Christmas is almost here. It’s the time of year when the young and the young at heart eagerly await to see what Santa Claus got them from their list. Some of these requests are made in hope rather than expectation. Jolly Old St Nick was very good to me as a child, but even he didn’t manage to deliver every present. I never got a fully-working Ghostbusters proton pack, nor did he ever deposit Emma Bunton down my chimney.
2022 has been a rough year for boxing. The sport has been blighted by cancellations, failed negotiations, PEDs and the best avoiding the best. If the promoters, fighters and sanctioning bodies of boxing can’t fix this faltering sport, who can? The answer: Rudolph’s Dad.
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Help me Obi-Wan, you’re my only hope. Sorry, wrong beardy lad with superpowers. I’ll start again. Dear Santa, please listen to these suggestions to fix the sport of boxing. If you don’t intervene, we’ll have to watch Tyson Fury vs Derek Chisora IV. Nobody wants that, not even Derek Chisora.
Deliver The Goods
Tyson Fury vs Anthony Joshua. Terence Crawford vs Errol Spence Jr. Conor Benn vs Chris Eubank Jr. Ryan Garcia vs Gervonta Davis. In an alternate universe, these fights lit up 2022 in the ring. But in our reality, despite all being slated for this year, none took place.
Garcia vs ‘Tank’ is now planned for 2023, but the rest of the fights listed are back where they started. Crawford and Spence played footsie all year then decided to see other people. Benn and Eubank fell through due to a failed drugs test, with Conor’s career looking unlikely to recover. Fury opted for another fight with Chisora, who he had already beaten twice, rather than engage ‘AJ’.
If boxing is to compete in a busy sporting marketplace, where UFC are miles ahead in terms of market share, they need to get their best fights in the ring. No more fobbing fans off with ropey fights while constantly asserting that the next bout will be the worthy one. Eventually people will stop coming back.
Make Jake Paul Fight A Boxer
We might be getting a little wishful here, but he is Santa Claus after all. At this point, Jake Paul is probably more likely to fight a red-suited gift-giver than anyone who has had a significant professional boxing career.
‘The Problem Child’ is making more than enough money fighting knackered old UFC fighters. He has no incentive to stretch himself. But now he’s beginning to infiltrate boxing acceptability. Despite never having fought a true professional boxer, the WBA awarded him a commemorative belt this week. While it is not a true championship he can defend, it’s a worrying act of approval for his antics.
Paul is welcome in boxing. Anyone is. But from now on he should have to play by the rules. Fight someone with a genuine professional boxing record next. Not a YouTuber. Not A basketball player. Not an MMA fighter in his late 40s. An actual boxer with a pulse, a record and all his own teeth. If you want to eat from boxing’s buffet, bring something to the table.
Give Us A Boxing Video Game
For years, declining popularity was the reason given for the fact no video game publisher was putting out boxing video games. EA Sports’ Fight Night Champion in 2011 was the last major boxing release for consoles.
Of the ten highest-grossing boxing pay-per-views in boxing history, five of them have taken place in the years following FNC’s release. Boxing fills stadiums on a regular basis and has crowned new global superstars like Tyson Fury and Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez. A new generation of female fighters have propelled the sport further than ever. The excuse that boxing isn’t popular just doesn’t wash.
You can buy officially licensed handball, volleyball and dirt bike racing video games. It’s time to dust off the 3D gloves and give us another boxing outing. Steel City Interactive are working towards this end.
The independent studio is releasing Undisputed in the future. But the game has long been in development and no official release date has been announced as of yet. As always there are rumblings of a new entry into the Fight Night franchise. Perhaps after a fallow decade, boxing fans will have competing titles to choose from over the coming years.
Enough With The Belts
Boxing’s major championships are distributed by the WBC, WBA, WBO and IBF. The WBA distributes super and regular world championships. The WBO and WBC have interim world champions in some divisions. Then there’s the IBO, which often gets reported as a major title despite not being one. Are you following this so far?
Real Madrid are the football champions of Europe because they won the Champions League. Australia are the rugby league world champions because they won the World Cup. Max Verstappen is the Formula 1 World Champion because he won the most points over the course of a season.
Boxing doesn’t have that clarity. Josh Taylor used to be the undisputed super lightweight champion. He is now only the WBO super lightweight champion, because he wasn’t able to split himself in three and fight the simultaneous mandatory challengers he was handed by the other bodies. Boxing needs definitive champions, and it needs them badly.
Bin Off The Bridgerweights
While we’re tackling the matter of spurious championships, there is one more that Kris Kringle could bin for us. In 2021, the WBC bridgerweight championship was established to give fighters from 200-224lbs an outlet.
It was envisaged to acknowledge that heavyweights were getting bigger and those between divisions needed people their own size to fight. It was ostensibly devised to give Deontay Wilder a division to rule after losing his heavyweight title to Tyson Fury. But Wilder didn’t want to know, and now heavyweight fringe contender Oscar Rivas is the WBC bridgerweight king.
But the current king doesn’t seem to be that bothered either. He hasn’t defended the belt once during his 14-month reign. Rivas’ next fight is a ten-rounder up at heavyweight against Efe Ajagba. Time to consign this one to history.
*18+ | BeGambleAware | Odds Subject To Change
