RIP Heavyweight Division

[JoeStrummer]

Makes me sad and I don't want to go all Uncle rico about it, but heavyweight prize fights were some of my best childhood memories. I guess we always have Penis Chest. . . .

HBO to stop screening heavyweight boxing due to lack of US interest

Home Box Office, the American cable television network, delivered a body blow to boxing on Wednesday when it announced it would be withdrawing any plans to screen heavyweight title fights.

By Gareth A Davies, Boxing Correspondent

It was once called 'The Richest Prize in Sport', when the heavyweight champion was the heavyweight champion.

It was one giant step in the wrong direction for boxing's slumbering blue riband division, in decline and without an identifiable anchor in the United States since the retirement of Lennox Lewis in 2003.

Ross Greenburg, HBO sports president said on Wednesdat that it was down to the paucity of credible American heavyweights.

“'We're out of the heavyweight division. There isn't any interest in the US and no one besides Haye to challenge the Klitschkos.”

British boxers Joe Calzaghe, Naseem Hamed, Ricky Hatton and Lennox Lewis all benefitted from HBO coverage.

The ripples will be felt financially by David Haye (WBA) and the Klitschko brothers, Wladimir (WBO and IBF) and Vitali (WBC), holders of the four most widely respected baubles, with the triumvirate focused on fighting in Europe.

The public in the United States appear to have lost interest in a division which once split over with larger than life athletic giants who became world stars.

Muhammad Ali was a one-off, showman, athlete, and activist and has cemented as one of the iconic sporting figures from the last century. Yet Ali could not have been defined thus without a group of brilliant dancing rivals, or the changing times in society.

The brutal artistry of Ali was with a pallot of colours which included Joe Frazier, George Foreman, Ken Norton, and Larry Holmes. And how he painted as they all danced, fists like brush strokes. In the ring, and in the civil rights movement. It defined an era.

The next generation of Evander Holyfield, Mike Tyson and Lennox Lewis filled the breach, mega-millionaires, giant characters in the age of the global village.

Yet since their retirement, or demise in the case of Holyfield, who is still fighting like a ghost haunting the heavyweight division, boxing for the big boys has hit a cyclical trough. At least in the United States.

Where is Mike Tyson when you need him ? Well, even ‘Iron Mike’ himself, now 260lbs and 44 years old, was completing personal duties in Mecca where he performed the Umrah this week. The worm turns.

In Germany, it is a different story. The Klitschko Show tours German football stadiums, the two super-heavyweights hammering no hopers in front of 60,000 spectators, out for a night of gluwein and canapés, before retiring for a little light opera.

Even the applause for the Klitschos in the resembles the rippling crescendo of an applauding haute-couture audience.

The Klitchko Bros tried the United States. I covered two of Wladimir Klitschko’s contests in New York, against Calvin Brock and Sergei Liakovich.

They were turgid affairs, and the US public failed to warm to the brothers, whose charisma burns much more brightly with the German public.

“I had to tell the guy in front of me at one of those fights to stop snoring, because he was keeping me awake,” Bert Sugar, the boxing historian, barked at me recently. But it sums up how the Americans feel.

In Germany, nonetheless, the giant jabbing, efficient style of the 6ft 7in tall brothers have turned them into genuine crossover stars. They are educated, and cultured. Box office on a different planet to Tyson and Co.

They draw an average audience of 11 million on terrestrial television, with whom they have multi-million euro multi-fight deals. Last year, Vitali

Klitschko’s defence of the World Boxing Council title was the second most watched sports event in Germany. The only event to overhaul it in viewing figures was the FIFA World Cup Finals qualifying match between Germany and Russia.

In 2009, in America, the top-ten television pay-per-view buys in the US included three boxing matches, involving either Floyd Mayweather Jr or Manny

Paquiao, with six the top-ten positions taken by mixed martial arts. In the last 20 years, basketball and American football have become the more popular routes for large athletes with salaries increasing tenfold.

Promoter Bob Arum says it is about the characters. “If the heavyweight champion of the world was LeBron James or Michael Jordan, heavyweight boxing would be flying high,” he told Telegraph Sport.

Historian Bert Sugar concurs. “The problem is they can earn ten times the money and these days the big guys are scared of being hit,” added Sugar.

Greenburg, at HBO, has left a caveat for Haye to develop a reputation in the US, but there has been precious little indication that he will fight there any time soon. He would need a win over either Klitschko brother to swagger across the Atlantic.

Haye claimed three belts in the cruiserweight division – one of the less decorated weights in the sport – and climbed up a rung against the big boys.

It has been a good move, and Haye is box office, when available. He has been something of a Houdini between fights, fading from public spotlight. His time is now, and he should be out there selling himself.

The veteran sages in the US – the likes of legendary HBO anchor Larry Merchant, promoter Arum, publicist Bill Caplan, and historian Bert Sugar, around in the Foreman-Ali-Frazier era – have told Telegraph Sport in recent weeks that Haye could capture hearts and minds in the United States.

“He could save the division, but he needs to beat one of those superheavyweight Klitschkos and then fight over here,” Sugar told Telegraph Sport.

Yet with Haye content to fight twice a year, which is arguably is at least one or even two fights too few, there seems little chance of Haye hyping it up in the good old US of A.

They used to say ‘Only in America’. Now it is no longer…what the heavyweight division needs is another Mike Tyson.

[Tippster]

MMA killed the Sweet Science. Why the fuck people enjoy watching two yuppies hit each other 3 times then wrestle around for a few minutes I'll never understand.

[Hugh Conway]

Why the fuck people enjoy watching two yuppies hit each other 3 times then wrestle around for a few minutes I'll never understand.

I'd pay serious money to watch 2 shits in suits give each other bloody noses.

MMA, not so much.

[Sessiøn]

If you knew what the fuck you were looking at then MMA might be entertaining to you. But since you're clueless it's easier to make ignorant statements.

[OSECS]

Don "look at my hair" King killed legitimate boxing in this country.

The final golden era was Ali, Frazier, Foreman. There have been some good heavyweights since, but never with opponents for their careers like these 3 guys. JMO.

And MMA is pretty damn exciting, it's putting nails in boxing coffins right now.

[Loon]

I just enjoy good fights I don't care if its chickens, MMA, Karate, boxing, whatever. Boxing killed itself with curuption and by not giving the fans the fights they want to see. Think we'll ever see FMJ vs. Pacman? my guess is no, or that it won't happen until they are both past thier prime.

[pappag]

Heavyweight boxing was boring long before the rise of Lennox Lewis. Who wants to see a couple of guys walk circles around the ring and hug each other while barely throwing 20 punches a round? I'd rather watch an undercard complete with guys between 140 and 160 any day of the week. Sadly, there was great promise when the Klitschko brothers emerged (must be close to 10 years ago?) - they were supposed to carry the heavyweight class for a long time to come but you can only do so much with so little talent.

[Rooster]

MMA=all the kids are doing it. Every other 20-25 year old in SLC is all of a sudden a WFC guy. Helps score the ladies mebbe?

[PaSucks]

MMA killed the Sweet Science. Why the fuck people enjoy watching two yuppies hit each other 3 times then wrestle around for a few minutes I'll never understand.

I mean, you can pretty much make the EXACT same statement about boxing. It is about scoring points, not beating the shit out of someone. At least in MMA you can still see some guys bleed all over the mat. The rediculous number of federations (WBO, WBA, IBA, whatthefuckever) as well as nothing but pay-per-views also did a lot to kill the sport.

[couloirman]

I swear, every time I turn on a UFC fight all I see is two guys hugging, and rubbing their sweat on eachother. I do enjoy watching episodes of UFC ultimate knockouts though when they happen to be on the tv, that is some decent entertainment.

[frorider]

What's even more sad is that the telegraph uk cannot afford a proofreader to correct the numerous spelling errors in this piece.

[Tippster]

If you knew what the fuck you were looking at then MMA might be entertaining to you. But since you're clueless it's easier to make ignorant statements.

Same can be said about synchronized swimming and ballroom dancing.

[Phill]

Watching two guys beat the shit out of each other has never interested me. Seems barbaric.

[TheDingleberry]

bring back butterbean.

[StuntCok]

bring back butterbean.

Butterbean was a 3 round boxer and that stuff is far more entertaining than traditional boxing. In Japan, 3 round tournament based K-1 (kickboxing/karate) killed boxing in terms of interest long before MMA did in the US (and butterbean didn't stand a chance against the low kicking kyokushin, Muay Thai etc fighters but he tried).

As a fighter who studied boxing in order to switch over from full contact karate to kickboxing, even I find modern heavyweight boxing pretty boring to watch and I am schooled in its intricacies. Boxing is not-so-slowly being pushed aside by new and more interesting sports.

[sidewall]

Tyson was amazing but anytime I see a heavyweight fight nowadays, it's two huge dudes lumbering around the ring, throwing lazy punches at eachother then tying up. The Klitschko brothers always fight guys they can beat the shit out of- I never see either of them in a tough bout, except for the time Vitali had his eye badly cut.

[Skidog]

MMA=all the kids are doing it. Every other 20-25 year old in SLC is all of a sudden a WFC guy. Helps score the ladies mebbe?

Aint it the truth ruth??? Holy cow...i guess it does in fact help with the ladies...guess they like cauliflower ears or some shit.

But yeah MMA killed or is killing pro boxing...I too used to enjoy the hell out of heavyweight fights....not soo much anymore. MMA is exicting.

[Lonnie]

MMA=all the kids are doing it.

This.....

[wcf3]

Heavyweight boxing has never really interested me, even the best classic fights (e.g. Frasier/Ali). Heavyweight boxers are just too ponderous to be much fun to watch. For me, the most interesting fights are in the welterweight or middleweight divisions where you see a lot of speed and action, but one punch knockout power is also present. For me the true 'golden age' of boxing in last half century was when Leonard, Hearns, Hagler, Benitez and Duran were all fighting in the eighties.

MMA style fighting is certainly interesting, but doesn't have the depth of talent or history to compete with boxing yet, though it certainly seems on the right track to get there eventually.

[fomofo]

Fifty years ago today! One of the best heavyweight title fights ever, maybe Ali’s greatest.



https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_..._in_the_Jungle

I watched When We Were Kings again recently. It doesn’t have the complete fight footage like the clip above, but it does weave an interesting story around the event, and is a great time capsule with appearances by a lot of familiar faces from that period.

[exsparky]

ONE 168 in Denver was pretty awesome. It was their second in the USA ever.

Even with the UFC cheap shotting them with a last minute event just before them it went off pretty well.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ONE_168

The muay thai events are a nice change up.

I hope its the future but those MMA gloves are should be swapped for Muay Thai gloves.


They don't have any heavies and it was still good.