Many Championship Fights, No Real Champion

This is a week for settling disputes that have been marked by rhetoric and bluster. Yesterday, voters went to the polls to elect 27 governors, 33 senators, and 435 members of the House of Representatives. Meanwhile, boxing’s heavyweight division stumbles along with lots of rhetoric, lots of promises, and lots of “championship” fights but no true champion.On June 8, 2002, Lennox Lewis knocked out Mike Tyson in Memphis. Since then, there has been only one real heavyweight championship fight. That was Lewis’s stoppage of Vitali Klitschko on June 21, 2003. Lennox retired in February 2004. Since then, dreariness has reigned.At present, there are four heavyweight beltholders: Oleg Maskaev (World Boxing Council), Nikolai Valuev (World Boxing Association), Wladimir Klitschko (International Boxing Federation), and Shannon Briggs (World Boxing Organization).But these days, virtually anyone can be a player. Former beltholders Hasim Rahman, John Ruiz, Sergei Liakhovich, and Lamon Brewster (if his damaged retina heals) are in the mix. So are former challengers like James Toney and David Tua. Samuel Peter of Nigeria might be the best of the lot, and there are “mandatory” challengers like Ray Austin and Sultan Ibragimov. Bernard Hopkins has talked about coming out of retirement to fight in the heavyweight division. And if 44-year-old Evander Holyfield (who should have retired long ago) defeats Fres Oquendo on Friday night, he’ll be clamoring for a title shot.Last month, HBO Sports president Ross Greenburg invited representatives of each heavyweight champion to attend a meeting at his Manhattan office. His goal was to cobble together a unification tournament to be televised by the cable giant. But the meeting never took place, and a tournament is unlikely to occur because of 1) demands by the promoters involved for options on other promoters’ fighters; 2) demands by the fighters for rematch clauses to protect themselves should they lose; 3) demands by the various sanctioning bodies that “mandatory” defense obligations be fulfilled lest a title-holder be stripped of his belt, and 4) concerns that the entire venture might raise issues with regard to whether or not HBO is a “promoter” within the meaning of the law, which is a red flag for Time Warner’s legal department.Thus, when promoter Bob Arum was asked recently to describe the state of the heavyweight division, he answered, “Two words: ‘oy’ and ‘vey.'”The most recently crowned heavyweight belt-holder is Shannon Briggs, who defeated Sergei Liakhovich last Saturday night. If you throw out the grotesque decision that Briggs was handed over George Foreman in 1997, he had never beaten a top-10 heavyweight.In and out of the ring, Briggs is something of a con artist. But he commands attention because he has charisma, he’s exceedingly verbal, his hair is orange, and he can fight a bit.In Liakhovich-Briggs, each man fought a safety-first fight with the crowd voicing its displeasure throughout. Shannon pretended that he was fighting like the bigger man (making nasty faces and moving forward), but he wasn’t. He rarely forced an exchange. Instead, he looked for openings that he could exploit one punch at a time without getting hit. Liakhovich is not a good counter-puncher. He fights back when hurt, but that’s different from effective counter-punching. Unless Sergei is hurt, he tends to cover up without throwing back when attacked. With 26 seconds left in the fight, Briggs gave the highlight-reel people what they wanted when he knocked Liakhovich down. Sergei rose and was blasted through the ropes; the fight was stopped with one second left. At the time, all three judges had Liakhovich ahead on points. Afterward, Sergei said ruefully, “He fought his fight, and I fought his fight.”WBA heavyweight champion Nikolai Valuev is the most interesting beltholder in the mix. He’s 7 foot 2, weighs 328 pounds, and is undefeated in 45 fights. Yes, he’s a one-dimensional fighter, but it’s quite a dimension. He has good stamina, paces himself well, and seems to be improving with each fight. Don King (Valuev’s promoter) speaks the truth when he says,”Nobody knows what’s going to happen with Valuev. And anybody who says they know, don’t.”WBC champion Oleg Maskaev is generally regarded as the weakest of the beltholders. Meanwhile, Wladimir Klitschko (46–3, 41 KOs), who many consider the best heavyweight in the world, will defend his crown at Madison Square Garden against Calvin Brock (29–0, 22 KOs) on Saturday night.Klitschko is a thoughtful, articulate man with a burgeoning social conscience. “My understanding of life changes as I see things with my own eyes,” he said at a press conference last month. “The world is getting smaller. We have to act differently and change our relationships to each other.”Toward that end, Klitschko is using his championship as a social platform and devoting considerable time and effort to raising funds for UNESCO (the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization).Brock has a degree in business administration from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, which isn’t expected to help him in the ring on Saturday night. There is little in his record to suggest that he poses a serious threat to Klitschko. Other than a 10-round decision over Jameel McCline (who was KO’d by Wladimir in 2002), Calvin’s record is devoid of elite opponents. And he’s coming in off a flat 12-round performance against Timur IbragimovBrock’s hope lies in the fact that he can whack a bit and Klitschko’s chin is suspect. But in all of Madison Square Garden’s history (including three previous incarnations dating back to 1874), there has been only one fight in which a heavyweight title changed hands. That was in 1986, when James “Bonecrusher” Smith knocked out Tim Witherspoon to claim the WBA crown. It’s unlikely that there will be a changing of the guard on Saturday night. And regardless of who wins, boxing will still have four heavyweight “champions” on Sunday morning.Wladimir Klitschko spoke the truth last week when he said,” I don’t see myself as the real champion because there are three other guys holding belts. As long as other heavyweights have titles, there is no champion. I am only one of four.”

Many Championship Fights, No Real Champion

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