F--- boxing

Floyd is still ducking Pac. Theory has it that Pac held back his power to lure Floyd out of hiding. Floyd still reluctant to come out and face Pac. Amazing.

 

Vitali Klitschko defends his WBC title against Britain's Derek Chisora tonight in Munich.

Chisora slapped Vitali at the weigh in.

It helps hype fight but you never know with Chisora. It could just be a case of him being unpleasant. He has a documented history of unpleasant behaviour. For instance beating up his girlfriend (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-11727784). Kissing an opponent on the lips at a press conference (

). Biting a journeyman (http://www.skysports.com/story/0,19528,12183_5364691,00.html); it should be noted that Chisora was winning the fight when he did that. It wasn't a case of a guy losing a fight and going crazy.

 

Another easy one for Vitali

 

More orchestrated horseshit from another guy who will show probably more fight at the weigh-in than he will in the ring. This guy forgot rule number one of prizefighting: Fight when you get paid for it.

 

Every friggin' weigh-in has pushing and shoving and crap like that. Do they really think people are going to see that and be like "Ooooh, I need to buy this fight now. They're shoving each other at the staredown!"

Stupid shit. It's not a novelty anymore after the 8 millionth time it's been done.

Not to mention, shit like this:

http://espn.go.com/boxing/story/_/id/7581851/boxer-luis-lazarte-banned-ibf-threat-sparking-ring-riot

And I'm not even referring to all the riot crap. I'm referring to "Vacant Interim 108-pound title."

How the fuck can you be an "Interim champion"? Either you're the champion or you're not.

 

Next time anyone questions whether boxing is shooting itself in the foot, check out the availability of this fight to the common man.

Don't see it on HBO or Showtime; don't see it on our PPV channel.

You keep holding heavyweight title fights that can't be seen by people, people are going to stop caring.

 

Vitali may well beat the ever loving shit out of Chisora. That said, I really don't think that Chisora is one of those guys who was beaten in his own mind as soon as he got off the plane in Germany. I've seen a good deal of his fights and that's not how he's wired. I don't think he'll win, but I do think that he really believes that he can. He may find out very quickly that he is out of his legal, but I do expect him to give it a go. He'll move his head and he'll try and get inside the jab. He may succeed. He probably won't. It's a fight that I was interested in before the slap.

As for the slap. Chisora, to use a colloquialism, is a total pussycat. He has a well documented history of being a total pussycat. Who knows why he does things the things he does. You can't put all his past behaviour down to hyping fights either. He wasn't hyping a fight when he roughed up his girl friend or when he bit Paul Butlin.

 

Exactly but in this case I don't think anybody gives a shit. Nobody would pay for this fight, nobody gives a shit about the Klitschkos, they won't fight each other and there are no decent contenders out there.

You come up with that Holy Grail - the really good American heavyweight - and people will begin giving a shit about that division - and probably boxing in general - again. Until then, it's an after thought to the sports world.

Man, do I long for the days when there might be three fights on network TV on a Saturday or Sunday afternoon.

 

The world is bigger than Amercia. The idea that no one cares about the Klits is just silly. Vitali's last fight had an attendance somewhere in the region of 45,000 people.

 

It's bigger than nobody caring about the Klitschkos. And 45,000 people in Berlin doesn't mean that much in the big picture.

 

Eddie Melo, a fighter I'm sure you have have never heard of, used to fill the Montreal Forum back in the day and he was never close to being a champion. Boxing has always had fighters with large regional - in many cases national - followings that don't translate internationally.

But a fighter defending a version of the WORLD heavyweight title in a fight that can't be seen in the biggest boxing market in the world? Not good.

 

It was in Poland.