QUEST FOR GLAMOUR II

The heavyweight class is the most glamorous section in boxing: in my opinion. It encompasses all aspect of life: politics, finance, marketing, promotions, discipline and many other qualities.

It is a total package. In other words before a fight takes place a lot had happened behind the scene. I remembered how I glue to our black and white TV set, those days to watch chuka Momah present the big fight of the decade. The program usually gets people seated to watch the analylical depth of the presenter and the manner he adds glamour to the fights, it was a pure show of distinct.
The sport had names like Rocky Marciano, Sonny Liston, Floyd Patterson, later names like ken Norton, George foreman, Joe Frazier, Larry Holmes, Leon Spinks and the greet one – Mohammed Ali. Another era erupted and names like mike Tyson, Frank Bruno, Lennox Lewis, Riddick Bowe, Michael Mooer, Oliver McCall, Evander Holyfield, Hasim Rahman, James Douglas etc. Mention should also be made of Michael Spinks (the younger brother of Leon Spinks (even though he was knocked out in round one by Mike Tyson) who as a light heavyweight withstood Larry Holmes and conquered him. At this point the sport enjoyed great followership, the names of this prize fighters was on every ones lips and they enjoyed greet popularity, appearing in many commercials. As Mohammed Ali puts it “I’m the most recognized and loved man that ever lived cuz there weren’t no satellites when Jesus and Mosses were around, so people far away in the villages didn’t know about them”. As regards popularity around the globe, the sports and the major player enjoyed massive coverage. They were more popular than some heads of states. When the Ali –Foreman fight was held in Zaire (now, Congo DR) it drew so much attention. The nation stood still for them. Today the heavy weight class is facing a decline in followership and glamour. Some fighters have showed that they can’t manage the fame that comes from the sport. Outside the ring, some of today’s fighters can’t be trusted. Another noticeable fact is that, the American isn’t there at least for now. When Rahman lost to Oleg Maskaev, it was a clean sweep. All the world titles are in the hands of Russians. According to Bob Arum before the Rahman – Maskaev fight, he said Rahman is America’s last line of defense “, and so far it has proven so Rahman knew it also when he said “I need to hold it down for my country. If I lose this fight, I let me down. My family down, my team down and my country down” after making such patriotic comment, need I say that Rahman is still down. It was he who was expected to hold up the American dream.
Another issue that should be taking seriously is the fact that, the glamour is huge when an American is the Heavyweight Champion. One may want to ask, why I have moved from a global picture to a specific one. Well, one can’t talk about the heavyweight division without mentioning the American’s, they bring in the trills that makes the pound game enjoyable and use friendly or put differently watching friendly.

So where has all the big men gone? This situation is so disturbing and the first to speak is smoking Joe Frazier. In his words “We don’t even know who the Heavyweight Champion is, all these crazy sanctioning belts they‘ve got. Do you know who it is “well, there’s the WBA’s Ruslan Chagaev of Russia, IBF king Wladimir klitschko of Ukraine and WBO Sultan Ibragimov . But we only know, because it is our job to know- and even we are not sure of the spellings”. We have seen the attitude of these boxer, pulling out of schedule fights, this is not in taking away anything from them, it must be said also, that the Russians or betters still boxer from the old Russia have very solid amateur background, they remain amateur till they are about 25years old before they turn pro, but in America they turn pro at 16, 12 and 18 and if you don’t get the experience in the amateur system you are in the world of trouble. “Amateur boxing is like high school or college. It’s where you learn about the real world.
Legendary trainers, Emmanuel Steward of America add’s: the Europeans system of teaching the basics of boxing is superior to America. Another angle to it, is that African – American the main stay of the heavyweight scene for the last 50 years are no longer filtering into boxing the reason is so simple, as stated by Al Mitchell ( former head coach U.S Olympic boxing team) “there are so many ways to get rich now in America”
This trend has continued and away from America, here in Africa apart from Nigerians such Friday Ahunaya, Albert Eremosele, David Defiagbon, David Izon( who is fighting as an American) and Samuel Peters no notable African is seen around the heavyweight class. To talk about boxing back home is to open up some wounds that require some form of divine surgery to rectify. In South Africa the game is fair, well organized and fights still holds but the caliber of boxer it turns out is suspect and I doubt if they can get close to a world title fight.
A quick glance at the heavyweight class presents Champions who are well above 30years and some close to 40years, frankly the game is for young men. The age of some the current heavyweight champs may just be the reason, injuries is springing up every now and then. A more serious trend is the fact that in America, the youths are taking to other sports, back home the game is in bad shape, we don’t get to write local content news on boxing except Bash Ali comes up with a fight or you hear Obisia Nwakpa complaining about visas and not been able to go for championships. The youths here are obviously doing something else because the sports is no longer attractive, those who are still taking to boxing do so purely out of passion. The worries of many of us enthusiast is the way forward, how to bring back the glamour of the sport that once made me glue to the T.V set. That quest may not be close, “the immediate future of heavyweight boxing across the Atlantic does not look good” so says Smoking Joe Frazier, who himself ruled the heavyweight division for three years. He continues, “The guys don’t train right, some trainers today never had gloves in their lives. Back in the old days trainers would know the fight game and know what to tell the guys to do. With boxing more than any sports you really have to know what you are talking about and I add, if not, you might be directing someone to the dream land. At the moment I think the Russians and perhaps other European countries will rule the heavyweight until Samuel Peters comes up to restore the glamour of the heavyweight. However, we should not lose sight of upcoming young American by the name Isaiah Thomas, he is been trained by the Legendary Emmanuel Steward, he is 6ft,4inc tall and he won the under 17 heavy weight title in Liverpool at the age of 16 and should be featuring in the 2008 Olympics. Another great prospect is Alexander Povetkin who was billed to fight Chris Byrd in Germany, yet these fighters are not in the class of the vocal, Mohammed Ali, or any of those in fighters in Tyson’s days. The picture looks bleak and the glory days may not be coming back soon, yet like a circle, I see the return of the glamour of the heavyweight, where the fire works will surpass those days, the excitement is about to be unleashed like never before.