By Jake Donovan
It's been nearly 400 years since the very first Thanksgiving in North America. It seemed like it was just as long that stateside boxing fans would enjoy a pugilistic period as rich and rewarding as we've been blessed with this calendar year.
The sport's turnaround couldn't have come at a better time. 2006, while not devoid of notable fights, was regarded by many as one of the worst boxing years in recent memory. Great fights surfaced seemingly by accident. Little was left to choose from in deciding the race for Fighter of the Year – the recipient (Manny Pacquiao) earned top honors despite not facing a single fighter coming off of a win. The network fights regularly offered reeked of political football, as evidenced by the year's runaway selection for Fight of the Year not even making the highlight reel on this side of the pond.
The first part of 2007 appeared to be heading toward the same path. Thankfully, the major power players realized there was life beyond Floyd Mayweather/Oscar de la Hoya, as the sport seemed stuck on stupid while all of its attention toward that one event.
Then it happened. The people spoke – and the networks not only listened, but responded.
With each passing week, another major bout was being announced, to where boxing fans felt the upcoming schedule was too good to be true. Not even the injury bug that rampant through Black September could slow down the momentum, instead only increasing the anticipation.
Bouts that were promoted as potential Fight of the Year candidates lived up to the hype and then some. Boxing was no longer a secret society – full page boxing ads regularly appeared in ESPN: The Magazine and several notable newspapers throughout the country. Fights that would previously not even make the mainstream blink were having entire radio segments dedicated to pre-fight discussion. Even The Contender got in on the act, with their Finals match between Sakio Bika and Jaidon Codrington providing more drama and excitement than in all of the combined bouts over the course of the reality show's three-year history
Of course, there's always room for improvement. Some will argue that we've become far too accustomed to junk in recent years to where this year only appears special in comparison. Perhaps they're right. One could even argue that what was offered in the 30-day span around this time 25 years ago (with two of the greatest fights in boxing history, Aaron Pryor-Alexis Arguello I and Bobby Chacon-Rafael "Bazooka" Limon IV serving as its bookends) was far superior to this entire year as a whole.
But rather than defer to the "they don't make 'em like they used to" argument, let's instead reflect on what 2007 had – and still has - to offer. Let us bow are heads, and give thanks.
THANKFUL FOR THE BEST FIGHTING THE BEST
"In order to be the best, you first have to beat the best." Perhaps the oldest cliché in all of sports, yet a simple rule that for years, boxing failed to follow.
Not in 2007.
The world cruiserweight championship twice changed hands this year. Jean-Marc Mormeck regained his crown in March, outlasting previous conqueror O'Neil Bell in France this past March, only to give it up in his first defense, suffering a knockout loss against top contender David Haye, climbing off of the canvas to turn the trick on the road earlier this month.
For the first time in its 20-year history, the super middleweight division was given an undisputed champion. Joe Calzaghe continues to wow 'em in what is supposed to be the twilight of his career, serving up a boxing lesson to cult hero Mikkel Kessler in front of 55,000 raving fans in Joe's backyard of Cardiff, Wales. Not only did the bout produce a top dog, but also put an end to the debate of the division's all-time best fighter – it's Calzaghe, and it's not even close.
Calzaghe-Kessler was one of three linear championship bouts in a 71-day span that pitted two undefeated fighters against one another. Six weeks prior, Kelly Pavlik overcame a second round knockdown to violently snatch Jermain Taylor's "0" as well as his middleweight crown, scoring a 7 th round knockout. The bout was an instant classic, so nice they've agreed to do it twice, with the rematch slated for next February on PPV. It remains a top contender for Fight of the Year honors, and also capped a potential Fighter of the Year campaign for Pavlik, who truly earned the title shot by upending another undefeated fighter, trash-talking, hard-hitting Edison Miranda. Like Pavlik-Taylor I, the fight against Miranda also resulted in Pavlik's foe being rescued by Steve Smoger in round seven.
December 8's "Undefeated" superfight between 147 lb. champ and pound-for-pound king Floyd Mayweather Jr. and 140 lb. ruler Ricky Hatton is the third fight of the aforementioned trifecta. Rare is the occasion where two linear champions face one another in the ring; even more of an anomaly that both are undefeated entering such a bout. It's only fitting that the sold-out bout is given its own 4-part mini-series - Mayweather-Hatton 24/7, which debuted Sunday night and continues every Sunday until fight night.
Speaking of Hatton, what a difference a year makes. The 2005 Fighter of the Year only surfaced once in 2006, escaping with a disputed decision over Luis Collazo in his welterweight debut. Hatton made Las Vegas his home away from home in 2007, though managing to return to more familiar surroundings, easily winning both of his 140 lb. title defenses, including a 4 th round body-shot knockout over top contender Jose Luis Castillo.
Israel Vazquez appeared to be putting significant space between himself and the rest of the 122 lb. division. That was before the uber-talented Rafael Marquez decided bantamweight was no longer a good fit, moving up this past March to force Vazquez into submission, seven rounds into their first fight, an instant classic with an ending that left a lot to be desired. Back they came, five months later, miraculously surpassing the violence and intensity of the first fight. This time, Vazquez emerged, dropping Marquez in the sixth round of their blood-soaked brawl before forcing a stoppage moments later to reclaim his junior featherweight crown.
Even the little big men got in on the act. Boxing's tiniest top fighter, Ivan Calderon, may very well be the sport's best pure boxer. Hugo Cazares would probably agree, however so begrudgingly, after receiving a boxing lesson in their August bout to determine junior flyweight supremacy. Calderon overcame a 6" height disadvantage and an 8 th round knockout to otherwise put on a boxing clinic, proving that big things often come in small packages.
… AND THE BEST OF THE REST ALSO GETTING IT ON
With so much happening in 2007, it's easy to forget how the year began – with top heavyweight contenders Samuel Peter and James Toney settling a not-so-old score. Peter's escape from L.A. last September came in the form of a controversial split decision over Toney in a bout that many felt should've went to Mouth Almighty. There was no doubting the decision in the rematch, as Peter's dominance over Toney included a second-round knockdown, only the third time in his 80-fight career that Toney's seat has touched the canvas.
The win prompted many in the media to hail Peter as the top threat to any of the alphabet titlists. He finally gets his chance to put something behind those words, as Oleg Maskaev and promoter Dennis Rappaport finally ran out of excuses (acceptable or otherwise) to avoid the showdown, currently slated for February 2 at a site to be determined.
The winner will be watching with a keen eye the alphabet unification match that takes place three weeks later between undefeated Sultan Ibragimov and the man generally regarded as the world's best heavyweight, Wladimir Klitschko.
It's not much, but it's the closest the division's come in years to eliminating the confusion and clutter at the top.
Here's to hoping some of the same transpires at the lightweight division, which has found itself in the middle of a power struggle.
While Joel Casamayor sat on the sidelines clinging to his claim as linear champion, Juan Diaz decided that boxing fans deserved to see a top lightweight actually step into the ring. The year began with Juan forcing Acelino Freitas to quit on his stool in a Connecticut casino and ended with Julio Diaz resigned to the same status in a Chicago suburb.
Casamayor made a rare appearance, though it resulted in many calling for his instant retirement after stinking out the Garden in his highly controversial decision over Jose Armando Santa Cruz. The two have been ordered to rematch one another (good luck finding a promoter or network willing to pay for that one), leaving Diaz room to make one of three alphabet mandatories, possibly against undefeated all-action hero Michael Katsidis, whose pair of 2007 ring appearances both resulted in Fight of the Year candidates – a 5 th round, off-the-floor stoppage of Graham Earl in February, followed up five months later with his 12-round instant classic against Czar Amonset in Las Vegas.
You want more top lightweight action? Erik Morales ended his legendary career with a bang, coming thisclose to taking a decision over yet another lightweight Diaz – David Diaz - in the latter's hometown in yet another Fight of the Year nominee. The bout's only misfortune: It was one of the year's best on a night where perhaps 2007's VERY best – Vazquez-Marquez – was happening in Texas on SHOWTIME.
Another occurrence on Showtime was the emergence of a light heavyweight threat UNDER the age of 30. That would be one "Bad" Chad Dawson, who kicked off Super Bowl Sunday weekend with a boxing clinic against tough-as-nails Tomasz Adamek, who refused to go quietly, shocking and dropping Dawson in the 10 th round after being badly outboxed through the first nine. The bout was a refreshing change from the monotony that has come to represent the light heavyweight division, basically boxing's version of Shady Acres retirement home, with most of the rest of the 175 lb. players being 35 and older.
Floyd Mayweather may be the linear welterweight champion, but waiting in line for a fight with the pound-for-pound king isn't the only way for welterweights to secure a career-high payday. Antonio Margarito turned down one seven-figure payday (a proposed June 2007 fight with Miguel Cotto) in favor of a bigger nut, though it resulted in losing his alphabet title after being outboxed by undefeated beanpole southpaw Paul Williams in a spirited battle this past July.
Cotto didn't exactly rest on his laurels this year. In fact, no fighter has faced more perennial top-10 contenders in a 12-month span than did the undefeated Puerto Rican punching machine. It began last December, when previously unbeaten and fellow Boricua Carlos Quintana was forced to tap out in five rounds. Three months later it was Oktay Urkal, as frustration from Cotto's punches and referee Luis Pabon's overzealous officiating led to an 11 th round submission. Former linear champ Zab Judah lasted just as long, only he took his beating like a man before being rescued by Arthur Mercante Jr. in a Garden party that drew over 20,000 on the eve of the Puerto Rican Day parade.
There were no such props that accompanied his November showdown at the Garden with former 3-division titlist Sugar Shane Mosley. Just a highly anticipated, good old-fashioned crossroads bout that proved to live up to the hype, if for very different reasons than most expected. Cotto started strong, then boxed smartly down the stretch to stave off a late Mosley rally to preserve his undefeated record and maintain his status as the top threat to the welterweight crown.
The top flyweights managed to outthink themselves this year, jockeying for position while coming up with a laundry list of reasons to avoid facing one another. Thank goodness for Takefumi Sakata, who became a one-man wrecking crew in a 2007 campaign that also accentuated the importance of persistence and patience. His year began with a shocking 3 rd round knockout of boxing's ultimate road warrior, Lorenzo Parra, after having twice dropped majority decisions to the well-traveled Venezuelan. A mere 104 days later, Sakata would manage to avenge another earlier loss, upending Roberto Vasquez in a best-fight-you-didn't-see thriller.
The Japanese boxer's dream campaign ended on a bit of a whimper, surviving a first-round knockdown in settling for a draw against Denkaosan Kaovichit. Still, a draw is better than a loss, with Sakata ending the year 2-0-1 against opponents with a combined 91-2 record heading into their respective bouts. In America, that would translate to a Fight of the Year campaign. But until the country fully resists the urge to refuse acceptance that boxing is a global sports…
… THE STATESIDE NETWORKS AND PROMOTERS FINALLY GET IN ON THE ACT
In order to view 2006's Fight of the Year between Somsak Sithchatchawal and Mahyar Monshipour, you either had to have lived in France (where the unforgettable slugfest took place), have a friend who not only taped it but was willing to send you a copy, or settle for the low-quality version that surfaced on YouTube in the days after the fight.
Not the case this year, as all of the stateside networks brought their A-game, with a new player also entering the mix.
HBO learned the hard way after its forgettable 2006 campaign that it's not how much you spend, but where you spend it. The self-proclaimed Network of Champions responded to heated criticism regarding their schedule for the first half of the year by emptying the vault to secure every big fight within reach over the second-half. Linear championship fights at super middleweight, middleweight. Junior welterweight, lightweight and welterweight will have aired on the network in a span of less than six months.
Showtime took a step backwards this year after strong campaigns in 2005 and 2006. But that didn't stop America's #1 Network from producing two of the best fights in 2007, both involving Israel Vazquez and Rafael Marquez. It also played host to perhaps the Upset AND Knockout of the Year, both occurring in the same bout when Nonito Donaire finally silenced the hard-punching, constantly-yapping Vic Darchinyan with a single counter shot in the 5 th round of their July flyweight bout.
If there was any knockout that would deserve top honors over Donaire-Darchinyan, it would be Darnell Wilson's come-from-behind beauty (in its own raw and primitive way) against Emmanuel Nwodo one week prior. Nwodo managed to win just about every round he managed to stay off of the canvas, but ran out of gas – and running room – in the 10 th round of their ESPN2 Friday Night Fights main event. Wilson managed to pin Nwodo on the ropes, missing with a right hand before coming back with a clean-up left hook that caused Nwodo's legs to fold jackknife-style beneath him before collapsing sideways to the canvas.
It was quite a year for ESPN2 as well as its parent company, ESPN. The latter played host to a savagely brutal slugfest that at the very least produced the best round of the year, when Sakio Bika and Jaidon Codrington traded knockdowns in the opening frame of their Contender 3 finale. Every round featured fight-altering bombs landing, before Bika managed to finally pull ahead and put away Codrington in the eighth round.
The most pleasant surprise of 2007 was the collaboration between promoter Don King and the Madison Square Garden network. Previously limited to tape-delayed rebroadcasts of local NYC shows, the cable giant served as a hero on several occasions this year when stateside fans searched for ways to catch notable overseas action.
The inaugural union came in March, when the network picked up the live feed for the Jean-Marc Mormeck/O'Neil Bell rematch in France. One month later, it was off to Deutschland, where undefeated and underrated heavyweight contender Ruslan Chagaev ruined Nicolay Valuev's pursuit of Rocky Marciano's heralded 49-0 heavyweight mark with a well-deserved majority decision.
Hours before Miguel Cotto would brutalize Zab Judah in MSG the arena, MSG the network would play host to the comeback of Andrew Golota and the cruiserweight debut of Tomasz Adamek, with the doubleheader airing live from Poland.
… AND THAT THERE'S PLENTY TO LOOK FORWARD TO
Most good things usually come to an end, with eternal happiness normally reserved for fairy tales. If this is one long dream, then don't bother waking us up as the good fortunes of 2007 haven't ended with what's already occurred.
Floyd Mayweather-Ricky Hatton. Juan Diaz-Michael Katsidis. Paul Williams-Kermit Cintron. Samuel Peter-Oleg Maskaev. Kelly Pavlik-Jemain Taylor II. Wladimir Klitschko-Sultan Ibragimov. Manny Pacquaio-Juan Marquez II. that a six-years-too-late battle between living legends Roy Jones Jr and Felix Trinidad is arguably the least significant notable fight among those scheduled or planned for the next four months tells you all you need to know about how good it must feel to be a boxing fan.
And for that, I am truly thankful this holiday and boxing season.
Jake "The Jake-of-All-Trades" Donovan is a member of the Boxing Writers Association of America, a licensed judge, manager and promoter, and presently serves on the Tennessee Boxing Advisory Board. His column runs every Tuesday on BoxingScene.
