If you aren’t prepared to be a hermit, no matter where you go, you’ll have to deal with complaints. It doesn’t matter how good life is, there will be someone bitching about some aspect of what’s going on. This is obviously amplified by social media, but it generally is a safe assumption that the whiners are people who are being outcompeted, people who need to make everything about themselves, or both. Boxing is full of malignant narcissists.
They want your attention because they’re emotional vampires. I’m not going to tell anyone how to live their life, but pointing and laughing is generally my preferred method when dealing with those types. Never forget, they can only piss in your sweet tea if you hand them the pitcher.
Now that we’ve dispensed with that.
Boxing has been really fucking good lately. Going back to July, we’ve had Manny Pacquiao remind us what GREAT means against Keith Thurman, Jose Ramirez emphatically announce his arrival in a wonderfully vicious fight against Maurice Hooker, Errol Spence and Shawn Porter throw the fuck down for 12 rounds, Gennadiy Golovkin be forced into a war with Sergiy Derenvyanchenko, Artur Beterbiev and Oleksandr Gvozdyk go tooth and nail, Josh Taylor and Regis Prograis force each other to find several new gears, and yesterday Nonito Donaire gave Naoya Inoue his post-secondary education in being a goddamn prizefighter. That’s a string of fight of the year worthy bouts in just under four months. We have also been treated to the continued growth of prospects, as well as veteran contenders and champions putting in terrific performances.
Boxing is one of the only truly global sports, and looking through the last few months, that’s glaringly obvious. It’s not just that there are fighters from all over the planet, but we’re getting fights all over the place too. If you’re a fight fan, you can see the very best fighters in damn near every division fighting each other in Ultra High Definition, but you might have to tweak your schedule a bit. That’s not a bad problem to have. Sure, you may not be able to watch live, but presumably, you aren’t so tethered to social media that you can’t avoid the result if so desired.
As fans, we’ve spent several years justifiably bemoaning the lack of high-level fights. And now we are actually getting them. They aren’t all in Las Vegas or New York, and they aren’t on premium cable or terrestrial television. But they are happening, and the people in the sport who don’t like that have two choices: Adapt or Die.
But quit fucking bitching. No one owes you. If you’re being criticized for taking on soft touches, fight contenders. If your viewership has gone to hell, show better fights. Don’t understand why certain fighters get more love than others, open Boxrec and see what kind of resume it takes to make people wake up early to watch a fight.
None of this is complicated if you remember one thing about boxing fans: we are more loyal to our adrenal glands than we are to our wallets, or anything else for that matter. Whoever gives us the most entertainment wins, and we are having an absolute blast right now.
Delirium Tremens
- I know that Jason Sosa’s plan was to box smartly against Miguel Berchelt last weekend, but come on. That was never going to happen. Sosa is a brawler deep down in his core, and Berchelt is too damn good to have let him do it anyway. When Berchelt dropped Sosa in the 2nd, that was it. Sosa reverted to type, which hastened a defeat that was all but assured when the fight was signed. Sosa is an entertaining fighter, but he’s a full tier below the Berchelts of the world.
- If you thought Sergey Kovalev took a dive against Canelo, maybe dial back your InfoWars consumption by 30-40%. Yeah he looked old and pitty patted to conserve energy, and I am on record as saying his overly polite behavior during the fight was off-putting and gross, but he got knocked the fuck out. And two of Canelo’s shots that rendered him gelatinous landed on or just behind his ear. Old, washed, possibly overtrained and under-healed from his last fight? Yes. Took a dive? Please shut up.
- Speaking of people who need to shut the fuck up: Canelo beat a top 5 light heavyweight. He also beat a top 5 light heavyweight who nearly got stopped by a novice in his previous fight (9 weeks prior), and was beginning to look extremely vulnerable. Any talk of Alvarez being the favorite against a top cruiserweight or heavyweight is laughable.
