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How to Clean Up Boxing By Darren Carter ARJ Sports Executive Editor December 9, 2003
For years boxing has been look upon as, maybe a step above professional wrestling. Everybody knows the Rock and Hulk Hogan are going to win, it's rigged. In recent years, boxing has had it's share of negative publicity, due in part to, questionable judges decisions, unscrupulous promotors, and the alphabet sanctioning bodies who govern the WBC, WBA, & IBF (those are the only three I acknowledge, but there are a host of other generic ones). A fighter can fight for years, get his brains beat out and not have a dime to show for it, and live the rest of his life as a vegetable. Boxing has to do something to clean up it's image. Football, basketball, baseball, & even hockey has surpassed boxing in popularity. Most of that is because boxing has no creditability. Controversy and boxing are as inseparable as white on rice. After 14 years, the fans of Thomas "Hitman" Hearns are still convinced he got the short end of the stick, in 2nd fight with Sugar Ray Leonard, which was ruled a draw, that Hearns clearly won. Add to those hundreds of other questionable decisions, such as those rendered in Julio Caesar Chavez-Pernell Whitaker and Lennox Lewis-Evander Holyfield I etc., etc.In remembering the first Lewis-Holyfield fight, I am a Holyfield fan, but it is no way Evander earned a draw in that fight. Everybody who saw that fight will come to that conclusion. Just so happens Don King was Holyfield's promotor. I'm not saying King had the fight set up, but I do suspect some trickery. Speaking of Don King, he part of what is wrong with boxing. I'm not just singling King out, Bob Arum is just as underhanded as King, but King get's all the notarity because he's so flamboyant and because he's black, so the media has a tendencity to over dramatize King's exploits. Unscrupulous promotors are getting rich, exploiting fighters, in most cases getting more money than the fighters. That's not right, the people are not paying to see the promotor, they are paying to see the fighter.
The fact that there are so many titles is bad for boxing. There only needs to be 1 champion. The rest of the contenders, get in line and fight for 1 title belt, so that championship matches mean something. They need 1 central boxing commission that can't be bought off, with one set of rules, and the rankings of the contenders. They need to have a scoreboard, so that the scores of each round can be seen round-by-round. That would help minimized any bought off judges. They need to establish a pension plan for fighters so after they retire they will have some kind of means of support. I know that there is a lot to do in order to get boxing cleaned up, but in order to legitimize the sport you need to eliminate as much of the controversy as possible. Take the lead of the NFL, NBA, MIB, & NHL and lay down one set of ground rules that apply to the whole game, and that would be a great start in getting things turned around.
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