

Oct. 12, 2009: “ ‘I’ve had my best training camp ever and I’m ready to shiver Froch’s timbers from stem to stern.’ ”

5.  Some boxing fans seem to love their conspiracies:

“Every sign leads to him simply not wanting to fight,” one BoxingScene message board user said in response to last week’s Fighting Words piece on Andre Dirrell. “I was a BIG Dirrell supporter, but this is just straight BS.”

“If Dirrell’s injuries were real he would have retired permanently,” wrote another. “Now he is waiting for the situation to cool down before he ‘recovers’ and announces his comeback as the Million Dollar Cry Baby.”

“Dirrell just lost most of whatever fans he did have,” wrote a third. “He should just retire and save us boxing fans from that negative fighting style of his.”

I’m curious: If this were a beloved fighter pulling out of a fight citing neurological issues, how much backlash and talk of fakery would there be? People don’t like Andre Dirrell because of his style, dating back to his fight years ago with Curtis Stevens, continuing through to the ugliness that was his match with Carl Froch.

I know message board users don’t necessarily represent boxing fans as a whole. But there were those who accused Dirrell of acting after Arthur Abraham hit Dirrell while he was down, and there are those now who postulate that his team is lying about Dirrell still suffering six months later from that illegal blow.

6.  Al Haymon is to boxing managers what Keyser Soze was to The Usual Suspects.

Yes, the man clearly has a lot of pull with the networks, mostly with HBO but also with Showtime. But some boxing scribes write of the guy as if he is some mastermind of nefariously schemes.

The guy clearly gets his fighters televised fights, and he clearly and gets them paid far too much for said televised fights. And this clearly isn’t good for boxing because these fighters now want more money than they deserve for the bouts people actually want to see.

But some of these writers’ references to him are vague accusations put forth without evidence. It’s as if they’re substituting “Al Haymon made it happen” in place of “The Devil made it happen.”

Maybe Haymon really is nefariously scheming. But, in our positions as fight writers, it’s irresponsible to suggest he is doing so without backing it up. Got some actual dirt? Publish it.

7.  That said, it’s easy to pick the Haymon-managed fighter from this line-up of keeping-busy mismatches and their broadcast outlets:

Lucian Bute vs. Jesse Brinkley? ESPN3.com.

Vitali Klitschko vs. Shannon Briggs? ESPN3.com.

Andre Berto vs. Freddy Hernandez? HBO.

8.  Then again, Bute and Klitschko can afford the lesser ESPN money for their United States broadcasts. They not only draw huge television audiences in Canada and Germany, respectively, but, well, they sell tickets, too.

You could probably combine the number of tickets sold for every show Berto has headlined, and it still wouldn’t reach the number of tickets sold for a single Vitali Klitschko fight.

9.  Boxers Behaving Badly lightning round:

An update: Undefeated welterweight prospect Kell Brook (22-0, 15 knockouts) had an assault conviction thrown out last week, according to British newspaper The (South Yorkshire) Star. Brook, 24, had appealed after being found guilty earlier this year of punching a nightclub manager who told him he couldn’t go into the women’s restroom. The victim didn’t show in court for the appeal, and so Brook won the case.

An arrest: Retired Australian featherweight Lucky Gattellari was one of four men arrested last week in the 2009 shooting death of a Sydney businessman, according to the Australian Associated Press. Gattellari, 60, has “been charged with soliciting the murder and being an accessory after the fact,” the newspaper said. He fought mainly from 1969 to 1973, with one fight in 1979, compiling a record of 23 wins (12 knockouts) and five losses.

Another arrest: Undefeated Irish cruiserweight Ian Tims was arrested earlier this month and charged with two felony counts of unlawful possession of weapons due to his allegedly having, um, a machete and nunchakus, according to that country’s The Evening Herald. Tims, a 30-year-old with a 7-0 (2 KOs) record, has pleaded not guilty.

10.  So, bombshell Mexican television reporter Ines Sainz – last in the news for being hit on by a bunch of New York Jets (and thank goodness Brett Favre is no longer with that team) – will be doing reports during the Manny Pacquiao-Antonio Margarito fight week and will work the pay-per-view broadcast for Top Rank.

In other words, Ines Sainz will be going from one environment where men leer at women (an NFL locker room) to another (ring card girls, anyone?)…

David P. Greisman is a member of the Boxing Writers Association of America. His weekly column, “Fighting Words,” appears every Monday on BoxingScene.com.

Follow David on Twitter at twitter.com/fightingwords2 or on Facebook at facebook.com/fightingwordsboxing, or send questions and comments to fightingwords1@gmail.com