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By Charles Jay - I've grown increasingly fascinated with this fight in Germany on Saturday between Virgil Hill and Henry Maske. I always like it when people pay attention to a fight where two guys older than me go into the ring. Alright, I admit, that's not the case here. But I'm hooked with the whole idea nonetheless. Another reason it's worth talking about is that it's available in the United States on pay-per-view, something maybe a lot of folks were not aware of. I wasn't until a couple of days ago, since in my area the people at In Demand aren't running any commercials for it.
In case you're asking yourself why a fight was made between two 43-year-olds with no world title at stake, you probably not alone - that is, in the United States. Over in Germany, this thing is as hot as a firecracker.
Maske is an authentic German sports hero; an Olympic gold medalist in 1988 who turned pro, won an IBF light heavyweight title and defended it ten times successfully, before he was defeated by Hill in November of 1996. Maske quit after that fight, making him one of just a handful of champions to retire after their first career loss (other notables in that category include John L. Sullivan and Yoko Gushiken). That split decision loss to Hill is still very hard for most people in the Rhineland to take. It's payback time, I guess, which makes it a dramatic story. and there's big money involved - both fighters are in for seven-figure paydays, which is not bad when you're not far from collecting Social Security (yes, that had its roots in Germany, in case you didn't know). Boxing, of course, is still a major sport as well as a major happening in Germany, everybody over there is talking about this one. [details]
In case you're asking yourself why a fight was made between two 43-year-olds with no world title at stake, you probably not alone - that is, in the United States. Over in Germany, this thing is as hot as a firecracker.
Maske is an authentic German sports hero; an Olympic gold medalist in 1988 who turned pro, won an IBF light heavyweight title and defended it ten times successfully, before he was defeated by Hill in November of 1996. Maske quit after that fight, making him one of just a handful of champions to retire after their first career loss (other notables in that category include John L. Sullivan and Yoko Gushiken). That split decision loss to Hill is still very hard for most people in the Rhineland to take. It's payback time, I guess, which makes it a dramatic story. and there's big money involved - both fighters are in for seven-figure paydays, which is not bad when you're not far from collecting Social Security (yes, that had its roots in Germany, in case you didn't know). Boxing, of course, is still a major sport as well as a major happening in Germany, everybody over there is talking about this one. [details]
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