The State of the Game

The State of the Game

Several years ago, it was said that MMA would kill boxing and put it in its grave. Like a fighter who is out on their feet and then comes back to score a knockout, boxing’s demise was greatly exaggerated. In order to understand the “state of the game”, you need to look at where boxing has been in the recent past and where boxing is going in the future.

One of the most positive signs that the sport is moving in the right direction is the recent occurrences of “old school” promoting. Promoters are finally, on a consistent basis, making the fights that fans want to see and the top fighters are taking risks by fighting the best available opponents, a throwback mentality for sure. Not every single top matchup is being made but more than the case has been in the past several years and on a more consistent basis.  Sometimes, if you look hard enough, you can see cigar smoke and typewriters around press row.

If the sport is to continue to build off of the momentum of the aforementioned great matchups, the judging needs to be in alignment. Accuracy and consistency is the key. It’s not that bad judging hasn’t occurred from time to time throughout the sport’s history but over the past several years it is occurring at an alarming rate. Accuracy on the scorecards for what really happened in the ring and consistency from fight to fight are the key. The governing bodies should work collaboratively to develop a remedial training program for judges who score fights so absurdly that it’s obvious to even the most casual fan. The overused “black-eye for boxing” is appropriately used when speaking about bad judging. When speaking on the state of the game, this topic surely needs to be included.

Greed rears its ugly head whenever money is being made in large amounts. Nothing is truer than when talking about the ticket process for a big fight. Greedy are the promoters, casinos, and brokers who acquire the tickets in bulk and leave minimal numbers for the disadvantaged. Earlier this year, I, the “regular Joe” along with a few friends all called Ticketmaster at the moment the tickets became available for the Mayweather-Guerrero fight on Cinco de Mayo weekend. None of the “cheapest” $200 nosebleeds were available two minutes past the top of the hour when the selling frenzy began. Eight minutes later, all tickets in the next two ranges had been “sold out”. No sooner had the “sell out” occurred; mysteriously all of the tickets you wanted were available on the broker sites with a “small” mark up. There is nothing like attending a big-time fight. The energy and atmosphere are amazing. Sadly, until the greed subsides, most will never be able to experience or afford it. On a positive note, great matchups and fights are shown regularly on satellite premium and non premium channels and network TV has been making a strong comeback.

Now that some of the housekeeping issues are out of the way, let’s examine the state of the fighters. To gauge the pulse fully, we need to look at the strength of the fights in 2013 and the matchups and potential matchups for 2014.

In 2013, Floyd Mayweather again solidified himself as the best in the game and in the process was involved in the highest grossing pay-per-view and live gate in fight history when he knuckled up against Canelo Alvarez. In addition, 2013 produced some of the most memorable fights in some time.

The scrap between Timothy Bradley and Ruslan Provodnikov was epic as was Adrien Broner and Marcos Maidana, Omar Figueroa-Nihito Arakawa, Carl Froch-Mikkel Kessler 2, Mike Alvarado-Brandon Rios 2, Guillermo Rigondeaux-Nonito Donaire, Carl Froch-George Groves, and Danny Garcia-Lucas Matthysse. The list goes on and on, a very strong year indeed. I credit the promoters for making the types of fights we want to see and the fighters for taking risks to be great by fighting the best.

As we move into 2014 we get off to a blazing start with a great matchup pitting Jean Pascal against Lucian Bute. Deontay Wilder and Tyson Fury have been entertaining us on Twitter with their “friendly” banter so let’s just hope the same holds true when they eventually meet in the ring this year and with Bermane Stiverne and Chris Arreola set for a rematch for the vacancy left by Vitali Klitschko, the heavyweight division could finally be waking up for a sustained run. The light heavyweights are explosive with Adonis Stevenson and Sergey Kovalev while the ageless Bernard Hopkins continues to compete at the highest of levels either as an executioner or an alien. Andre Ward is on pace to eventually take over as the pound-for-pound king while reigning over the talent rich super middleweights. As we move down the scale, we find Sergio Martinez and an impressive and rising star in Gennady Golovkin with Peter Quillin rounding out the middleweight division.

Of course we could be here all day talking about the junior middleweights, welterweights, and junior welterweights but that is because these are the divisions that will make boxing sustainable at a high level going forward. Just think about the possibilities of matchups including any of the following: Floyd, Canelo, Lara, Cotto, Trout, Bradley, Marquez, Pacquiao, Guerrero, Porter, Thurman, Maidana, Malignaggi, Broner, Garcia, Matthysse, Provodnikov, Khan, Alvarado, and Peterson, just to name a few. Some fights would most likely be at catch weights but the countless possibilities set up incredible scenarios and undoubtedly classic battles.

Moving further down the scale we start to find names like Ricky Burns, Terence Crawford, Omar Figueroa, Mikey Garcia, Abner Mares, Jhonny Gonzalez, Nonito Donaire, Guillermo Rigondeaux, Carl Frampton, and Leo Santa Cruz. Again, the matchups are endless, intriguing, and fully capable of powering the sport from the bottom.

Boxing is as strong at the current moment with talent as it has been in some time. If the sport keeps moving in the direction that it has been we might just be in an era that we will look back on years from now and compare it with the great eras of the past.

Just as video didn’t kill he radio star, MMA didn’t kill boxing. No, The sweet science is alive and well and the state of the game is in good hands.

-Rick Guerrero / @Lapittrick

- Contributor to www.BehindTheGloves.com