"The Best of Enemies" is Best for Boxing.

“You have enemies? Good. That means you've stood up for something, sometime in your life” -Winston Churchill. There has been no rivalry like it, and chances are that few boxing fans will have the pleasure of experiencing animosity and mutual hatred between two fighters this intense. So seldom do fighters come along of such class, such talent and such calibre, only to have their careers defined by a rivalry with an arch nemesis. Nigel Benn and Chris Eubank are two such boxers. Together, they defined a division in late ‘80s and early ‘90s. Individually, they brought tenacity, sensationalism and guts to a sport which is now so dearly in need of a renaissance in order to remain culturally relevant. A clash of these pugilistic demigods rocked the world not once, but twice - each fighter leaving spent careers in his wake. What these two individuals brought to the sport was absolute pandemonium. An intense, raw, insatiable pandemonium. What have we got today which rivals this? What have we got that could rival this, or even come close? Many of the rivalries, and much of ill will which fighters display towards one another nowadays is merely for show, a facade generated in order to create hype. Frankly, both current and perspective fans can detect the difference between fight promotion and real emotion. Real emotion is what attracts real fans. Real emotion, desperation or hatred in a contest makes the fighters dig deeper, fight harder, fight from a place which is raw, unmolested and organic. How will this era of boxing be remembered? Will it be held in the same esteem as the Ali era, or the era of Tyson, Benn, Eubank? What rivalry, what passion, what fight could come off that would possibly put a cap upon the era of boxing between 1993 and 2010? One fight comes to mind. The debate as to who would win a rematch between Roy Jones and Bernard Hopkins has been on the mind of boxers for years. At times the fighters have seemingly wanted nothing to do with one another, and at other times have been chasing down the rematch as though it were the most important match in boxing. Seven years ago, it may have been. What’s in this fight for boxing? Is it the capstone on two illustrious careers which will leave one defined by the other? Or is this merely another drop in a bucket of overhyped fights? Clearly, two of the giants of boxing in the last 20 years are destined to collide, but with both gentlemen stepping into the ring for what may be the last time, is this too little too late? -Silkstone.