For those of us who remember the early/mid 90's as a great time in boxing, there are many reasons. Tyson was deposed and then locked up, which opened the doors for an exciting heavyweight division: Bowe, Douglas, Holyfield, Lewis, Ruddock, Morrison, Foreman. Historical things happened in just that division alone. Not to mention the end of glory days for Chavez, Whittaker, and the beginning of dominant decades for Finito Lopez and Roy Jones. There was also an international flair to boxing once again, as American champions were fighting in Europe, Jaoan, and for the first time: China and South America. What I remember most, however, were the megacards. Ahhh, yes. Multi championship fight cards.
There were some nights we'd get Chavez, Norris, McClellan, etc all on one night. Nowadays we are lucky to get one decent regional belt on the line underneath a big match. Half the time, the main event is not even a toss-up. The support bouts are often showcase fights for protected prospects. Last I checked we don't have any more than 52 weeks to play with, and with MMA taking up many of them in the public eye, we need a return to these multi-title weekends now, more than ever. Sure, we get them sometimes.. but that means we have to switch from HBO to Showtime, to EPIX to one of a million Fox Sports options for Top Rank cards. DVRs make this a possibility, but how nice it was to get a four bout cards on PPV, where nearly all bouts were worthy of at least HBO billing on their own.
About the last I can recall that truly lived up was Hopkins-Trinidad. We got to see a few belts on the line, including the farewell of Finito Lopez. Showtime cards always used to feature 3 bouts. Which brings me to my encouraging sign. We will see three bouts tonight on Showtime. True, there is only one belt on the line, and no real titles, but it's a start. All three fights figure to be fairly exciting. Ishida-Williams is a toss up, while Arreola vs. Molina features an always exciting heavyweight, and Tavoris Cloud is testing himself against the contenders others do not want to face. That continues tonight with Gabriel Campillo. No result would be a huge upset, and it is bringing boxing to an area that does not see much of it at this level. Texas is no "Quito, Ecuador" as was once the location of a DKP card, but the specific city of Corpus Christi hasn't seen TV boxing on a regular basis since the career of 80's junior welterweight Frankie Warren.
I like this trend, and I hope it starts again. True, it took 3 promoters to bring this fight card, but that is an even better sign. How about Beibut Shumenov vs. Nathan Cleverly, Guillermo Jones vs. Lateef Kayode, and Miguel Vazquez vs. Michael Katsidis at the Key Arena in Seattle. I am throwing out names and towns, but multi-fight cards make them more attractve to networks, venues, and fill bigger arenas. Stack the undercard with local talent, and lets restore boxing to her glory days. It may seem I am making too much of this, but it has to start somewhere. And one extra exciting fight happening on air is the way to go. Maybe we can even talk Metta World Peace 'Ron Artest' into making his long anticipated pro boxing debut (not kidding, he wants one) on a card as well. Why not piggy-back the fame of another sport. The world is shocked by the fame of asian Jeremy Lin in basketball. Ditto a black asian in golf. We have two white heavyweight champions. Why is that not bigger news? Lets stay on air longer, and maybe we reverse that.
Chris Strait
www.convictedartist.com