The imminent death of boxing has been predicted at regular intervals over the past century, often with good reason, and yet somehow the sport survives. Lately, with no identifiable heavyweight champion and only one sure box office attraction – Oscar De La Hoya, who is approaching the end of his career – the game would have been in trouble even without the ascendance of Mixed Martial Arts among the 18-35 crowd.
But lately, for all of its brilliant marketing, the UFC has had trouble keeping the storyline going. Parity can be a good thing, but there’s no upside in watching a star like Chuck Liddell lose twice in a row, and look awful in the process.
Meanwhile, last Saturday night boxing was thrown a lifeline in the form of middleweight Kelly Pavlik, whose sensational knockout win over Jermain Taylor for the world championship was drawing comparisons to Hagler-Hearns.
It wasn’t that, of course, but it was pretty darned good. Pavlik is talented, charismatic, skilled, American and he can punch like heck – all marketable qualities. In and around 160 pounds, there are a number of attractive opponents. And his fights, unlike those of Floyd Mayweather Jr. (who is simply too good for his own good – don’t expect Ricky Hatton to mount much of a challenge when they meet in December), have that on-the-edge quality that the MMA fans so enjoy.
After Pavlik-Taylor, septuagenarian promoter Bob Arum announced that all the kids would now abandon the UFC and flock back to boxing. He’s wrong about that.
But for the first time in a long time, at least boxing has something to sell.
