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By Michael Katz - Forget the biggest fight in European history (ever hear of World War II?), the transatlantic version of Leonard-Hearns and all that offensive hype. Joe Calzaghe and Mikkel Kessler, fine young men and talented boxers, could not carry spit buckets for such predecessors. The very nomenclature for Saturday’s main event in, sadly, another case of dueling dates, is offensive. To paraphrase the late Sonny Werblin, what the hell is a supermiddleweight? For one thing, it is one word. A “super middleweight” (two words) would be someone like Sugar Ray Robinson, Marvelous Marvin Hagler. One word, and supermiddleweight is just another bastard weight class that dilutes the game.
It’s not as bad as some, especially “superbantamweight,” which is what Werblin, then head of Madison Square Garden, was asking about when his favorite promoter, Don King, brought Wilfredo Gomez to the arena. That was a weight class created by Jose Sulaiman to accommodate Gomez, who would have been weakened trying to make bantamweight and was too small to really be a full featherweight (see Salvador Sanchez).
I’m not sure why supermiddleweight was created, except maybe to accomodate lazy old middleweights a bit of turf, or to give Europeans a chance not to compete against the Haglers. Whatever. At this point, it hardly matters. From super to nuts, Calzaghe and Kessler have what it takes to give us a superior battle in Cardiff, Wales, on HBO, probably less than an hour before Showtime pay-per-view cranks up its main event, Juan Manuel Marquez against the dangerous Rocky Juarez. [details]
It’s not as bad as some, especially “superbantamweight,” which is what Werblin, then head of Madison Square Garden, was asking about when his favorite promoter, Don King, brought Wilfredo Gomez to the arena. That was a weight class created by Jose Sulaiman to accommodate Gomez, who would have been weakened trying to make bantamweight and was too small to really be a full featherweight (see Salvador Sanchez).
I’m not sure why supermiddleweight was created, except maybe to accomodate lazy old middleweights a bit of turf, or to give Europeans a chance not to compete against the Haglers. Whatever. At this point, it hardly matters. From super to nuts, Calzaghe and Kessler have what it takes to give us a superior battle in Cardiff, Wales, on HBO, probably less than an hour before Showtime pay-per-view cranks up its main event, Juan Manuel Marquez against the dangerous Rocky Juarez. [details]
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