Over the years, one of the most discussed talking points about Beltway Boxing has been why don't a good portion of local boxers do well on the national or international stage? Why have some boxers done very well but others have not?
Recently, I found an old commentary I wrote for the Urbanflavorz Boxing Report, a part of the very successful UrbanFlavorz website and the direct forerunner of this very blog. The commentary was written more than 10 years ago and it was written during of one of the more important seven-day periods in Beltway Boxing history -- The first bout in the Middleweight Championship Series between Keith Holmes and Bernard Hopkins and the heavyweight title bout between challenger Hasim Rahman and Lennox Lewis.
What follows is the commentary in its entirety. The commentary includes two very bold predictions in which I went .500 on. After reading it, I would like your comments on whether or not Beltway Boxers are still stunned by the bright lights.
IS THE LIGHT TOO BRIGHT FOR D.C. BOXING?
Quick question: What do the following bouts have in common?
Derrell Coley vs. Oscar De La Hoya
Courtney Butler vs. James Toney
Darryl Tyson vs. Oscar De La Hoya
Sharmba Mitchell vs. Kostya Tszyu
Keith Holmes vs. Bernard Hopkins
Answer: The common thread is that the bouts featured
Washington-Baltimore area boxers who were facing better known
foes. The area boxers had opportunities to be considered great
fighters after their bouts ended. And in every one of these
instances, it can and has been argued that none of the boxers
performed to their capabilities.
Of course, the latest casualty involved the now-former two-time WBC
Middleweight champion Keith Holmes handing over his title to IBF champ
Bernard Hopkins on April 14 in New York.
I use the handing over description on purpose because I believe Holmes
performance on that night dictates that I do so. Holmes performance
was, in a word, embarrassing. He had no fire, no desire and, in an
opportunity to make serious boxing history, looked like he wanted to
retire. Holmes seemingly did not want to take the next step to
greatness. Unfortunately, this has become a common thread for
beltway-area boxers in recent years.
Gone for now are the days when local legends like Sugar Ray Leonard,
Simon Brown and Maurice Blocker took the steps necessary to make
themselves great fighters. And when they did go down, it was to
fighters that were simply much better than them. However, these
legends didn’t go down with out a fight. Look at Leonard’s bout with
Terry Norris or Brown’s bouts with the same Terrible Terry (one of
those he won a truly memorable performance). Even Blocker’s two-round
IBF Welterweight title loss to a young Felix Trinidad showed Blocker
in a better light than what Holmes showed on April 14.
Today’s boxers (and I've gotten many statements from you boxing fans on
this) seem to be satisfied with just getting THE OPPORTUNITY to fight
the best or getting THE OPPORTUNITY to hold a title instead of seizing
the moment and doing the absolute best they can. That has to change.
We do have two boxers here in the area that I believe want to achieve
greatness. WBA Middleweight Champion William Joppy has the
opportunity to do this on May 12 against Felix Trinidad. Achieving
greatness is all that Joppy has talked about throughout the
championship portion of his career. I believe he will achieve that
greatness by not only beating Trinidad but beating Hopkins as well in
the tournament final.
The other is former two-time, two-division
champion Mark Too Sharp Johnson. Some might even say that Johnson
has already achieved this by becoming only the second American and
the first African-American to win the flyweight title when he knocked
out a truly credible foe (former world champion Francisco Tejedor) in
just one round. Johnson’s ability and willingness to become great is
truly unquestioned.
We have another boxer here in the Beltway, Baltimore heavyweight Hasim “The Rock” Rahman, who may end up having greatness thrust upon him due to the arrogance of his opponent.
Rahman fights World Heavyweight champion Lennox Lewis on April 21st
in Johannesburg, South Africa. Lewis, as of April 17th and according
to an unofficial weigh-in, is weighing a whopping 269 pounds, the
heaviest he has ever been for a fight. Folks, Lewis is not taking
Rahman seriously and we could have the biggest upset in the
heavyweight division since Buster Douglas beat Mike Tyson. Its
possible Rahman could become great by default and there’s really
nothing wrong with that.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
12 comments:
Other than the fight with Oscar, the other fighter's who fought 'Beltway Boxer's' were straight soldiers. This was their life. They were never 'babied', especially not Toney and B-Hop. There still are no soldiers comparing to those 2. See B-Hop at 47 and still champ, and no ones getting in there comfortably with an in shape James Toney. 'Pound 4 Pound' was way over-matched, with all due respect to him. He fought 'the new Old Mongoose'. Lennox is going down as maybe the greatest 'Big Heavyweight' ever, and Hasim knocked him into 'Apartheid'.
Oscar had a height, reach & style advantage over D. Tyson, all due respect to D. Tyson. A man that has reach and bounces, has momentum with his style and punches (see Ali/Liston for bouncing). Hell, see Rahman/Lewis II for reach and height.
Y'all know that champions get their opponents picked when they have the right 'trainer, manager, promoter' combo. going on(see 'Iron Mike & Ali's 1st 20 fights). Then see the last 4 of each. Lets talk real boxing now!
'Money answers everything.' (Ecclesiastes 10:19)
Derrell Coley vs. Oscar De La Hoya
Courtney Butler vs. James Toney
Darryl Tyson vs. Oscar De La Hoya
Sharmba Mitchell vs. Kostya Tszyu
Keith Holmes vs. Bernard Hopkins
The above list of bouts is typical red corner-blue corner boxing like we have on the local level except that this took place on the bigger stage. Not the biggest stage, but on the bigger stage.
These fights were pretty much showcase fights for the red corner guys DeLaHoya, Toney, Tszyu, and Hopkins. The blue corner guys Coley, Butler, Tyson, Mitchell, Holmes were supposed to lose, they weren't being promoted by the promoter of the fight (unless that promoter had options if they won) and they were brought in to put on a good show, fight a good fight, and lose. And that's what they did. It's not a set up, it's not a fix, all of our local guys did their best, but they all lost as the red corner's promoter and the network, wanted them to.
Every once in a while you will see a blue corner guy upset the apple cart. Vince Phillips knocking out Kostya Tszyu, Rahman knocking out an out of shape and overweight Lennox Lewis (great article by the way Digial and I too felt the upset was highly likely when I saw the weights because regardless of what anyone says about Rahman if you get in front of that right hand your ass is out!) It's no different than Skip from Carolina bringing guys up here. Most of the time those guys lose but some of the time they win. As a promoter/matchmaker you are trying to build your fighter against increasingly tougher opposition so that they will hopefully win and learn something while winning. Skip brought Maurice Winslow up to fight Boone Pultz, a big ticket seller and a guy who probably made the promoter of the show some money. Nobody was buying tickets to see Maurice Winslow, they were there to see Pultz. And boom, Winslow catches Pultz with a good shot and that was that. He also brought in Rodney Green, a decent fighter with a 6 and 5 record, to fight George Rivera, who at the time had just become the first fighter to defeat Jessie Nicklow who was 19 and 0 when they fought. And George, disinterested and out of shape, just like Lewis was against Rahman, loses a split decision in what was supposed to be a stay busy, sharpening, showcase type of fight. So as you see, the opportunity for the blue corner is there. Just like Coley had DeLaHoya hurt in their fight, Green and Winslow had a chance to win in their fight. Whereas Coley couldn't get DeLaHoya out of there, Winslow got rid of Pultz, and Green did enough to get the decision. No difference really, except the magnitude of the fights.
These were big fights but not huge fights, per se, from the network's perspective. Basically these were showcase fights for their red corner guys who probably had, with the possible exception of Hopkins when he fought Holmes, contracts with the network. The network didn't really care about Coley-DeLaHoya they wanted Mosely-DeLaHoya. They didn't care about Holmes-Hopkins, they wanted Trinidad-Hopkins. Hopkins is a perfect example of a blue corner guy who fought his way to the top. He lost his pro debut, people didn't expect him to be Trinidad, he didn't follow the script, and look at him today. Glen Johnson, who fights Froch tonight, is another guy who had to fight his way to red corner status.
Joe Hensley
Its continually said, "Hasim knocked out an out of shape and overweigt Lennox". No he sent him into 'Apartheid'. Say it properly.
Let us sphere further: Hasim fasted for Ramadan(sp.) before the second fight, which we saw the effects of.
I say lets do it another time. Lennox in a comeback bout, Hasim in a come up again bout.
Way to get the plug in for your guy Joe.
I never once said "Setup", but its written in Ecclesiastes 7:27- 'Add one thing to another to discover the scheme of things.' Promoters are 'spin' masters, similar to sheisters/barristers/lawyers/attorneys; whatever you want to call the man/woman that presents cases in front of a judge.
Maybe Sharmba shouldn't be mentioned in this listing based on the # of big fights he's accumulated. He's lost some big fights, but has won his share against very talented and skilled fighters, see Mitchell vs. 'Cool' Vince'.
'Too Sweet' wasn't a world champion, but was #1 ranked for a period.
'Red corner-blue corner', or 'height, reach, style, promoter, manager advantage'. Aren't we saying the same thing?
Most times if you're not being promoted by the promoter of the fight, you are the opponent. In most of those circumstances if the promoter's 'Josh Hall' selects you to fight the promoted fighter, then assumably you've been selected as the opponent.
Since 'set-up's and fix's were mentioned, then the whole 'red corner-blue corner' thing in itself is a set-up or fix. Everybody's afraid of everybody at some point or another, cause of what; 'Money answers everything'.
Give me real fights: Jirov/Toney, B-Hop/'homo', Joppy/Hopkins. Then once you get the good fights that go the distance, don't fake judge them(ie. Toney/Peter I). Some fighters are manipulated into taking fights that are too hard before they become champions, ie. Clarence Vinson/Heriberto Ruiz. Oscar should've had a hard fight like that against a hungry younger/ TALLER lion, and I'd bet all the 'tea in China' that Kosta Zu didn't have to fight a TALL, ring/gym experienced hungry lion on his way to the belt.
You can't tell me anything is valid about a hustle, except the money being spent in the end.
Let's talk real.
Plug? There is the hustle right there.
Thankyou
And we wonder why the guys in the tight shorts: hugging, squeezing, and rubbings testicles on one another made a temporary come-up.
'Cause can't nothin touch pugilism. We just have to weed out the impurists. 'Overseas' is now more real than the U.S. They're over there in Jihad, and/or spiritual war, fighting about their belief in God and God's values. We're over here with men hugging in tight shorts, getting married to each other, & kissing on TV; while the woman are bosses.
Step y'alls game up. Boxing is life. Or nowadays, MMA (Man-Man-Anus). As soon as one of them big men get to kicking, scratching, and rubbing on James Toney's testes, he'll be done with MMA.
Who wrote the last comment?
Man that is some funny shit.
but alot of truth in it.
Scott Farmer is a Douche
Anybody else hungry?
who is picking on the one promoter
that has helped every fighter he has come in contact with.
It must be another jealous promoter or maybe it's one of those fighters that are trying to be a fighter /promoter/matchmaker/and just a medeling piece of garbage that can't be content with with worrying his own self but has to try to run the sport of boxing in the washington metro and surounding areas.
Above: start every sentence with caps. 'The good ol' writing way.
I bet someone has hired you. Correctness never changes. Am I wrong?
God is spirit and you represent God in spirit and truth.
Post a Comment