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Wrestling with the Fate of Professional Boxing
by
findingDulcinea Staff
Mayweather’s foray into WWE wrestling calls attention to the state of professional boxing, which, according to a recent book, has been in decline since Tyson’s collapse.
30-Second Summary
The WWE wrestling match between the 5’8”, 159-pound Floyd Mayweather and the 7-foot, 440-pound “Big Show” on Sunday drew a large and enthusiastic audience.
The financial and promotional success of the event (which was “won” by Mayweather with the help of brass knuckles and a steel chair) is not in question. Whether the fight is indicative of boxing’s downfall is another story.
Boxing is already a shell of its former self, according to the book The Last Great Fight: The Extraordinary Tale of Two Men and How One Fight Changed Their Lives Forever, reviewed by the City Journal. While the electric appeal of Mike Tyson in the late 80s had injected new life into the sport, Tyson’s loss in the 1990 championship match to James “Buster” Douglas changed everything. The day Tyson fell from greatness would signal boxing’s downfall, City Journal suggests.
With the days of Muhammad Ali, Rocky Marciano, Sugar Ray Robinson and even Mike Tyson long gone, Floyd Mayweather enters the stage. The charismatic boxer is not only a superb fighter, undefeated in the welterweight circuit, but an entertainer, too.
Mayweather fought Oscar De La Hoya last year in a match hyped to rescue the boxing industry—an industry floundering because of scandals, disorganization, and the rise of ultimate fighting.
Dave Larzelere of Slate admits that Mayweather is no Muhammad Ali, or at least not yet. But Larzelere indicates that Mayweather’s attempt at wrestling is reminiscent of Ali. Like Ali, the brazen Mayweather exhibits the “villainous” personality adopted at first by Ali. But Ali transformed that bad-guy persona into an image more straightforwardly heroic that would make him “The Greatest.”
The financial and promotional success of the event (which was “won” by Mayweather with the help of brass knuckles and a steel chair) is not in question. Whether the fight is indicative of boxing’s downfall is another story.
Boxing is already a shell of its former self, according to the book The Last Great Fight: The Extraordinary Tale of Two Men and How One Fight Changed Their Lives Forever, reviewed by the City Journal. While the electric appeal of Mike Tyson in the late 80s had injected new life into the sport, Tyson’s loss in the 1990 championship match to James “Buster” Douglas changed everything. The day Tyson fell from greatness would signal boxing’s downfall, City Journal suggests.
With the days of Muhammad Ali, Rocky Marciano, Sugar Ray Robinson and even Mike Tyson long gone, Floyd Mayweather enters the stage. The charismatic boxer is not only a superb fighter, undefeated in the welterweight circuit, but an entertainer, too.
Mayweather fought Oscar De La Hoya last year in a match hyped to rescue the boxing industry—an industry floundering because of scandals, disorganization, and the rise of ultimate fighting.
Dave Larzelere of Slate admits that Mayweather is no Muhammad Ali, or at least not yet. But Larzelere indicates that Mayweather’s attempt at wrestling is reminiscent of Ali. Like Ali, the brazen Mayweather exhibits the “villainous” personality adopted at first by Ali. But Ali transformed that bad-guy persona into an image more straightforwardly heroic that would make him “The Greatest.”
Headline Links: Mayweather at WrestleMania and boxing’s alleged decline
Dave Larzelere of Slate points out that Floyd Mayweather’s foray into professional wrestling is nothing new; Muhammad Ali fought Japanese wrestler Antonio Inoki in 1976, in a bout promoted by none other than Vince McMahon Sr. and Jr. of the World Wrestling Federation. Larzelere also notes that Mayweather has returned boxing to the public eye, notably through his fight with Oscar De La Hoya last May, just as Ali revitalized the sport before. “Mayweather stole the show, positing himself as a new version of Ali updated for the hip-hop generation,” writes Larzelere. But he goes on to say that Mayweather has “a long way to travel” before he can use his villainous appeal to steal the adoration of the public as Ali once did.
Source: Slate
City Journal analyzes the book The Last Great Fight: The Extraordinary Tale of Two Men and How One Fight Changed Their Lives Forever, by Joe Layden, and the idea that boxing’s demise came with Mike Tyson’s loss to James “Buster” Douglas in the February 1990 heavyweight bout. Tyson had instilled a certain magic in boxing that had been missing for some time, City Journal states; he had become a pop culture icon until “his life slowly unraveled into a circus sideshow.” According to the article, “Tyson’s defeat that night was really the beginning of the end of boxing’s last period of glamour. Without a heavyweight champion who captures public imagination, boxing is the sporting equivalent of a political third party: you’re always a bit surprised when someone you know is involved with such weirdness.”
Source: City Journal
ESPN provides footage of Mayweather and the Big Show at WrestleMania on Sunday, where Mayweather was dealt his fair share of punishment. Ultimately, however, he was able to vanquish the Big Show with a little help from a chair.
Source: ESPN
Background: Oscar De La Hoya fights Mayweather
Richard Schaefer, CEO of Oscar De La Hoya's company, Golden Boy Promotions, commented on the fight that would occur between America’s charmer Oscar De La Hoya and the boxing phenom Floyd Mayweather: “This could be the night that saves boxing," he said. Because of the corruption and confusion that has marred the boxing industry, it has suffered while ultimate fighting has picked up its slack. “De La Hoya--Mayweather, however, has the potential to remind the world why boxing was once a sport that mattered,” writes Time magazine.
Source: Time
Floyd Mayweather defeated Oscar De La Hoya last May in one of the most anticipated boxing matches for some time. “The fight was billed as one that would save boxing,” the Associated Press reports. Although Mayweather remained in control for most of the fight, De La Hoya came firing back toward the end. It was too little, too late. Plus, as the article suggests, the match did not appear to save boxing.
Source: ESPN
Biographies: Muhammad Ali and Floyd Mayweather
Muhammad Ali
Muhammad Ali was born Cassius Clay, Jr., on Jan. 17, 1942. Ali’s boxing career began in 1954 after his bicycle was stolen. He felt the sport would help him “whup” whoever committed the crime. Of course, Ali’s pugilistic talents took him far beyond his original goal. He won a gold medal in boxing at the 1960 Rome Summer Olympics and then proceeded to win three world heavyweight championships.
Source: The Official Muhammad Ali Web site
Ali’s brazen remarks got him in trouble on several occasions. Boxing officials disapproved of his proclamations of greatness. After announcing that he would not serve in the Vietnam War (“I ain’t got no quarrel with them Viet Cong”), he was prosecuted for draft dodging and stripped of his boxing license. Ultimately, the Supreme Court overturned the ruling.
Source: Time
Floyd Mayweather
Situated at the pinnacle of boxing, Floyd Mayweather is “Perhaps the premier pound-for-pound boxer of this era and without question the most talented,” according to HBO. Mayweather comes from a family of boxers and his father, Floyd Sr., fought Hall of Famer Sugar Ray Leonard. Mayweather, known for his hardworking attitude, has rolled over the competition in the super featherweight, lightweight, junior welterweight and welterweight divisions.
Source: HBO
Video: 'Andre the Giant vs. Chuck Wepner'
A YouTube clip describes the fight between the 7' 4" wrestler Andre the Giant and the 6' 6" boxer Chuck Wepner, which was on the undercard of the bout between Muhammad Ali and Antonio Inoki in 1976. But while the Ali fight took place in Tokyo, the Wepner bout occurred in Shea Stadium, Queens. “Chuck is the kind of guy who would probably fight a gorilla or a kangaroo,” said his manager, Al Braverman. Wepner, the working-class hero known as the “Bayonne Brawler” was Sylvester Stallone’s inspiration for the character of Rocky Balboa in the Rocky movies, after Stallone watched Wepner go 15 rounds with Muhammad Ali in 1975.
Source: YouTube
Related Topics: Cassius Clay defeats Sonny Liston, and a guide to boxing
On February 25, 1964 Muhammad Ali, known at the time as Cassius Clay, upset Sonny Liston to become the world heavyweight boxing champion. FindingDulcinea recounts the events surrounding the historic moment.
Source: findingDulcinea
FindingDulcinea spotlights the Web’s best resources to learn about boxing’s history, news and statistics about the sport, and the governing bodies that regulate boxing. The Boxing Web guide also presents information on learning how to box and where to buy the necessary equipment.
Source: findingDulcinea
Reference: ‘The Last Great Fight’
The Last Great Fight: The Extraordinary Tale of Two Men and How One Fight Changed Their Lives Forever describes how Mike Tyson’s 1990 loss to Buster Douglas changed the lives of the boxers and the sport. The book is available at the Dulcinea Media Store.
Source: The Dulcinea Media Store
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