BOXING has been in lockdown for several weeks, depending on where you’re based, and it’s started to crack.
We’ve entered some kind of silly season, beyond the realms of fantasy fights and leagues, beyond the simple speculation of return to action and everything else.
We’ve skipped into a parallel universe where a 53-year-old Mike Tyson, who was clearly a spent force in his final two fights 15 and 16 years ago, is now a bona fide contender once more courtesy of less than 10-punches on the pads on a viral social media clip and his old rival, Evander Holyfield, has announced his return to the ring – for exhibitions to raise money for charity – aged 58.
Veteran boxers seem to have an appetite for it as 92-fight James Toney, 51, has tossed his hat into the ring to get amongst the action.
Then came rumours of Shannon Briggs and Tyson taking part in a bare-knuckle fight, and Tyson being offered a million or more to come back on the road in somewhere like Australia.
On top of that, in England, former pro Gypsy John Fury was called out by someone named Mickey Theo, and he returned the call – with interest – and then joined in those dropping Tyson’s name. John is Tyson Fury’s father, and he named his son after Mike. Thirty years on he wants a scrap with him. But it doesn’t stop there.
Oh no. When boxing goes in, it goes all in.
That was all followed by Oscar De La Hoya, now 47 and inactive for 12 years, saying he would do a faster job on Irish MMA star Conor McGregor than Floyd Mayweather, who stopped Conor in 10 back in 2017 in a strange but hugely lucrative occasion for all concerned.
“Oh come on brother,” De La Hoya said on CBS, when asked of a potential McGregor fight. “Two rounds. One thing about me, I went for the kill. Always. Look, McGregor, I love him in the Octagon. I respect him. I watch him all the time. But the boxing ring is a whole different story.”
It prompted MMA star McGregor, a veteran of one boxing pro fight and a sparring session with Paulie Malignaggi that resurfaces in the headlines as much as any fight, to tweet, “I accept your challenge, Oscar de la Hoya.”
De La Hoya, thankfully, indicated on social media that the fight wasn’t on his agenda. “For the record: McGregor, I never challenged you. I was just asked a question and I simply spoke the truth.”
Mayweather, by the way, hasn’t fought since that McGregor night but news outlets, perhaps starved of recent news, started to chunder out reports that Floyd might return to face frenemy Adrien Broner in a bout that is probably not as far-fetched as the others but nonetheless open to ridicule given that Floyd hasn’t fought in three years and Broner hasn’t won in three fights and not since a few months before Mayweather-McGregor, when he beat 18-4-2 Adrian Granados on a split decision.
But Mayweather-Broner, like the others mentioned here, would sell. And then people would chastise boxing if it didn’t produce, as they always do, but the fights would be permitted to happen – in one form or another – because it would allow people, beyond the fighters, to get rich, or richer.
The sport is so loosely organised and filled with so many loopholes some nostalgic crackpot with some creativity, a significant chequebook and absolutely zero interest in fighter safety would be all over these fights.
It’s an easy target. It’s why two former World’s Strongest Men winners, Eddie Hall and Hathor Bjornsson say they will settle their ‘beef’ in a boxing ring in Vegas next year. They know they can make that door easily swing open, perform their heist, leave the sport open to ridicule and escape with the loot.
The fact remains, though, that between Tyson, Holyfield and Toney they have given more than enough of themselves in boxing through 1,346 professional rounds. They don’t need to give more, nor should they be allowed to, under any guise. The brain is not made for being hit, and an old brain that’s already been clobbered thousands of times certainly doesn’t need it.
There’s a health debate here, as well as a moral one, but there are too many blind spots to be covered by the people who care due the lack of federal and governmental oversight.
Of course, maybe lockdown is getting to people. Maybe the toll of bizarre top 10 rankings, mythical matches and the lack of actual action is causing fight fans to crack. Perhaps the lack of big events on Cinco de Mayo has had a catastrophic effect on boxing’s consciousness because our normally defining period of the year has been turned into a series of memes and GIFs.
It might be okay to take a light-hearted look at the sport from time to time, although there are plenty of serious issues above. However, I was deeply saddened to hear of the passing of Jimmy Glenn this week. Jimmy was a wonderful man, universally liked and admired in a sport where that is not always the case. His bar just off Times Square is a boxing landmark. It might cause historians to rear up at me, but he should be remembered on the walls within the International Boxing Hall of Fame with a plaque marking his posthumous induction when the next class is elected. Boxing has lost a friend, a best friend.