"A DISTURBING TREND!"  By Darren Yates from Down Under

During the year 2002 we have seen some epic battles such as the two Gatti-Ward bouts, Vargas-De La Hoya, Barrera-Tapia, Morales-Ayala and the fight everyone wanted to see for years, Lennox Lewis-Mike Tyson. We also saw competitive match ups (on paper) such as the two Forrest-Mosley bouts, Tszyu-Tackie, Gatti-Millett, Leija-Ward, Hatton-Magee, Judah-Weiss, Klitschko-Mercer, Holyfield-Rahman and Tua-Oquendo. Upon reflecting on these bouts I noticed a disturbing trend; some of the most popular and respected fighters in the game only fought on one occasion during the last 12 months.

Major draw cards such as Mike Tyson, Oscar De la Hoya, Lennox Lewis, Prince Naseem Hamed and Felix Trinidad only fought once during 2002, (Trinidad can be forgiven because he retired). Other talented and well respected boxers such as Bernard Hopkins, Kostya Tszyu, Fernando Vargas and Zab Judah also only fought once during the last year, (Judah can be excused to a certain degree because he was suspended for some time and also has a managerial dispute, both of which have kept him out of the ring).

The situation that annoys me especially is the fact that two of the three undisputed champions only fought once last year and the WORST offender is Kostya Tszyu, my favourite fighter and I am not going to defend him in this instance. My opinion is if you are the undisputed champion of the world you should defend your title three times a year (two times minimum) or relinquish a belt or two; especially in the Super Lightweight category which is boxing's most competitive division.

Tszyu made an easy defence against credible opponent Ben Tackie and to my knowledge he was not injured in this bout, and as was the case after his dramatic KO of Judah, Tszyu has chosen to take another long break after defeating Tackie. It is not fair to all the other fighters in his division and it is not fair to the boxing fans.

Bernard Hopkins is another story... He appears to be chasing the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow and keeps sabotaging his own paydays by making unreasonable monetary demands from promoters and opponents. Reports indicate he cut the throats of potential bouts with Felix Trinidad, Roy Jones Jnr and now Joe Calzaghe.

A word of advice for Bernard, you may be very talented, (and in my opinion entertaining), but you are not a huge draw card even after beating Trinidad so convincingly. Vernon Forrest beat Shane Mosley, who beat Oscar De la Hoya, what kind of draw card is Forrest? Not a large one. Oscar De la Hoya remains one of the most popular fighters alive today and he has only had three fights since the loss to Mosley. Bernard, there is a lesson to be learnt here!

Lennox Lewis, well he doesn't have much more to prove and is hanging around purely for big fights. He has also relinquished a couple of belts to allow other fighters the opportunity to fight for a world title. Lewis could retire at anytime so any extra fights his fans get out of him from here on are just a bonus.

Oscar De La Hoya is in a similar category to Lennox, the Golden Boy could retire anytime soon and still end up in the Hall of Fame. Any extra bouts he participates in will just be a bonus to boxing and the fans. De La Hoya has nothing left to prove, he is no longer the Golden Boy in my opinion, more like the Golden Veteran who over the last 4 years especially has fought the best in the Welterweight and Junior Middleweight divisions. Oscar will be missed by boxing when he is gone.

Mike Tyson... After nearly sabotaging one of his biggest paydays ever only fought once and he can be forgiven for taking a long rest after the beating he received.

Prince Naseem Hamed... I don't know what has happened here but from reports he looked very ordinary in his last bout.

Zab Judah, some poor choices have kept him out of the ring like the disgraceful behaviour after losing to Tszyu and ending his contract with Main Events. I put these things down to his youth and inexperience and perhaps some lack of respect for other people. I personally hope to see him back in the ring soon.

Fernando Vargas, well he can't be blamed for De la Hoya's injury that postponed their bout, but we won't be seeing him in the ring for some time due his suspension over alleged steroid use.

The main point concerning the lack of activity from these top boxers in the last year is not good for the sport. The reasons why aren't as important as the fact that such inactivity weakens boxing's popularity! Thank goodness that we had very active high profile fighters last year like Vladimir Klitschko, Erik Morales, Marco Antonio Barrera, Arturo Gatti, Mickey Ward and Ricky Hatton. A special mention should go to Sven Ottke, who has consistently fought three to four times a year for the last couple of years; he may not be a huge puncher or overly exciting to watch but he has his own legion of fans and he delivers good value to them by fighting often.

If boxers such as Roy Jones who is reluctant to fight often and Floyd Mayweather Jnr who often has hand injuries can fight twice in one year, why can't some of these other high profile boxers do the same?

My message to these infrequent fighters of 2002 is think of your fans and give them reason to keep supporting you. I'm hoping some of these fighters especially Kostya Tszyu & Bernard Hopkins fight three times in 2003 to redeem themselves; both have bouts scheduled for January so let us hope that they fight in mid and late 2003 also.

Let us all hope that this trend does not re-occur again in 2003.

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