Sharkie’s Machine
By Frank Gonzalez Jr.
January 16th, 2008
“The ‘Where Are They Now’ Series
Continues as
Former Champions Return For a Big
Payday”
So, here’s another
Pay-Per-View event that makes you wonder what the criteria is
for fights being on PPV? Do we really care if a seven year
removed former Welterweight Champion fights a four year removed
former Light Heavyweight and “Heavyweight” Champion? This match
up is unfair and irrelevant. Curious that its going to be on PPV
instead of regular TV.
Would we buy a PPV that
featured Lamon Brewster against Jeff Lacy? How about Jose Luis
Castillo vs. Johnny Tapia? Hell, why not just go for the gusto
and see if we can get Sugar Ray Leonard to fight Riddick Bowe on
PPV. Not only are these guys past it (or never had it in Lacy’s
case) but they’re not even in the same divisions.
Trinidad fought his best at 147
pounds. He will be fighting at 170 for this one, seven years
removed from his prime. It would have been more interesting if
both Jones and
Trinidad were to fight at a
catch weight of 165.
Before a mediocre fighter
named Antonio Tarver knocked him out, Roy Jones Jr. was on top
of the world, he was arrogant, talked in the third person and
addressed his critics with words to the effect of; “If someone
wants to fight me, let them get ranked to be my mandatory.”
Roy was a businessman
first, a fighter second. Low risk, high reward was his acumen.
HBO facilitated this situation by paying him five million per
fight against whatever second rate easy mandatory the
sanctioning bodies managed to dig up. For Roy, HBO and the
Sanctioning bodies, it was a great business.
In Trinidad’s last two
fights, he beat an aging Ricardo Mayorga by KO back in October
of 2004 and in May of 2005, he got beaten badly in every round
by Winky Wright, who used basic boxing skills to completely
dominate
Trinidad and win a shutout
decision. It’s 2008 and
Trinidad has about two and a
half years of ring rust gathered upon him.
Jones last two fights were
against Prince Badi Ajamu, 18 months ago and unbeaten Anthony
Hanshaw six months ago. He won both fights by unanimous
decision. He showed a decent work rate and ability to out box
these younger guys, but nothing spectacular.
After some much needed
hype, compliments of HBO,
Trinidad and Jones both made
their remarks to the press. Both claim they will win by knockout
and both say they’re in great shape, etc. etc. But let’s get
real here, yeah, there might be some flickering interest out
there to see this fight that could have happened seven years ago
but this fight should NOT be on PPV. It should be on regular
cable, maybe on HBO’s ‘Boxing Way After Dark’ program. I mean,
how impressed can we all be by mere name recognition?
A great idea would have
been to show this fight on regular network TV for free and
promote the sport to casual sports fans that remember the names
but have long stopped watching boxing for so many reasons. Maybe
it could’ve inspired a renewed interest in boxing, if the under
card featured some exciting fighters in their prime, instead of
rehashed former contenders on the decline.
Now, Roy the
businessman/fighter wants to send off his career with a bang…at
the box office.
Trinidad and Don King will bank
plenty of money for this one too, win or lose. And all for a
fight that was never a good bet for Trinidad and a safe, easy
win for
Roy.
The only thing that would
make this fight worth more than five bucks would be if Trinidad
knocks
Roy out in the first
round. Somehow, I doubt that will happen. But you never know who
will win until they meet in the ring—even when it’s at least
seven years past being meaningful.
* * *
Comments can be emailed to
Frank Gonzalez Jr.
1-16-2008
