Boxing

Boxing
I am not, by any means, a big sports fan. In fact, other than my Detroit Lions, I don’t usually watch many sports. But one I do love is boxing. It is not that I get to see two men (or women, they do box, too, but I don’t enjoy that. Unless there is the possibility of a ripped shirt of something…!) It is the excitement of the sport. Really, even when you KNOW who is going to win, anything can happen.

I remember one night I was suppose to go out with some friends. They were to pick me up, as I did not know where we were going. I got ditched. So I stayed home, watching boxing on HBO. That night, I saw Buster Douglas knock Mike Tyson out. Not many people watched that fight, as Mike Tyson usually would knock people out in the first or second round, and no one knew who the hell Buster Douglas was. But I saw it; live, in my living room.

Over the last few years, though, I have seen the dark side of the sport. I think, as most people probably do, that boxing is a dirty and fixed sport. I have seen some boxers absolutely robbed from the judges. I have listened to the announcers all but say that the fight was fixed.

Why does no one do anything about this? The boxing governing bodies are a joke. There is, what, five different boxing bodies now that have their own belt? The WBO. WBC. And too many others to keep track of. Remember when you knew who the heavyweight champion of the world was? Right now, it is either Lennox Lewis or Roy Jones, Jr., depending on which belt you feel holds the most weight.

But boxing is getting lame. Sure, there was been some fantastic fights this year, such as Arturo Gatti vs. Micky Ward, Oscar De La Hoya vs. Shane Mosley, and John Ruiz vs. Roy Jones, Jr. But for the most part, unless there is a knockout, it is up in the air on who the judges will give the fight to.

Boxing is as fixed as professional wrestling. I think Don King should be in jail. I think Michael Jordan and Tiger Woods, the two richest sports people in the world, should pool their money, buy out every boxing governing body, and make the sport mean something again. There should only be six belts: Super-Lightweight, Featherweight, Middleweight, Welterweight, Light Heavyweight, and Heavyweight.

Will this happen? Nope. But one can only dream. Email me if you have any thoughts on this… I want boxing to be saved, but it seems only to be getting worse.