By Lyle Fitzsimmons

It’s a good thing we’re not still in 1981.

Because if Twitter and Facebook and know-it-all “Fight Freaks” ruled the roost back then as they do today, the way things appear in the history books would come across a bit different.

Case in point: The welterweight “Showdown” between Thomas Hearns and Ray Leonard.

Lest we forget, Hearns was an unbeaten prospect who’d begun hitting television screens and had made no secret of his desire to land a match with “Sugar Ray” – then the WBC’s 147-pound kingpin – well before he finally got a complementary title shot in Detroit against WBA champion Pipino Cuevas.

In fact, no less an authority than Angelo Dundee conceded that he’d put off the Hearns camp for a bit in order to build heat for the fight, with the intention of turning a good match into a super bonanza.

Hindsight reveals Dundee was spot-on correct.

Maybe the fight itself would have still been as good had it occurred several months earlier, but the event probably wouldn’t have been nearly what it became – which is the source of myriad articles and books and a “Legendary Nights” documentary that’s must-see viewing even 33 years later.

Would it have gone down the same way had the hyper-reactive, pandering to the masses atmosphere that exists today been in place a generation ago? Not even close.

These days, Hearns would have been instantly deemed the top fighter in the division by public acclaim, even though his path to hardware was clearly less threatening than Leonard’s toppling of Wilfred Benitez and subsequent back and forth with Roberto Duran. And the back-room machinations that ultimately lined everyone’s pockets? They’d have been dismissed as a blatant duck by Team Ray.

Such is the case when the quest for retweets takes the place of analytical thought.

Fast-forward to 2014 and we’re seeing precisely that nonsense, albeit on a less-mainstream scale.

Though Adonis Stevenson won his share of the light heavyweight championship with a first-round blowout of the man who’d been the division’s consensus king – Chad Dawson – his mere mention these days elicits “expert” response that leans far more toward juvenile than revealing.

A clever hashtag here. A piling-on nickname there.

And the need for wisdom or interpretation is an afterthought.

Forget that the fighter to whom Stevenson is often linked – Sergey Kovalev – won his share of the domain by beating a lesser commodity. And forget that their appearances since reaching the summit (one decision, three knockouts apiece) have been comparable in terms of overall dominance.

All that matters is that “Krusher” is the flavor of the month, which means the anointed king of boxing media will happily feed at his promotional trough until the next tasty morsel is offered.

What might be lost amid the meat sweats, however, are a few pertinent flavor nuggets.

Based on numbers provided by the Independent World Boxing Rankings, the positions occupied by the last four Kovalev opponents (Mssrs. Sillakh, Agnew, Caparello and Hopkins) at the times of their WBO title tries add to a combined 56 – good for an average of 14.

Meanwhile, based on numbers provided by the same organization, the positions held by Stevenson’s last four foes (Mssrs. Cloud, Bellew, Fonfara and Sukhotsky) at the times of their meetings with the WBC title claimant add to a combined 34 – good for an average of 8.5.

What that means in Twitter-speak is that the cadre of truck drivers, janitors, bartenders and construction workers that “Superduck” has been facing while supposedly avoiding the scourge of Kovalev have actually been five rungs better than what the Russian has met in the same timeframe.

Tastes a little different when the duck is cooked through, doesn’t it?

And keep in mind, these aren’t WBC or WBO numbers. They’re not HBO or Showtime numbers. They’re not Main Events or Groupe Yvon Michel numbers either.

They’re simply numbers provided by a UK-based entity with no particular dog in the fight, and no overwhelming desire to have the pithiest, most trending or most agile avatar on the block.

Toward that latter end in particular, there’s really no competition in sight.

A 1,200-plus word recap of Hopkins’ defeat of Beibut Shumenov just eight months ago in Washington, D.C. lengthily detailed the older man’s plans to fight Stevenson to unify the light heavyweight title, but included no language indicating that such a move was a blatant and/or cowardly avoidance of Kovalev, nor were any such suggestions ever proffered that night at the ringside press conference.

When Al Haymon was helping steer the Hopkins ship, it was a breathless all systems go.

But when Haymon helped chart a business course for Stevenson and the winds of public opinion changed direction, so too did the consensus-driven “analysis” of the sport’s most-waffling weather vane.

It was only after Hopkins decided to ditch pursuit of the Stevenson fight and head “across the street” to HBO that the WBC champ was relegated to back-seat status behind his WBO foil – with nary a mention that Stevenson had beat the man (Dawson) who beat the man (Hopkins) to win the title to begin with.

It’s perfectly understandable, though.

If all your time is spent counting clicks, it must be bothersome to actually recall what you’ve written.

Still, it’s no time for despair for Team Stevenson.

If Adonis follows through on his intention to make the Kovalev mega-fight happen in 2015 and goes ahead and wins it, the arrow will spin back in his direction before the ring announcer grabs the mic. And if Sergey should do the unthinkable and lose to Jean Pascal in March, any evidence of cyber support for him will disappear faster than crumbs from a pre-fight dinner plate.  

It’s too late to rewrite the Leonard-Hearns history from way back when, but if you get a chance to reserve the IKnewItAllAlong or FlushtheKrusher hashtags now, you might end up beating the rush.

Oh, and before I forget, #MerryChristmas to all.

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This week’s title-fight schedule:

No fights scheduled.

Last week's picks: 1-0 (WIN: Stevenson)
2014 picks record: 89-27 (76.7 percent)
Overall picks record: 634-221 (74.1 percent)

NOTE: Fights previewed are only those involving a sanctioning body's full-fledged title-holder – no interim, diamond, silver, etc. Fights for WBA "world championships" are only included if no "super champion" exists in the weight class.

Lyle Fitzsimmons has covered professional boxing since 1995 and written a weekly column for Boxing Scene since 2008. He is a full voting member of the Boxing Writers Association of America. Reach him at fitzbitz@msn.com or follow him on Twitter – @fitzbitz.