By Troy Ondrizek
Riddle me this, who is going to be the next "Sherpa" that thrusts boxing upon their back and guides it through the turbulent times ahead? You know, the man who pacifies the old timers with gritty resolve; possess enough flash to keep the A.D.D. generation interested; the crossover appeal to attract new fans and the layman who cares just about carnage.
There are several characters, who claim to be this messiah, but most will end up as pariahs - thanks their big mouths and inability to deliver the goods. The perfect example of this is Audley Harrison. We’ve seen this time and time again and many boxing fans would like to think they can smell a rat, but sometimes we are all fooled by the best of actors. Dominick Guinn made several of the best critics look like Geraldo Rivera after his back to back wins over Michael Grant and Duncan Dokiwari in 03, just to come back and prove his true mental mettle by dropping bouts to Monte Barrett and Sergei Liakhovich the following year.
There are several examples of both in every weight class, but I singled out the heavies for the reason that they are absolutely the biggest draw in the sport. Humanity has always put much faith into their biggest and strongest warriors doing battle and seeing who the mightiest combatant was. Same goes for why so many are enthralled with the heavyweights despite the lack of skill in the bigger men, but they do have the ability to erase one another’s senses with one punch, and are so unpredictable because of this attribute.
There are some young guns who have potential to be stars in the heavyweight ranks; it just takes a trained eye and the ability to speak Russian to find the best of them. America has some hope for guys like Chris Arreola and Kevin Johnson who are the only contenders who have showed the ability to win with flair. And the amateur pedigreed guys like Travis Kaufmann, Eric Fields, and Johnnie White gives the country just a glimmer of hope for the future.
Now Germany has imported stars from all over Europe, who possess some nice studs throughout the stables. The list of potential stars from Europe is much larger than any other region in the world, and that is a direct result of the success of their amateur program in the region. Guys like Francesco Pianeta, Alexander Dimitrenko, Oleg Platov, Denis Boytsov, Taras Bidenko, and the man from which the world will be his (at least that is the consensus among many experts and myself as well) Alexander Povetkin.
Now we can be fooled by Povetkin, that is true, but his star illuminates the souls of all who dream of there again being a dominant heavyweight. I don’t care where the next undisputed heavyweight champion comes from, as long as he arrives before I die.
I’m tired of talking about the heavyweights because the meat of boxing and the big fights all happen south of the 200lb border. Right now the big names sound like Mayweather, De La Hoya, and Mosley. But if you have noticed, these names have put resonating off of our palates for a long time and soon they will be echoing in the halls of Canastota where they belong. It's been a long time, but fanse are ready for new blood.
Now the question is who is going to bleed for our entertainment?
Jermain Taylor has been tagged as the pay-per-view money maker of the future, but now questions of whether or not he can hang onto his belt or even stop an elite fighter are dancing along the rumor breeze. There is one bona fide money-making machine in Manny Pacquiao on this planet and like the influenza epidemic, Pacquiao will infect you with his enthusiasm and you will forever have chills watching him fight. We should all become familiar with "Pac-man" fever.
However outside of Manny Pacquiao, there are few young guys close to being bloated cash cows. The primetime cable stalwarts of the past five-to-seven years are fading away. Erik Morales, Marco Antonio Barrera, Roy Jones Jr., and Bernard Hopkins are some names that are still producing money and big fights, but not for much longer. There is always a transition period between stars in boxing, you can say that boxing is always in a state of transition, but the talent to replace today’s stars just isn’t there; or is it? Man some young guys like Allan Green have gotten a great start by being ESPN darlings, same with Jason Litzau. Litzau has the personality and skills to be a star, just not the defense nor the chin, but he can change that.
Green, well, he has the skills and aggressiveness to be an offensive star, but mental lapses could lump him in with Litzau, well that and an Edison Miranda right hand this Saturday night. Edison Miranda is the type of guy who learned how to throw a punch while gouging a guy’s eye out in a street fight, and he fights that way too; thus making him pretty exciting to watch. Kelly Pavlik is a guy I have been fortunate to see a handful of times now, and I hope I get to see him in with Jermain Taylor or any other top middleweight. Chad Dawson took a step towards stardom on Showtime earlier this month in a mesmerizing performance against Tomasz Adamek, but can he follow that up?
The best way to figure out who the next big star is in any sport is to put them in and play. Thing is though, boxers fight so infrequently and take so much time to develop into an elite fighter that accurately gauging when a fighter will be ready is very difficult. Not to mention that even though someone has immense physical ability, being punched in the head is a tough profession and the mental strength can always be cracked. Boxing is the one sport where the participant cannot get by on ability alone.
So that leaves us with many questions of who is going to be the next superstar in boxing that transcends all media. Many applications will be put in for the job, but only a few will make it, and at this point we don’t have enough candidates. Boxing will get by though; it always has and always will. New stars are being born all the time and old ones dissipate into black holes at the same rate. It is though getting late and the old guys are still the only ones playing, it’s about time the youth rise up and give us something.