January 2002 - March 2004 - The Jerry Quarry Foundation

ather suddenly in the mid-60s with the advent of closed circuit TV
transmission. All of a sudden the revenues to be made from boxing were increased
tremendously. These figures are not exact, but it was as if a boxing promotion
that might have earned $100,000 in 1961 or 1962 would by 1965 or 1966 bring in
many millions. The situation created a demand for telegenic and exciting
boxers for these telecasts. Even promoters who'd never been involved in boxing
or even sports needed fighters to be in their productions. This demand tended to
distort and twist the traditional boxing setup of rankings and divisions. New
divisions sprouted up so that TV promoters could claim to have "world
championship fights" featuring "top-ranked boxers". Not for the first time but
now more often, we saw unknown boxers vault into the upper rankings soon before
a big closed-circuit fight. As time went on, this situation redefined the sport.
Sugar Ray Leonard was a professional boxer chosen by ABC TV to begin at the top.
It's a happy coincidence he turned out to be one of the finest boxers of all
time. By 2003, this is how profitable boxing works. Promoters thrive on TV money
-- now cable and pay-for-view. The local fight cards barely break even, if they
do at all. Every boxer wants to fight on TV and make big money. Who can blame
them? The effects of this situation are obvious. 1. Kids are rushed into
big fights. 2. Certain kids are favored to appear in these big fights over
other kids who are just as good. 3. Some kids get into the wrong sport,
hoping to become millionaires. 4. There are dozens of ranking organizations.
5. The rankings have lost almost all their credibility. 6. Powerful
promoters run the sport. 7. Boxing now has an artifical nature to it,
because sometimes it seems everything is contrived and made up for a cable or
pay-per-view audience. 8. Top boxers now fight only occasionally, or once a
year or even every 2 years. Before 1960 or so, they fought once or twice a
month. That busyness made the competition and the rankings meaningful, because
they fought each other and had common opponents. Now they don't nearly as often.
Now as far as this generation of 1960s-1970s heavyweight boxers we're
talking about goes, it was a transitional period. One foot was in the old way
and one foot in the new. We had some terrific fighters and some people who could
barely fight at all, like Chuck (The Bayonne Bleeder) Wepner and the endless
parade of Great White Hopes including Cooney, Morrison, etc. If a knowledgable
fan had been able to follow either of them for a while, would he pay to see one
of them go up against a Frazier, a Foreman, a Norton or a Holmes? I wouldn't.
There's a great suspicion thrown over boxing now and a doubtful quality to
it all. When fighters are treated more like movie stars and celebrities, always
in the gossip columns or the papers for beating people up or rape, and they only
fight matches once a year, the integrity and meaning of the sport are
drastically diluted. We might even say that on this hypothetical one night of
fighting that these two fighters have, one wins and so what? It just doesn't
seem like the Real McCoy any more. In fact, with the money becoming
astronomical, how can we trust them? You can be a pretty honest guy, but for $5
million bucks or more, you might do things differently, like throw a fight or
dog one. Who knows? Possibly the most hurtful thing to a true fan, like all
of us, is seeing what has always been a shabby but respectable sport where
atheletes train harder than anyone else and risk their lives to pursue it, the
whole thing is cheapened now, and reduced to a commercial process. We might
say someone like Eddie Machen or Zora Folley or Ernie Terrell or Cleve Williams
were good fighters at the most, but by God, they paid`their dues in two-bit
towns, gritty arenas, with unfair judges sometimes, and for measly purses for
years and years before they made it to the big time. Most of the kids we see on
TV now can't say that, and it matters. Our sport too often turns into a
spectacle that has little to do with boxing. Thanks. |
|9/4/03 04:07:04 AM|Massimo|Rome||CarnerabAli' KO 1||||10|Tubby-Why do you
think Alejandro Lavorante didn't deserve to be a top 10 in 1961 ? I know he KOed
Zora Folley in 7 ! I' d be curious to have interesting informations about this