By Bill Gallo, New York Daily News
This week I start a three-part series on something I've been thinking about for a few years. It's what many boxing fans of yore and today have asked: What happened to a sport that was once the main attraction? Yes, the sport that ran in the papers as an entry with baseball. Back then they were noted as the "BBBB" - BASEBALL/BOXING, the BREAD and BUTTER of sports.
What happened? Over the next three Sundays, I will attempt to answer this.
There is no denying that the sweet science has been in a funk for the past few years. And, yes, you can use that old bromide, "the old gray mare ain't what it used to be."
But I say to you, members of the dwindling fraternity of punch lovers, the game is far from being "dead," as some sportsters keep writing in American newspapers and magazines.
Asleep? Yes. Resting? Perhaps. But, dead? Hell no! Especially when the drums are currently beating loudly for a multi-million-dollar socko match between Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao for the welterweight title.
This match is not made yet, and there are still those who say it may never come off. I'm sure it will though, for what fighter is going to let $50 million (each) fly away from their hungry clutches?
Still if boxing - as some say - is dead, then why are so many people clamoring for this fight? This one will even bring out those who continually shout to "Abolish boxing, It's barbaric!" I'd be willing to bet that when this match is made, these are the first people who will be asking the promoter for a couple of freebies.
For some years of covering the sport, I have always maintained that, "Boxing must always have a good and popular heavyweight to lead the parade." I still adhere to that notion, but after watching the talents in the smaller divisions, and especially Pacquiao's invincibility, I've changed my words to say, "...and a little man shall lead them."
In his fight with Miguel Cotto, I looked at Pacquiao as a man who knows all there is to know about boxing. Although he has been well-schooled by Freddie Roach, a fine trainer in the Ray Arcel, Eddie Futch and Charley Goldman mold, Pac has his own natural talents no one can teach.
The little guy is a package of speed and know-how and sudden, inventive moves not seen since Sugar Ray Robinson and Willie Pep, two of boxing's creme de la creme.
Which brings me to when boxing and baseball were the strongest, most popular entries in sports.
If you can go back that far, think of names like: Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Lefty Grove, Carl Hubbell, Joe DiMaggio, Ted Williams and the like.
Okay, now say these names: Jack Dempsey, Gene Tunney, Joe Louis, Max Baer, Jim Braddock, Rocky Marciano, Tony Zale, Rocky Graziano, Sugar Ray Robinson, Willie Pep, Tony Canzoneri, Barney Ross and others from another time.
Put the two groups (baseball and boxing) together and you have the most dynamic sports entry of all time.
Just think about that for a moment fans. Then check out how today's fandom goes: (1) Pro football, (2) baseball, (3) pro basketball, (4) college football and basketball, (5) tennis, (6) golf (when Tiger Woods is playing) (7) hockey, (8) soccer, (9) a tie between horse racing and boxing.
Some railbirds and boxing purists might dispute this, but for certain, those two bottom sports are the least covered by newsprint and TV.
So how did the sport go from the top rung to the bottom one? The answer lies not only with boxing's stall but with the sudden rise of pro football and pro basketball. The temporary fall of boxing amazingly goes back to the last man who helped keep it on top.
He is Mike Tyson, the man who some sages say could've been one of the greatest of all heavyweight champions.
Tyson, a big banger who learned how to protect himself by moving his head and body in that herky-jerky way of his - while looking for his opening to throw those learned left hooks and hard right hands at his opponent - was the last of the "you-gotta-see-this-guy-in-the-ring" type of heavyweight.
The fact that Tyson screwed everything up is another story, but all the excitement that came from heavyweights stopped with him.
Since John L. Sullivan, the ancient brawler and first heavyweight champion and who held the title from 1882 till 1892, the aura of King of Boxing was born. Sullivan's often-used phrase was, "I can lick any man in the house!" And for a little while, the hefty braggart could.
The word "King" in boxing was used not loosely but with a respect held for actual kings of nations. This may sound a bit grandiose, but the doings of heavyweight champions were known throughout the country. Later in boxing, when Dempsey ruled, the world knew who the king was even in the far corners of the earth. This gives you an idea just how much adulation a champion from the United States received.
After Sullivan, came James J. Corbett (1892-1897), the fancy-Dan boxer who supposedly put the science into the game. Then came Bob Fitzsimmons (1897-1899), followed by Jim Jeffries (1899- 1905), Marvin Hart (1905-1906) and Tommy Burns (1906-1908).
Then like a bolt came a man who was to change the color of this once lily-white sport. Jack Johnson, a hard-hitting, clever and determined black man, came on the scene.
For now I'll leave this with the interesting story of this African-American tossing a wrench into the "white man's machinery." You might say Jack Johnson was to boxing what Jackie Robinson was to baseball.
This is to be continued next Sunday. See you then, friends.
bgallo@nydailynews.com
Source: nydailynews.com
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