Floyd Mayweather JR & National Heroes
By Delroy Hill
In the hay day of boxing, it was easy to find heavyweight boxing matches on plain old broadcast television for the whole world to see free of charge. Now, boxing fans have to shell out around $50 of the hard earned money to see most big fights on pay per view.
Perhaps the reason for this and the general decline the sport has endured over the last few decades lies with the American boxer.
This is not to say that all of the sport’s problems are caused by boxers from the United States. That would be foolish. But, one can’t help but take notice of the differences between our fighters and foreign fighters.
Amongst fans outside of the states, American pugilists are Prima donna types.
They are often criticized for not taking the most challenging fights, and being protected by their promoters. The first name that comes to mind is WBC Welterweight Champion Andre Berto.
While those same fans admire and appreciate the talents of the more athletic American fighters, they do not think they are the toughest fighters around.
That honor is bestowed upon the Mexicans.
Historically, they have displayed heart and the uncanny ability to absorb an insane amount of punishment, while continuing to come forward. Take Antonio Margarito for example.
In his recent losses to Manny Pacquiao and Shane Mosley, Margarito took severe beatings, but just kept coming. He was virtually blind entering the 10th round, causing even his opponent, Pacquiao, to look to the referee to stop the bout.
In defeat, the Mexican showed the true warrior spirit that is missing from many of our fighters.
European fighters, though not the most exciting, always come to fight, and most are not easily broken. Arthur Abraham proved that to be true in his 2006 IBF middleweight title bout against Edison Miranda.
In the fifth round, Miranda broke Abraham’s jaw with an intentional head butt. Abraham’s jaw wound up being broken in two places. His jaw was visibly swollen to the point that he could not close his mouth, and bled profusely throughout the entire fight, but he fought on.
Abraham came out with a unanimous decision victory, handing the then undefeated Colombian his first loss.
Don’t get me wrong. There are many instances where fighters from American soil have dug down deep and showed the heart it takes to keep fighting when met with adversity.
In 2001, Floyd Mayweather, JR., broke his hand in the sixth round when he landed a punch to the top of Carlos Hernandez’s head. He was in such pain that he was forced to take a knee.
When his glove touched the canvas it was ruled the first knockdown of “Money’s” career.
Despite the injury, “Money” Mayweather cruised to a 12 round unanimous decision victory.
Roy Jones entered his 1993 fight against ring legend Bernard Hopkins with a broken hand, and easily out-boxed him to a unanimous decision win.
Just last month, Shannon Briggs tore his left bicep in the second round of his heavyweight title fight against WBC Champion Vitali “Dr. Iron Fist” Klitschko. He fought through the injury and a vicious beating at the hands of the elder Klitschko, and remained on his feet the entire fight.
His courage and heart was rewarded with a trip to the hospital to repair a broken left orbital bone in his face, a broken nose, and the torn bicep.
Manny Pacquiao has a following of fans that will travel to the ends of the world to watch him fight, no matter the opponent.
Ricky Hatton fans came across the pond to scream “there’s only onnnne Ricky Hatton”, so where is the same support for our fighters? How many of us are willing to break the bank and travel across the globe to cheer our fighters on?
Not many, but I believe the blame falls on them.