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by David P. Greisman - We don’t go to a restaurant just for the appetizers.
We don’t go to the movie theater just for the previews.
And we don’t watch boxing just for the fights in which top stars stay busy against lesser challengers.
Yet that, by and large, is what we’ve gotten in 2010. When the big fights aren’t being made – and so many either aren’t or weren’t – the fighters either sit on the sidelines or substitute a designated opponent in place of the desired opponent.
Sometimes a star fighter keeping busy is the fault of the star fighter himself. Sometimes he wants more money. Or a different location for the fight. Or a different weight class for the bout. Sometimes his promoter would rather he face someone else and he won’t argue otherwise.
Sometimes a star fighter keeping busy is not his fault whatsoever.
That was the case this past weekend, when Lucian Bute, either the No. 1 or No. 2 fighter at super middleweight, took on Jesse Brinkley, and Vitali Klitschko, the No. 2 fighter at heavyweight, took on Shannon Briggs.
Jesse Brinkley is a hard-working fighter, but he is a fighter whose title shot against Bute came about for precisely the same reason that Bute was defending against Brinkley and not someone better – the “Super Six” super-middleweight tournament.
Bute was not invited to the tournament, which started about a year ago with Arthur Abraham, Andre Dirrell, Carl Froch, Mikkel Kessler, Jermain Taylor and Andre Ward. In a suddenly shallower pool of available talent, Brinkley beat Curtis Stevens for a shot at Bute. The tournament also took away six possible opponents for Bute, not just for his next fight, but potentially for the next 18 to 24 months as well. [Click Here To Read More]
We don’t go to the movie theater just for the previews.
And we don’t watch boxing just for the fights in which top stars stay busy against lesser challengers.
Yet that, by and large, is what we’ve gotten in 2010. When the big fights aren’t being made – and so many either aren’t or weren’t – the fighters either sit on the sidelines or substitute a designated opponent in place of the desired opponent.
Sometimes a star fighter keeping busy is the fault of the star fighter himself. Sometimes he wants more money. Or a different location for the fight. Or a different weight class for the bout. Sometimes his promoter would rather he face someone else and he won’t argue otherwise.
Sometimes a star fighter keeping busy is not his fault whatsoever.
That was the case this past weekend, when Lucian Bute, either the No. 1 or No. 2 fighter at super middleweight, took on Jesse Brinkley, and Vitali Klitschko, the No. 2 fighter at heavyweight, took on Shannon Briggs.
Jesse Brinkley is a hard-working fighter, but he is a fighter whose title shot against Bute came about for precisely the same reason that Bute was defending against Brinkley and not someone better – the “Super Six” super-middleweight tournament.
Bute was not invited to the tournament, which started about a year ago with Arthur Abraham, Andre Dirrell, Carl Froch, Mikkel Kessler, Jermain Taylor and Andre Ward. In a suddenly shallower pool of available talent, Brinkley beat Curtis Stevens for a shot at Bute. The tournament also took away six possible opponents for Bute, not just for his next fight, but potentially for the next 18 to 24 months as well. [Click Here To Read More]
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