September 2022 – BOXINGWRITER.CO.UK

The weekend reluctantly succumbs to a grumbling Monday, children scramble onto back seats and the drizzle of late September sneers at those too lazy to cut the lawn the day before. In the ensuing silence, thoughts, ideas compete, ebbing and flowing for those of us wrestling with obligation, the should dos afforded by time and solitude.

Boxing lurches in to frame among the unwashed breakfast pots, the dogs that need exercise and the bill that needs paying. It isn’t always this way. Golovkin and Canelo III came and went leaving little fat to chew on by the Monday, despite the generational greatness of the pairing. A tired episode in a great rivalry. The money laden, but inferior, Godfather III if you will. Years too late.

Into the wash of their encounter stepped Shakur Stevenson, the next, next Pretty Boy. He has predecessors as would be successor to Floyd and his Uber-wealth. 25 years old and 22 ounces over the limit. He won. Cemented his status. But missing weight brought more headlines than the fight. The nature of the modern mediums. Words, failure, toxicity create more wake than quality, preparation, success.

And so it fell to the heavyweights in Manchester, England. The two nice guys called Joe, Joyce and Parker, met in a crossroads bout. Was this the top of Joyce’s arc or could he continue his climb versus Parker, a man who had soared with Joshua and Ruiz already? Expectations had been modest. Joyce, huge, lumbering but effective. Parker, stout, sharper and seasoned.

Both excelled. And their bruising encounter revealed a new player at the top of the division.

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When in doubt, tell the truth.
Mark Twain, Humourist and novelist, (1835-1910)

Any boxing match worth its salt is a cocktail of knowns and unknowns. Proposing multiple potential outcomes, paradoxical in the conflict of conviction and uncertainty those possibilities provoke. Fight week should play with those conclusions, tease doubt, shift perspective and stimulate debate for those with the wisdom to embrace the rumination rather than dismiss anything that doesn’t validate their own opinion. A common failing in the echo chamber of our own social media streams.

This weekend’s heavyweight battle between Joe Joyce and Joseph Parker doesn’t possess all of those ingredients. As a result it had failed to toy with fight fan’s interest as the last days and hours before the first bell tick away in the way the best fights usually do. Both Joes possess strengths and weaknesses, present a variance of form and experience and offer complimentary styles too. There has always been much to like in the match up. The bout boasts sufficient jeopardy and reward for the victor and vanquished to encourage a fierce commitment from the two gentlemanly protagonists too.

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When forty winters shall besiege thy brow, 
And dig deep trenches in thy beauty's field
William Shakespeare, Sonnet 2

I sat perched on the edge of the sofa, waiting for one of the three greatest middleweights of my life time to enter the ring. Twenty or more title fights sprawled out on his record, a long sequence of victories, a red mark or two failing to diminish a reputation as the best 160 pounder of his generation. And perhaps, whisper it quietly, the best of all.

Aged 40, doubt remained. Such was my intoxication with boxing, the 4am ring walk, the obscure channel, the pay per view fee, nothing would dissuade me from tuning in. A dangerous opponent, younger, fresher, stronger too maybe? He had it all to do.

The year was 2005. The fight was Hopkins versus Eastman. Much has changed since. Much has stayed the same.

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First published at bookmakers.com

This Saturday, fans of boxing and the wider sporting world will turn their gaze away from the heavyweights and toward the unfashionable trappings of the Super-Middleweight (168lb) division. Two luminaries of the modern age; Saul ’Canelo’ Alvarez and Gennadiy Golovkin, face each other for the third, and in all likelihood, final time. Los Angeles’ T-Mobile Arena will provide the stage for the concluding chapter in their bitter and controversial rivalry.

For each combatant, the customary collection of belts will be at stake, alongside lucrative purses and, most cherished of all, the chance to establish definitive superiority over the best of their contemporaries. There are a host of variables to navigate in predicting the outcome. Age, form, activity, location, weight. Proposing opportunity for punters but complicated by the interpretations applied to their significance and to whom they offer advantage. The enduring injustice which hung over the verdicts awarded in their first two contests, an unjustified Draw and a barely conceivable Majority Decision for Canelo, is an additional factor which could influence markets and conceivably create margins for those who invest unemotionally.

It is a feast of tangibles and intangibles.

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