ShareThisWhile there's no denying that Mixed Martial Arts has caught up with boxing in regard to popularity in most quarters and completely surpassed it in others, my question is what can boxing do about it?
Well, one thing would be to bring this Floyd Mayweather Jr.-Manny Pacquiao fight from the speculative to the literal. Yet, a lot of that is on Mayweather.
His silence after Pacquiao's concessions (drug testing, split of the fight purse, etc.) has Mayweather looking like anything but the No. 1 pound-for-pound boxer in the world.
Given a chance to be a shining light for a sport badly in need of one, Mayweather is coming off more like boxing's top fraidy cat, dragging himself and everyone who plies his craft even deeper into obscurity in the process.
Meanwhile, casual boxing fans might not even know about the fight.
That's because they're doing what casual fans all the way back to when you could see the big fights for free on television have always done.
They're looking at the heavyweight division -- and they're awfully confused.
There are no Mike Tysons, Lennox Lewises or even Larry Holmeses on the horizon. It's just a bunch of big guys who might as well be in the Witness Protection Program in the eyes of the average, casual boxing fan.
And if you think I'm being harsh, consider this: if there was a fight tomorrow to determine the world's undisputed heavyweight championship, it would be between Ukraine's Vitali Klitschko (WBC and IBF champion) and England's David Haye (WBA champ). No kidding.
Top American heavyweight prospects Ashanti Jordan and Deontay Wilder have less than 20 professional fights between them, but seem to be the best hope for the division going forward. That is, if they're not drawn into MMA.
NFL players benefit from its training, former pro wrestlers make the switch to it and former skeptics are transforming into pay-per-view regulars, bringing MMA out of the shadows and onto the screen at your local sports bar -- where boxing is curiously absent.
Until Jordan, Wilder or some other unheralded fighter we've never heard of is ready to step forward, "Money Mayweather," the self-styled pay-per-view king, will have to carry boxing's hopes on his shoulders.
Or not.
(Contact Stephen C. Smith Sr. at stephencsmith1(at)yahoo.com or at facebook.com/stephencsmith1.)
(Stephen C. Smith Sr. writes for the Wichita Falls Times Record News in Texas.)
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