Yesteryears new weight class, new title small hall brawls equal todays hyped mega fights

Yes I did Russell and I'll have a look at some more of these fights. To be honest, at the time I didn't really take these divisions seriously. I always looked at it as a division where fellas who weren't good enough to challenge for the middleweight or light heavyweight title campaigned. We never got to see these fights in Britain and I've never gone out of my way to look at them since.

 

I think you've nailed it there, Russell - GGG and Canelo both fought within themselves to an extent. Neither of them ever got into those full-on exchanges where they both risked it. There were a couple of occasions where they started doing that but then one or the other withdrew and they settled back into the previous rhythm of the fight. Canelo seemed to be pacing himself and was inactive because of it but GGG didn't press enough on those occasions, perhaps wary that he might get caught on the counter. Either way, no-one 'dared to be great' (as Larry Merchant used to say) and I think that's why I wasn't that upset by the decision, even though I had GGG ahead. I didn't feel he brought it home like great middleweight champions of the past.

 

No, go on and preach it brother! I'm with you all the way on this.

There is undoubtedly justifiable nostalgia for boxing's past. While some of it is definitely viewed through rose-tinted spectacles a lot of the reverence is down to the fact that boxing once mattered. It was a mainstream sport despite the inherent violence. Now it's a niche sport that every once in a while gets a bit of the spotlight in and around the other sporting mega spectaculars that are happening around the globe.

The problem with boxing has been that the sport has always ended up hurting itself, usually through greed. And whenever the spotlight comes back onto the sport for a brief moment, the people that organise it manage to show it in the least flattering light possible so that we're left with Mayweather-McGregor as the general public's view of the sport. But then real fans of the sport say 'No, no, that's not what it's really about, it's about real fights like GGG v Canelo'... and then those fights happen and we're disappointed that it didn't live up to the billing.

When that's the absolute best the sport has to offer, maybe I'll just stick on a YouTube video and watch Hagler-Hearns to remind myself what it looks like when two fighters go for broke.

 

I think Murray Sutherland might have moved "down" to fight for the SMW title after Michael Spinks & Saad bounced him off the canvas a few times in LtHvy Title shots. Skimming over his list of SMW opponents shows some very decent MW's, SMW's, and LtHeavies that made Sat. afternoon boxing fun to watch on home TV.

 

I take it the same would apply to Leonard-Hagler?

 

Your general complaint about the lack of “fighting” in a mega fight seems just as applicable. Leonard spent most of the fight essentially running around the ring, trying to avoid combat. Hagler more or less let him and spent much of the fight ineffectively following him around. Neither of them landed much meaningful leather. Seems like your criticisms about the decline of boxing would apply to that megafight too.