By Troy Ondrizek
Senior Staff Writer
FightNightNews
Troy Ondrizek
Lack of Exposure:
I just got back home from a
little visit to Las Vegas to
celebrate my cousin’s recent
divorce. I experienced quite
a bit of what Vegas offers
while
I was out there, and I like
to think that I am fairly
observant even while a bit
inebriated. So in one of my
sober instances I was
wandering the strip and the
casinos and it hit me, where
the hell was the ads for
Baldomir/Mayweather?
I have made several trips to
the Sodomites’ Mecca, and
every time out I saw
advertisements everywhere
for fights like Brock/McCline
and Klitschko/Rahman.
This time in what quite possibly
will be the most significant fight
this year, there was nothing. I
checked the little cards that the
locals hand out while walking the
strip and only found naked ladies on
them.
I had to check online to make sure
that this fight was being held in
Vegas and at the Mandalay Bay
resort. Apparently the fight is
still going on and is still at the
Mandalay Bay, but I’m guessing they
are banking on everyone in the
boxing scene to attend, because they
made no effort to attract any
outside audience. It wasn’t until
tonight when I was watching football
and drinking my beloved Amberbock,
did I notice a random “Pretty Risky”
advertisement on the television. It
is a shame that a fight of this
significance is getting no
publicity, how are we going to
attract new audiences when the only
events going on in their minds is
the UFC?
Alphabet Soup Assassins (copyright
Brian Bizzack)
The other day I was talking
to a friend of mine who is a
matchmaker for a moderately
sized promotional outfit.
Now I understand how
matchmakers have to buy into
the alphabet crap about
regional titles and dealing
with the rankings, but for
them to start to believe
what they are saying quite
frankly disturbs me.
However, what frightened and
enraged me all in one
sentence was a statement
that my boy uttered out.
The content was something
along the lines as every
sanctioning body is
considering copying the IBA
and instituting a “super
cruiserweight” division;
where the weight would range
from 190lbs to 210lbs. Oh
great another weight
division, just what the
sport needs, more paper
champions and another
watered down weight class.
Hell it is confusing enough
for fans these days, now add
a super cruiserweight
division, when hardly anyone
notices the current
cruiserweight division.
The odd thing was my normally sane
friend thought this was a great
idea. Wow how working “for the man”
can corrupt simple logical thought.
Now you can give respectable
arguments on how the current
heavyweights are too big and 200lbs
is too small and some other crap.
Brian Bizzack
Truth be told, do your homework and
come up with some original thought.
First off, the future of the
heavyweight division is primarily
comprised of “smaller” heavyweights.
Guys like Alexander Povetkin and
Eddie Chambers are 215lbs to 220lbs.
Only Alexander Dimitrenko and J.D.
Chapman are the big sized prospects
coming up. Smaller more skilled
fighters dominate the future of the
division, so that argument is
negated.
Second, why thin out the
cruiserweight division? It is on the
cusp of something very interesting
and entertaining. I mean Firat
Arslan’s upset stoppage victory over
Grigory Drozd was an entertaining
fight and one that saw the favored
fighter run out of gas (Drozd), ala
Shannon Briggs, and saw an early
stoppage by an over anxious ref. But
both fighters landed big shots and
forgot that defense is a part of
boxing.
The heavyweight division doesn’t
need a super heavyweight, and the
same goes for the cruiserweights.
Let the current weight classes stand
and focus more on quality title
fights, not this Oleg Maskaev versus
Peter Ohkello travesty. Which
reminds me, I am still open to talk
to Jose Sulaiman on why he thinks is
a viable title fight and why I think
he should lose his job over
sanctioning it.
Superfighter Tournament is Super
Waste of Time
Holy crap, when are Tye Fields and
Sinan Samil Sam considered elite
heavyweights?
I know this sounds like a good
concept, and one that will bring
some money and exposure into the
sport. However, it weakens an
already fragile foundation of
credibility and quite frankly robs
us as fans of seeing these fighters
fight in real fights in the
immediate future.
Now the fact that the fights don’t
count towards the combatants’
official records has made this
concept easier to swallow, but in
reality we are now boiling boxing
down into something reminiscent of
the toughman competition or the
early days of UFC. I mean they even
have Ken Shamrock from the UFC as
one of their spokesmen.
Let’s go through the fighters. Chris
Byrd, wasn’t he supposed to be
fighting Eliseo Castillo in
November, just two weeks before this
tournament? Byrd is still an
upper-echelon heavyweight, but we
didn’t pay to see him fight while he
was a champion, so why pay money to
see him fight over and over again?
Juan Carlos Gomez is another fighter
from the same mold as Byrd. Gomez a
former cruiserweight champion is
still looking for that big payday at
the heavyweight level.
They also have signed Jameel McCline.
I am a little sad that McCline is
fighting in this charade. Scott
Hirsch and McCline have done a
wonderful job of resurrecting
McCline’s career and they were
basically forced to take this
tournament because no one wanted to
fight Jameel. McCline is too much
risk with not enough reward right
now, and that’s a shame because he
is peaking skill-wise. This
tournament favors fighters like
Byrd, Gomez, and McCline; guys who
have the stamina to punch in high
numbers to win these shorter contest
and still carry the output into the
later fights.
Wait, there is a current
cruiserweight champion slated to
fight, and that is O’Neill Bell.
Bell supposedly signed to fight Jean
Marc Mormeck again. Their last fight
was a spectacular brawl and Bell
should be focusing on the bruising
Frenchman. However, Bell wants the
cash at the end of the night. Bell
has said he wants to be the first
cruiserweight to receive a
million-dollar payday. That’s great,
but you won’t receive that if you
don’t fight, and the thing is, Bell
isn’t skilled enough or powerful
enough to win the four round affairs
against some of these slick big
guys.
Oliver McCall, well, elite he is
not, and a sideshow that will never
go away is what he has become.
McCall still has a hell of a chin
and still has that power that has
kept us watching him throughout the
years, and quite frankly, I couldn’t
find a more suitable fighter for
this tournament than McCall, good
luck “Atomic Bull”.
Tye Fields, wow what can I say, at
least he is fighting I guess. Fields
is a mid-western circus act that has
since moved on to Las Vegas where he
still rarely fights. Fields could
make something of his career if he
fights better guys than Saul
Montana. Fields though has chosen to
take the low road and fight in this
bogus event and Fields continues to
show that we as fans shouldn’t take
him or his career seriously.
Sinan Samil Sam has come in as a
replacement and this tournament fits
Sam’s club-fighting tendencies
perfectly. Sam could do well until
he faces one of the better boxers,
but I tell you what he will make a
fight interesting while it goes on.
Sam can be out-boxed and
out-slugged, but that man will stand
in front of a train and punch it
until it takes him out
Well Sinan Samil Sam is coming in
for a reason, and that is because
Calvin Brock and Samuel Peter don’t
want to participate, and I say kudos
to them. Seriously though, who the
hell thinks that Brock will be
conscious after 12 rounds with
Wladimir Klitschko? If my
soothsaying skills are accurate,
then Brock will be medically
suspended for this tournament. As
for Samuel Peter, he is actually
trying to be taken seriously as a
fighter and not as a Neanderthal
clubbing giant who will strike all
foes in the back of the head with
anything attached to his body. Peter
scored a controversial victory over
James Toney back in September, and
is looking to leave no doubt in
people’s minds about the legitimacy
of that win, so why jeopardize that
and fight in this tourney, well
Peter thought that and said no. I
have never been a big fan of Samuel
Peter, but I applaud him for taking
this sport and his career seriously.
Whether or not this tournament will
actually take off this time is yet
to be determined, but there is no
need for it at this juncture. The
heavyweights hardly fight often
enough as it is right now, and to
take them away from real fights that
matter and to subject this sport to
something like a toughman
competition or the old UFC, is
detrimental to what we are trying to
achieve. Will I watch the
tournament? Only if I get a pirated
version off the internet, I’m not
paying 50 bucks for this crap, the
Superfighter tournament is a super
waste of my time.
