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In order to be the man, Arturo Gatti will have to beat the man. Carlos Baldomir is the man, at least at welterweight. But even if Gatti wins, he will be the man without being the best.
It is a reality of boxing that would drive Ric Flair crazy.
If you take a look at your scorecards, you’ll see that this column has had the occasional wrestling reference. And it’s not just because both involve athletes performing in squared circles.
Before boxing became my obsession, I grew up with professional wrestling. And while the sweet science has, in my heart, replaced what’s now been dubbed “sports entertainment,” I still get nostalgic for Ric Flair. Heck, I’ve even let out a signature “whoo” or two in public.
But the 16-time world champion Flair would stop strutting and scratch his head if, this coming July, Arturo Gatti became a three-time titlist by beating Carlos Baldomir. By doing so, Gatti would become the lineal welterweight champion – a far better distinction than the paper title he picked up at 140 – yet he could never say that he was the best fighter at 147.
Gatti can only blame two things: a man and an institution.
First and foremost, Gatti can point to Floyd Mayweather Jr., at whose hands last year Gatti received an embarrassing drubbing, essentially getting run out of the junior welterweight division. Since then, both Gatti and Mayweather have migrated northward to welterweight for separate reasons. For the former, it is easier to make weight when one has to drain seven fewer pounds. For the latter, it is easier to make money, with megafights against Zab Judah (done), Oscar De La Hoya and Shane Mosley around, and with the extra perk that Mayweather’s unfinished business at 140 – Ricky Hatton – has followed him up the scales.
But Gatti can also blame the business of boxing. There are four major sanctioning bodies, each with major flaws and different ideas of who and what a title contender should be. With this set-up as the status quo, a champion or titlist needs not defend against the best, but merely a mandatory – the lesser-desired outcome – or, more preferably, the man who makes him the most money.
After Carlos Baldomir upset Zab Judah in January, Baldomir became the rightful claimant to the welterweight throne. Yet perhaps because of his record, his less-than-brilliant boxing skills or Judah’s tarnished reputation, he was derided as a fluke, a champion that, on paper and in the minds of a majority of observers, would lose to Mayweather 100 times out of 100. [details]
It is a reality of boxing that would drive Ric Flair crazy.
If you take a look at your scorecards, you’ll see that this column has had the occasional wrestling reference. And it’s not just because both involve athletes performing in squared circles.
Before boxing became my obsession, I grew up with professional wrestling. And while the sweet science has, in my heart, replaced what’s now been dubbed “sports entertainment,” I still get nostalgic for Ric Flair. Heck, I’ve even let out a signature “whoo” or two in public.
But the 16-time world champion Flair would stop strutting and scratch his head if, this coming July, Arturo Gatti became a three-time titlist by beating Carlos Baldomir. By doing so, Gatti would become the lineal welterweight champion – a far better distinction than the paper title he picked up at 140 – yet he could never say that he was the best fighter at 147.
Gatti can only blame two things: a man and an institution.
First and foremost, Gatti can point to Floyd Mayweather Jr., at whose hands last year Gatti received an embarrassing drubbing, essentially getting run out of the junior welterweight division. Since then, both Gatti and Mayweather have migrated northward to welterweight for separate reasons. For the former, it is easier to make weight when one has to drain seven fewer pounds. For the latter, it is easier to make money, with megafights against Zab Judah (done), Oscar De La Hoya and Shane Mosley around, and with the extra perk that Mayweather’s unfinished business at 140 – Ricky Hatton – has followed him up the scales.
But Gatti can also blame the business of boxing. There are four major sanctioning bodies, each with major flaws and different ideas of who and what a title contender should be. With this set-up as the status quo, a champion or titlist needs not defend against the best, but merely a mandatory – the lesser-desired outcome – or, more preferably, the man who makes him the most money.
After Carlos Baldomir upset Zab Judah in January, Baldomir became the rightful claimant to the welterweight throne. Yet perhaps because of his record, his less-than-brilliant boxing skills or Judah’s tarnished reputation, he was derided as a fluke, a champion that, on paper and in the minds of a majority of observers, would lose to Mayweather 100 times out of 100. [details]
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