Boxing Odds and Ends: Return of the Overweights and More

The 1980s brought two new sanctioning bodies into boxing. The IBF, founded in 1983, and the WBO (1988) came along to challenge the established organizations.

More organizations meant more “champions.” For a time, the heavyweight division was a revolving door of title-holders. The claimants, with very few exceptions, were aligned with Don King.

Many of the 1980s-era heavyweights that came through the revolving door were on the flabby side; their “love handles” made their trunks fit tight. Investigative reporter Jack Newfield blamed King, postulating that his ensemble of heavyweights had become so demoralized by his double-dealing that they had lost the incentive to stay in shape. Budd Schulberg acidly observed that a new classification had been born: the overweights.

We were reminded of Schulberg’s snarky sobriquet while watching the fights this weekend. Don King’s latest heavyweight “champion,” Trevor Bryan, weighed in for his fight with Bername Stiverne carrying 267 ½ pounds. His previous career high was 248 and that was for an opponent with a 2-24 record. The following night, love handles were on display again when Darmani Rock opposed Michael Coffie. Rock, 24, fell from the ranks of the unbeaten when Coffie stopped him in the third round.

rock

It would be too easy to blame Trevor Bryan’s ungainly appearance on King. He was inactive for all of 2019 and all of 2020 and it isn’t as easy to stay in shape nowadays with so many gyms and fitness centers shuttered because of the pandemic. As for Darmani Rock, he actually slimmed down from his recent fights, albeit the 261 pounds he carried were still too many, or at least too indecorously distributed.

Let’s hope the overweights don’t take over boxing’s glamour division.

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Don King’s fiasco in Florida inspired both laughter and derision. The World Boxing News, a popular U.K.-based website, reacted by ex-communicating the World Boxing Association. They removed all WBA belts from their Champions list and said that a unification fight would no longer be recognized as such if it involved the WBA and only one of the other three major bodies.

For the honchos at this web site, sanctioning Bryan vs. Stiverne as a title fight was the last straw. Trevor Bryan is now the WBA “regular” champion which presumably makes Anthony Joshua an irregular champion. The WBA “champion in recess” is Mahmoud “Manuel” Charr who last fought in 2017.

This decision undoubtedly drew a “thumbs up” from prominent boxing writer Dan Rafael who has been in the forefront of the drive to shame the World Boxing Association into cutting back on their number of champions, as they once indicated that they would. Rafael has been flogging the Panama-based organization with words like rancid and putrid since at least 2009.

We doubt that the WBN’s new policy will make a difference, but we can certainly appreciate the sentiment. What we would suggest is that Joe Santoliquito, the president of the Boxing Writers Association of America, draft a letter condemning the World Boxing Association, a letter that every member of the BWAA would be invited to sign, and that this letter would then be forwarded to the heads of the various state boxing commissions with a recommendation that they put the WBA under suspension until such time as the WBA gets its house in order. Every state boxing commission has the authority to suspend an entity or individual whose conduct is deemed to be detrimental to the sport.

Agreed, there are drawbacks. There are still states in the union that have no boxing commission and bad consequences would inevitably follow if fights were diverted to these places where safety precautions are lax. Moreover, a state boxing commission does more than regulate the sport. Although not explicitly stated, a commission is expected to be an arm of economic development and in these trying times where dwindling tax revenues have forced many government agencies to tighten their belts, no commission wants to be in the position of turning away business. Moreover, de-frocking the WBA could open a Pandora’s box as the other organizations are hardly paragons of virtue.

We would be interested in hearing your thoughts on this matter.

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Ryan Garcia created quite a buzz when he posted on his Instagram page a mock-up of a poster promoting a bout between him and Manny Pacquaio. True, everything Garcia does nowadays creates a buzz. The 22-year-old unmarried father of two has the aura of a matinee idol (a term, by the way, that originated in the days of vaudeville where the audience for matinees consisted of many unmarried women who were discouraged from going out after dark without a male escort).

Our first reaction when we heard this was that Garcia, or rather his publicist and/or business manager, was pulling our string. Garcia is a lightweight. Pacquiao’s last 16 fights, beginning with his 2009 bout with Miguel Cotto, were contested at welterweight. True, they could meet in the middle, say at a catchweight of 141 pounds, but at age 42 it’s hard to envision PacMan burning off the weight.

Naysayers assumed that a bout between Garcia and Pacquiao would take the form of an exhibition. A spokesperson for Garcia, Guadalupe Valencia, and Garcia himself, insist the fight will be genuine. Moreover, Valencia told ESPN that Team Pacquiao initiated the talks.

It’s being said that Garcia vs. Pacquiao will take place in late May or early June. We will bet money that it doesn’t happen with the understanding that all bets are off if it’s an exhibition. Regardless, the only title that will be at stake will be one that hasn’t been contrived yet. Ryan Garcia doesn’t currently own one. Manny Pacquiao, who last fought in July of 2019, winning a split decision over Keith Thurman, owned the irregular version of the WBA welterweight title until a few days ago when it was stripped from him. PacMan was simultaneously named the WBA “champion in recess.”

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