Boxing: When Did the Best Stop Fighting the Best in the Sport to Stake their Claim as the Best?

By Doctor Ibrahim Hussain

2300 years ago, Alexander the Great had conquered 90% of the then known world by the age of 32. Almost 1500 years later Genghis Khan conquered 4 times as much land as Alexander (after the discovery of other countries)

One of the most brow scrunching fantasy match-ups of all time is of the two aforementioned warriors. Their names will forever be engrained in history, and given their nature, a match up would have been inevitable were they both to have existed at the same time.

How things have changed……

When Devon Alexander faced Amir Khan, Alexander was simply outclassed by the better boxer. The first punches thrown by Alexander showed blistering hand speed, and one would be forgiven for immediately thinking that Khan would have a night of trouble ahead. However, it was clear after the first combination thrown by Khan that his hand speed was from another planet. His maturity is now showing, and as one observer put it, Khan is now‘different gravy’ when compared to his former erratic fight style. I will go so far as to say that no boxer on planet earth today has faster hands than Amir Khan.

This now puts him in an awkward position. Amir is an improving fighter (under Virgil Hunter, who is a unique trainer with a primary focus on thinking) with great skill that many in the ranks above him will now want to avoid.

For this reason I give respect to Kell Brook for genuinely wanting to fight him (although it also makes massive financial sense). This will be no easy fight now that Amir Khan is under the auspicious eye of arguably the best trainer in the world today.

But boxing ability is not what sells fights, and unfortunately the better boxer you are nowadays does far from necessarily get you the fights the pugilistic sport deserves to serve on you. Absolutely not!

3 fighters in particular stand out as of today:

1) Andre Ward
2) Gennady Golovkin
3) Guillermo Rigondeaux

Andre Ward has never been in trouble during his professional career, and has simply left the next best competition at the start line when it comes to the likes of Carl Froch et al. Carl has clearly stated he won’t fight Ward due to the fight not being exciting enough.

Andre Ward made a massive statement as an amateur in the 2004 Olympics when he fought a conqueror of myself in Euvgeny Makarenkow, a two time World Amateur Champion and a legendary Russian Light Heavyweight. Since then he has never been in trouble, and could have considered to have peaked too early due to his destruction of some of the world’s best in the Super Six tournament that now seems light years ago (all of the current Super Middleweight World Champions fought and lost to Andre Ward in the Super Six). Since then he has simply had nowhere meaningful to go in his chosen weight division, made all the more worse by his political fight against his promotion company, who together have resulted in little action from Ward over the last couple of years.

Carl Froch and Julio Cesar Chavez, JR. should both fight Andre Ward and stop avoiding him. It is as simple as that. Ward will then hopefully have the sense to fight James Degale and George Groves in the UK, as these would without doubt give Ward the best crowd (=money) and exposure for the near future, and build him more as a household name here in the UK (which would serve him well for his future by building his more affluent fan base).

Gennady Golovkin is also at a stumbling block, as he now has few big name opportunities. For sure Miguel Cotto will duck a fight with him, and there will be no way of Golovkin generating the same revenue as the other options open to Cotto (an apparent offer of 40 million from Al Haymon to fight Mayweather, JR. for a second time, and the possible showdown with Canelo on Cinco De Mayo), which leaves Golovkin in the position where he must move weight classes, or face the prospect of less meaningful fights while trying to draw the revenue from his faithful followers which are, quantitively speaking, not in the same league as the number of fans and haters who would pay to see Mayweather, JR. win/lose, or see the unconventional looking poster boy that is Canelo.

Lastly on my condensed list is Guillermo Rigondeaux, whom I feel is the current pound for pound best boxer in the world today.

Rigondeaux has had split decisions whilst a pro (another scoring ‘shame on boxing’), and he doesn’t speak English, and he is from a small country who does not participate in professional boxing save for those courageous enough to break free and defect to democratic countries who allow them to earn a living independent of state control.

Rigondeaux is fighting tomorrow evening in Japan on New Year’s Eve. He is happy to be earning $500,000, and has also said he can be ready for January 17th for another fight, this time with Leo Santa Cruz (who has 1 of the other belts in the super bantamweight division).

Leo Santa Cruz has said he would like to face the best, and if that means Rigondeaux, then so be it. Santa Cruz deserves respect for saying this, and it could be a very wise move if he backs up his mouth, since the other 2 champions, Scott Quigg and Carl Frampton are both clearly uncomfortable about fighting Rigondeaux, and have no intention of facing him anytime soon.

It’s the first time in years we have had 4 undefeated champions holding 4 different belts in the same weight division. Now is the time for Leo Santa Cruz to put his money where his mouth is and fight Rigondeaux. Although Santa Cruz has indicated his possible unfavorable outcome to Rigondeaux, he would be in a better position in the future being the one who stuck his neck on the line and fought Rigondeaux first. The others would simply be forced into a fight at some point, by which time Santa Cruz could have regained composure after his forthcoming loss to Rigondeaux, and be drawing bigger crowds and making money, because let’s face it, we know he isn’t the very best boxer out there, but we like him because he wants to fight.

And here lies the problem. We don’t necessarily want to see the best boxers, and a lot of people don’t always appreciate the best boxing. Surely boxing deserves to reward the best boxers as well as the best sluggers.

Clearly Mayweather, JR. has done very well, but he has not been in this position long, despite winning time after time. He has been gifted enough not to be imprisoned so long which meant he could bring more entertainment to the game through his wealth and freehold earning capacity. It’s this added dimension to Floyd that has made his events so popular, in the run up as well as the fights (even if the fans have found the fights less than spine tingling).

There are other fighters such as Erislandy Lara, whom I have made it quite clear in my thoughts that he was robbed against Canelo. But again, politics talks louder than actual achievement, and the boxers will always be at the mercy of the bill payers. Case in point is that Top Rank has said that HBO have blocked Guillermo Rigondeaux from appearing on their TV channel. This coincidentally came after his promotion deal ran out with Bob Arum’s Top Rank company. This surely is not good for boxing, and like Android for smart phones or Linux for PC’s, there now needs to be a more open source avenue for boxers to prosper, or they will find themselves in the no-mans-land position of Andre Ward, despite the Muhammad Ali Act that is supposed to help prevent such situations.

For now we can dream about who would have been the greatest conqueror in history. But l sincerely hope one certain Amir Khan gets the fights with the very best, because I don’t think anyone in his direct or neighboring weight divisions can cope with his hand speed. Not even Floyd Mayweather, JR. at this stage of his career. Floyd is very quick, no one will get dirtier or rougher than Maidana (who failed), but the hand speed of Amir proves the best prospect of cracking of the Mayvinci Code.

So you can be sure that fight WON’T happen!