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Sweet science turns sour Boxing fans left without heroes as sport goes belly-up
Posted: Friday November 19, 1999 12:24 AM
I've followed boxing since I was a kid. Some of my first memories include the pictures of Floyd Patterson that my father had pinned up in the kitchen after the American beat Sweden's Ingemar Johansson to regain the heavyweight championship of the world. I didn't understand what all the fuss was about then, of course. But that all changed when Cassius Clay came on the scene. I may only have been in kindergarten, but the sheer charisma of the "Louisville Lip" as he talked the talk and walked the walk against the fearsome Sonny Liston struck a chord. I was hooked. When Clay became Ali it only added to the mystique. Dad, what is a Black Muslim anyway? Even though I had to make do with listening to his rants on the radio or seeing his fights two or three days later on a grainy black and white TV, Ali was a God who transcended the limitations of technology. It wasn't just Ali though. It was the sport itself that grabbed my attention. When the United States government temporarily robbed me of "The Greatest," I made do with "Smoking" Joe Frazier, marveling at his willingness to lead with his face, taking 10 punches to land just one devastating blow. Next came big bad George Foreman, who, in the days before becoming "Uncle George", seemed as big an ogre as any in a child's nightmare. So much so that when the "bully" fell to the resurgent Ali in the Rumble in the Jungle, it seemed I somehow slept safer in my bed.
And so it continued, through the Thrilla in Manila; to the legendary -- if occasionally soporific -- Larry Holmes era; to the welterweight/middleweight heyday of Sugar Ray Leonard, Tommy Hearns and Marvelous Marvin Hagler; and back to the heavyweights via a multitude of pretenders; to Mike Tyson and his bad intentions; Riddick Bowe and Evander Holyfield. Big names who gave me some great fights, and, given the time difference between the USA and Britain, also some very late nights. So why the trip down memory lane? Well in my opinion it's a matter of taking the trip while I still can. Boxing, you see, is dying on its feet. The vested interests and corruption, albeit alleged, of various parties that govern the sport. The alphabetized organization that means Lennox Lewis and Roy Jones Junior are the only undisputed world champions across all the weight divisions. The patent mismatches that result from what Lennox Lewis aptly calls the "poli-tricks". The Don King effect, whereby promoters and managers feed on the young bloods they're supposed to represent like Dracula himself. The obscene obsession with money that turns routine fights into multi-million dollar pay-per-view "events" that more than double my monthly cable bill. The ineptitude of the judging. All these things and many more have turned the once noble art into an ignoble farce whose days appear to be numbered. So, can the sport I love be saved before it finally commits hari-kari? I'm beginning to have my doubts. To effect a positive change there's got to be a desire to do so, and the only desire that seems paramount among those with the power to act is a desire for making money -- a situation that I fear, to borrow from the great Roberto Duran, may soon have the public crying "No Mas." Terry Baddoo is a co-host of "World Sport," the international sports show that airs live on CNN/Sports Illustrated and CNN International.
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