London: “I was defending my sport,” Oscar De La Hoya said Monday. “I love boxing. I just thought it was a fraud. I still think it’s a fraud.”
The entirety of the tweet De La Hoya posted Friday night includes a salutation unsuitable for this space but was directed at Floyd Mayweather and Conor McGregor and declared “both of you are disrespecting the sport of boxing.”
For better or worse, boxing can be about boxing now.
In the midst of the finest year pugilism has experienced in some time, a clown show interrupted the renaissance when Mayweather emerged from his hole to wear down MMA’s top draw, McGregor, in an exhibition that nearly 5 million people paid $100 (Dh367) to watch on TV.
No one who has seen top-level boxing confused what happened Saturday _ McGregor hopping and jabbing like a kangaroo; Mayweather weakly attacking only when he saw his prey was about to fall over _ with an actual fight.
Others have somehow hailed the scrum as a fantastic fight simply because it shockingly cleared a knee-high bar when McGregor hung around in his boxing debut for almost 10 rounds before the fight was stopped.
It was silly. These guys should have been wearing oversized shoes in the ring. At times, you expected McGregor to pull an endless handkerchief from his shorts. Kudos to McGregor for hanging in. But Mayweather, a shadow of himself, plays defence when shadowboxing. He should have ended Saturday’s fight 10 times before the referee did. He couldn’t _ or wouldn’t. That was not boxing.
But the real boxing men are not complaining either.
“We were just hoping it wasn’t a disaster, where people would say, ‘We’re never buying another pay-per-view,’ “ said Tom Loeffler, promoter for Genaddy “GGG” Golovkin. “I don’t think it’s going to hurt this event. We weren’t negative on that event. We just made it clear this is the real fight and that was a spectacle.
“That was a spectacle. But it did bring (boxing) to the mainstream. I think that’s a good lead-in to this fight.”
This real fight.
“I’m glad so many people bought the fight so that they can see what boxing is all about,” said De La Hoya, the former world champion who now is a promoter and counts Canelo Alvarez among his charges. “And what real boxing is all about is Sept. 16.”
That is when, in the same Las Vegas arena where McMay was served, Golovkin (37-0) will meet Alvarez (49-1-1).
This sets up as the actual fight of the year.
This is like if you thought your nephew’s middle school orchestra was cool and three weeks later you paid $30 less to see the St. Petersburg Philharmonic.
Alvarez-Golovkin was always going to be big. Those who follow boxing _ and that’s a number not as large as it used to be, though undergoing a surge after a year filled with well-hyped, well-executed fights _ have been waiting a few years for Golovkin and Alvarez to get it on.
Golovkin has been waiting that long. He’s the owner of three middleweight belts, widely considered the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world. He’s fought on seven continents, gradually building to a mass following while awaiting Alvarez, who spent the past few years avoiding Golovkin and padding his wallet.
Golovkin is 35 and has hinted this could be his last fight, though that probably ought not be believed. He’s just reaching a point where he’s widely known, which translates to marketable, which translates to bankable.
Alvarez, at 27, is just entering his prime. He’s fought more than 50 times. His only loss was in 2013 to Mayweather. And he’s only getting better, that much can be seen every time he enters the ring.
These two fighters put on a show while exercising an actual sport. They both hit with the force of kicks, Golovkin more of a power puncher and Alvarez a skilled counter-puncher. They fight with a hunger that butts up against but isn’t consumed by desperation.
This will be a fight that lets the world see what the sweet science is.
Yes, they hype in boxing the same way they go through tape and ice packs. But there was no nonsense in the way Alvarez spoke Monday at a press event in Los Angeles.
A question about the expectations preceding this bout included a reference to Hagler-Hearns.
“Without a doubt,” Alvarez said, “it has to be one of the great fights.”
A real fight.
— Los Angeles Times
