Fight Night in the Middle of March Madness

[BIGPOPPAPUMP]

Amidst bowling lanes, arcade games, pool tables and black labels, my partner in crime and I pulled up a couple of stools at one of our favorite sports bars and readied ourselves for step one on the path out of the desert of the heavyweight wasteland which has dominated the fistic landscape for what seems like an eon or two. The joint was alive with the drunken rowdiness of March Madness around one hundred and sixteen of one hundred and twenty big screens.

If it wasn't Alabama and UCLA, it was Indiana and Gonzaga; and the two men contesting for the "richest prize in all of sports" were all but forgotten. As I sat face to face with the apathy that has all but overcome the sport that I love, a touch of melancholy came over me. How did it come to this? Where did we go wrong?........"Sir, are you ready for another?"

Muhammad Ali, Joe Louis, Mike Tyson, Larry Holmes, Rocky Marciano; people knew these names and would sit around their radio or television or flock to the nearest closed circuit telecast or shell out the PPV dollars whenever they fought. The world practically stopped whenever two men faced each other for the right to be called World Heavyweight Champion.

Now I consider myself lucky that the manager feels enough sympathy for the leper colony tipping his waitresses and barkeeps to donate four of his sets to our collective fix. Just when I thought the scene couldn't get any more depressing, my friend, Chan, asked me what I thought about Duke ripping George Washington a new one earlier in the day. Et Tu Chan-e'?! [details]

[K-DOGG]

What happened in Atlantic City over the weekend is tantamount to what's wrong with the sport of boxing today, specifically the heavyweight division. What are the odds that two of three judges will score the fight dead even, when the rest of the civilized world, or at least the bulk of it thought it was clear that Rahman won the fight? I'm not saying there's dirtywork afoot; but neither man distinguished himself and the landscape is just as bleak as before. Nothing was solved by this fight. The only answers that came back are what we all knew going in...1. That Toney is not a real heavyweight and at age 37 with his weight problems is going to have about as much impact on the heavyweight division as a june bug on the windshield of a semi. & 2.)That Rahman, for all of his physical gifts, heart, and power, is nothing special.

He did not posess the skill to convincingly (to the judges, anyway) outbox Toney, and as powerful as his right hand is, could not knock out or knock down the smaller lesser conditionied man. If Toney had had any semblance of heavyweight power, Rock would be strapless when he woke up on Sunday morning.

So, now that we've established neither Rahman nor Toney are going to lead the heavyweight division out of the cavern of dispair, who's it going to be?

Lamon Brewster? Wladimir Klitshko? How about Sam Peter or Chris Byrd? Calvin Brock? The big guy, Nicolay Valuev? Sultan Ibragimov?? WHO?! IS THERE NOT A MAN AMONG MEN?!!

Brewster would have killed both Rahman and Toney. Wlad more than likely would have as well. Byrd...outboxed 'em both. Brock...same. Peter would have defeated them both to my thinking. Hell, even Valuev would have had a chance.

The thing is somebody needs to do something and fast or the numbers are going to continue to dwindle. Righ now, my money's on Brewster. The only problem is Brewster, as more than one person has said, is one fight away from being outboxed....and Liakhovich could conceivably do it. Unlikely; but possible, esepecially if he can take a punch.

Toney should be ashamed of himself for not being in top shape for this fight...and Rahman should be ashamed for not properly taking advantage of it. Conagradulations boys! You just defined mediocrity!!