The Big Fight

Boxing is by all accounts in trouble. The recent "superfight" between Floyd Mayweather and Oscar De La Hoya was meant to help change this.

I put the word superfight in quotes because one of the reasons for calling this a superfight was the fact it was the richest outside of the heavyweight division. To me it was a fight beween an aging great (De La Hoya) and a man at the height of his powers (Mayweather).

The decision was a surprising split decision.

Anyway why is boxing in a state? well there are two many champions. How can you have 4 champions at each weight? I became a fan of boxing when there were no more than two champions and genuine superfights took place. Titles were unified. As it was boxing has just disapated into alphabet soup.

Fighters nowadays count themselves great based on how many weights they have won and how many defences they have made. But can a fighter like Calzaghe be great if there are 2 or 3 other fighters at his weight who have as legitimate claim to the title? Mayweather is undoubtedly a super fighter but he has made his way through the decisions beating good fighters but not dominating a division.

To me boxing has to unify the titles or at least great reduce the number of belts. It also has to be on terrestial tv, people need to follow a career.