Boxing’s Proposed ‘Legends League’ is a Lame Concept

Regarding Mike Tyson’s proposed Legends Only League, which reportedly would incorporate other sports in addition to boxing, it might actually make a go of it, if the PPV numbers for the golden oldies matchup of Tyson and Roy Jones Jr. is any indication. But there is at least one historical precedent that does not bode well for the concept as a whole.

In 1992, long after their retirements from the NBA, there actually was a PPV matchup of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Julius Erving. Not surprisingly, at least to me, Abdul-Jabbar built an 11-0 lead en route to winning in a rout, 43-21. The thing was, without a five-on-five team format, the 7’2” Kareem merely backed Dr. J down into the lane and flipped in sky-hooks almost at will. Erving couldn’t fly to the hoop for dunks in the open court because the taller man positioned himself underneath the basket and simply took away his trademark strength.

Dr. Margaret Goodman has been steadfast in her opposition to the type of exhibitions in which, admittedly, Tyson and Roy Jones Jr. acquitted themselves fairly well with no undue physical damage inflicted on one another. But what if Tyson wanted to pair Ray Leonard with a noticeably speech-slurred Tommy Hearns? Imagine the fallout if a legendary retired fighter already suffering from some level of CTE ends up in a coma? Or, worse, dead? It could stain legitimate boxing almost beyond imagination. I do believe that Larry Holmes still fantasizes about a PPV matchup with George Foreman, which was proposed and would have happened when both were in their late 40s, but that fell through when the financing collapsed. Trying to make that pairing now with a couple of seventy-something grandfathers is not the same thing. Not even close.

Maybe people would pay to see a home run hitting contest involving Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa, provided the fences were moved in a bit. But would anyone want to pony up even a few bucks to see a flag football game with Roger Staubach and Archie Manning the opposing quarterbacks? (FYI: the original Manning QB, while at Ole Miss, was the closest thing I had ever seen to the Navy version of Roger the Dodger, in terms of comparative skill sets.)

Also, we all know that Tyson “won” the exhibition with RJJ, regardless of what unofficial judge Vinny Paz says, an opinion I believe stems mostly from the fact that Vinny was totally dominated by a prime Jones when they fought and maybe he thinks that outcome justifies his siding with Roy concerning his semi-beatdown at Tyson’s hands. But declaring all such exhibitions “draws” would never satisfy the most competitive retired athletes participating, particularly if one clearly gets the better of his opponent. That superstar would want to be declared the winner, and we all know that.

A few select “Legends” matchups might be at least marginally feasible, but it would involve agreements on the arts of all contestants to basically go at something less than all-out, with no threat of actual physical damage inflicted or winners declared. Fat chance of that happening. And, in other sports, if the outcomes mirrored that of Abdul-Jabbar vs. Erving (which flopped on PPV), nobody would want to pay to see that anyway.

Another thing: A lot of us of a certain age remember how sad it was to see Johnny Unitas and Joe Namath gimping around as sack bait at the end of their respective careers, or Willie Mays stumbling under routine fly balls as a forty-something New York Met. Better to leave their fans with glorious memories of who and what they had been at their best than the empty vessel they appeared to be by trying to hold on past their natural athletic expiration dates.

Just one man’s opinion.

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A New Orleans native, Bernard Fernandez retired in 2012 after a 43-year career as a newspaper sports writer, the last 28 years with the Philadelphia Daily News. A former five-term president of the Boxing Writers Association of America, Fernandez won the BWAA’s Nat Fleischer Award for Excellence in Boxing Journalism in 1998 and the Barney Nagler Award for Long and Meritorious Service in 2015. Last year, Fernandez was accorded the highest honor for a boxing writer when he was named to the International Boxing Hall of Fame with the class of 2020. This past April 30, Fernandez’s memoir, “Championship Rounds,” was released by RKMA Publishing.

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