The greatest sport has no more stories
Boxing is the purest of sports. The Sweet Science, they call it. It’s a one-on-one game of skill, strength, will and little else. There’s no ball, no team and no timeouts. Just fists against face. The loser is left to drift alone into the cold night, a spirit deflated. The winner is to be crowned king of the world.
Well, he once was.
That was before boxing’s popularity got cracked in the jaw and was left lying on the mat. What was once America’s most popular sport now pales in comparison to the draw of UFC and professional wrestling, not to mention the NFL.
Even so, boxing has given the world some of the most electrifying, eccentric and even tragic characters it has ever known. In this court of legends, Muhammad Ali remains king.
Ali, born Cassius Clay, was more than a fighter. He was a preacher, a politician, a comedian and philanthropist. After being refused service at a segregated restaurant, a young Cassius reportedly threw his Olympic gold medal into the Ohio River in disgust.
By 1967, the war in Vietnam was raging and Ali, who had been drafted, refused to fight, explaining that “no Vietcong ever called me nigger." He was stripped of his title and barred from boxing. For the next three years Ali spoke out against the war, and in 1971 the Supreme Court reversed his conviction.
After a difficult comeback including a loss to Joe Frazier, which he would quickly avenge, the stage was set for the greatest single sporting event of all time, the Rumble in the Jungle.
Against all odds, Ali regained the title that was stripped from him seven years earlier by wearing out the awesomely powerful George Foreman with the “Rope-a-Dope" strategy. But it was more than just a victory for Ali.
”The fight was about racial problems, Vietnam. All of that," Ali wrote in Newsweek.
And while no other fighters were blessed with Ali’s wit, skill, charisma or circumstance, many have produced stories far more entertaining than stars from other sports.
Jack Johnson, who became the first black champion in 1908, decimated the white competition and further enraged bigots while gallivanting around with white women. Prior to World War II, Joe Louis fought the German Max Schmeling in Nazi Germany.
Rocky Marciano retired as the only undefeated heavyweight of all time. After George Foreman’s loss to Ali, the previously stoic Foreman broke down, was born again, became charismatic and outgoing and regained his title after turning 40.
Mike Tyson is the youngest ever to have won the title, but the once dominant fighter’s career spiraled into rape, prison, bankruptcy and mental instability. Roy Jones Jr., who moved through many different weight classes to display his prodigal talent, toyed with lesser opponents by putting his hands behind his back and dodging their attacks while dancing like a chicken.
And for all those stories of the past, a great one approaches (although outside the heavyweight division). On May 5, 2007, Oscar De La Hoya takes on “Pretty Boy" Floyd Mayweather Jr.
De La Hoya is one of the most famous non-heavyweights of recent memory, and Mayweather, at 37-0, is often called the best pound-for-pound boxer today. But what makes the fight special is that Mayweather’s estranged father, Floyd Sr., who taught his son how to box, is De La Hoya’s trainer.
There is no love lost between father and son, as senior predicts junior will be “knocked on his ass" for “getting greedy."
But for prospective fans to watch the drama play out, boxing’s going to have to make some changes. Believe it or not, there are lessons to be learned from the UFC and even professional wrestling.
First, the heavyweight titles must be unified (currently there are five boxing commissions, each with its own title). Taking a cue from the UFC here, the commissions should be merged into a single entity. Oversight would be easier, the roles of promoters would diminish, corruption could be ironed out and a coherent marketing strategy could be achieved. One commission would mean one title, which would greatly add to a fight’s gravitas.
Second, pay-per-view must be revamped, if not discarded all together, and here we can learn from professional wrestling. The WWE is putting on some 16 pay-per-view events each year, which might seem excessive. But what enables the WWE to do so is that they are able to build hype through regular, free TV broadcasts.
Fans see their favorite stars on a regular basis and are allowed to build a relationship with them. But just when things start to get hot, wham, you’ve got to pay to play. As it is now, most people don’t even know there’s a fight coming up they could order.
Simply put, boxing isn’t reaching out to its fans. As long as following boxing remains prohibitive, talented young athletes looking for success are going to look elsewhere, and without them, there won’t be any new stories to tell.
