Whatever Happened to Ambition?
By Sean Crose · On September 23, 2015
Why isn’t Deontay Wilder screaming for a fight with Wladimir Klitschko? Why isn’t Leo Santa Cruz calling out Guillermo Rigondeaux? Or Vasyl Lomanchenko? Or Nicholas Walters? Why isn’t Adonis Stevenson yelling to the media on a regular basis that a match between he and light heavyweight rival Sergey Kovalev should have been made yesterday? Why doesn’t Danny Garcia seem eager to face anyone challenging? Why doesn’t Mikey Garcia seem eager to face anyone at all? Why did Andre Ward take so much time away from the ring? Why did Demetrius Andrade do the same?
The answers to all of these questions may be perfectly acceptable and understandable. Or then again…
Let’s face it, boxing is going through something a lackadaisical age. Known fighters just aren’t as ambitious as they used to be. Maybe it’s the weight of boxing’s unwieldy bureaucracy that’s to blame. Or maybe we simply live in a cynical time. No matter the reasons, these days fighters aren’t fighting the guys they should be, as often as they should be.
Wilder: NOT the heavyweight champion.
Wilder: NOT the heavyweight champion.
The fact Mayweather vs Pacquiao almost didn’t happen is very telling. It took until the eleventh hour of each man’s career for the two to finally meet. Truth be told, it’s hard to believe neither man was responsible for the delay. Had both champions been screaming to face off simultaneously, the powers that be would have made the fight happen much earlier than 2015. Clearly, one or both of the principals had something to do with the interminable delay and wanted to play it safe.
Indeed, playing it safe is an unsettling trend in boxing. While it’s true that pugilists rightfully look out for their financial futures more than in the past, they’re still boxers. That means they have to box. What’s more, boxing is still primarily a sport, as opposed to a business. That means boxers should try to prove they’re the best when they have the talent to do so.
If Mayweather has proved anything, it’s that claiming you’re the best simply isn’t enough. He’s been referring to himself as ‘TBE,’ The Best Ever, for a while now, and has faced a lot of blowback for it, and with good reason. No one knows who ‘TBE’ truly is, or was, or if there even could be such a thing. Yet hype works in today’s world and many fighters, particularly Al Haymon fighters, are employing it for all its worth.
Literally just waiting for the final bell
Floyd: playing it safe?
Take those ads that are running where Deontay Wilder is called the heavyweight champion of the world. Us Yanks are forever being accused of demanding our countrymen be champions, so let me disprove that theory once and for all by stating unequivocally that Wilder is NOT the heavyweight champ. He holds a portion of the heavyweight title, nothing more.
The undeniable truth of the matter is that Wladimir Klitschko, not Wilder, rules the heavyweight division. He’s the champ, the king, the head honcho. What’s more, Klitschko deserves to be numero uno. Not only has the man (along with Lennox Lewis and Emanuel Steward) proven to the world that big guys can indeed succeed in combat sports, he’s taken on all comers and emerged victorious, save for two experiences that he actually learned and grew from.
Meanwhile Wilder has faced a dehydrated Bermane Stiverne and that’s about it. Yet Wilder isn’t the only person to point a finger at here. Garcia, for example, has had exactly one opponent in the past two years, Lamont Peterson, who was on his level and, truth be told, I felt Garcia lost that fight. I also think he lost to Mauricio Herrera, but the judges clearly love Danny, so who am I to complain?
Of course this tendency to take the easy road didn’t start yesterday. Jack Dempsey, for instance, literally went years between fights while heavyweight champion. And let’s not forget Mayweather’s most recent choice of Andre Berto as an opponent. Such things can be forgiven, however, when a fighter is noted for standing atop the mountain. People may not like it, but they can accept it, albeit reluctantly. When fighters present such attitudes without having proven all that much, however, well, people are going to notice.
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Ward defeats Dawson: the last time we saw some ambition from ‘S.O.G.’
Andre Ward, for instance, is unquestionably one of the world’s most talented fighters. But he recently pulled a Dempsey by literally disappearing from the ring for years. And now he’s rubbing some the wrong way by calling for a big fight with Gennady Golovkin, who resides a division below Ward’s traditional home turf of super middleweight. Ward may be within his rights to want the showdown, but some feel there’s a real sense of entitlement which, given his activity level isn’t entirely earned. Especially when one recalls how a while back the only guys Ward wanted to fight were Kelly Pavlik and JCC Jr.
At least Ward (now!) wants to fight someone good, and here’s hoping he does square off with GGG or Kovalev sometime soon. Meanwhile Mikey Garcia doesn’t seem interested in facing anyone at all. While it’s true the man may be in a legitimate contract dispute, the public simply doesn’t want to hear it. As far as fans are concerned, sports figures should be engaged in sports, not endless legal issues.
And, ultimately, they’re right. An athlete should be primarily driven by his or her chosen sport when it comes to their career choices. Does anyone think Muhammad Ali was happy losing the years he did to legal battles? Why then should anyone else be so comfortable sitting on the sidelines?
Ali: a champion who took risks.
Ali: a champion who took risks.
It should be noted that boxing is a sport that lends itself well to a general lack of ambition. It isn’t like baseball, hockey, or basketball, where the athletes don’t dictate the schedule. It isn’t like the UFC either, where the best generally have to match off. In other words, in boxing, you can get away with being lazy. At least for a time.
But the question the fighters mentioned in this article might want to be asking themselves is: how long? For how long are they going to let opportunities slide by, while fans impatiently wait for them to take a meaningful fight? How long do they want to wait for court proceedings to resolve before they finally get in the ring again and compete? After all, even the most casual fight fan’s patience has its limit. And the hard truth is: no one stays young forever. — Sean Crose