The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

It’s time to say goodbye to 2005, but not without remembering a year that showed us all what makes boxing such a brutally glorious sport. We witnessed maybe the greatest fight in history. (My father, 91, calls it THE greatest fight because of its dramatic pendulum sway in the final round. He’s been attending fights for 70-plus years so that tells me that I was one lucky journalist to be in the arena on that May night when Diego Corrales and Jose Luis Castillo squared off for the lightweight championship.)

Round 10, the round of 2005, and one of the greatest rounds in history, again called by my father as THE greatest, saw Corrales go down twice and get up, his eye swollen shut and seemingly finished, but with one punch and the blink of an eye he went from the vanquished to the attacker. He then moved Castillo back to the ropes with vicious shots and forced the referee to stop the fight with his opponent out on his feet. Just like that it was all over. The impossible actually happened. (After the two knockdowns, my father had started writing out what he was going to say to his friend Diego in the locker-room after the fight. It went something like this…”You’re still our champion, Chico. You’ll get him next time.” Needless to say, my father never had to make that speech.

This fight had it all, even adding controversy of the year to its award tally. Corrales was given precious seconds to recover after each knockdown because his mouthpiece came out. He was penalized for it, but in the end it was surely worth the point deduction. The
Castillo camp cried foul, arguing that Corrales should have been disqualified for such desperate tactics of spitting out his mouthpiece. Castillo got his revenge though in October with a crushing knockout of Corrales, but not without more controversy. Unable to make the lightweight limit, Castillo attempted to cheat his way to 135 pounds by having a mysterious adviser stuff a towel under the scale. One big problem, the Nevada State Athletic Commission was watching. In the end, Castillo paid his fine, apologized to his fans, and then went out and dominated Corrales. Yet, he walked away without the belts. So now we brace ourselves for February 4 in El Paso, Texas, eagerly anticipating how the score will be settled.

There were many bright spots in 2005, but no fighter deserved the spotlight more than Floyd Mayweather, Jr. Dominating the likes of Arturo Gatti and Sharmba Mitchell, he demonstrated why he’s the best fighter in the world today with his blinding speed and pinpoint accuracy. It’s hard to imagine anyone beating “Pretty Boyâ€? as long as he stays focused. It looks like Zab Judah will give it a try in ‘06, we’ll have to wait and see.

Now let’s not forget the erstwhile Iron Mike. How could we review 2005 without including the most talked about fighter of our time? We knew he was a shell of his former self, but who could have predicted his pathetic performance against the lightly touted Kevin McBride? At one point near the end of a round, Tyson slumped down against the ropes and then reached his gloves up in the air, looking to his opponent to help him up. McBride didn’t help poor Mike up and the rest is history. This was my upset of the year just because I couldn’t imagine Tyson’s worst losing to McBride’s best. I was sadly wrong. Goodbye Mike. Happy travels.

Speaking of happy travels. How about we say goodbye to the entire heavyweight division? The once heavyweight mystique has become a mistake and an embarrassment to the sport. Starting with James Toney testing positive for steroids and giving the title back to the consistently boring John Ruiz, followed by the retirement of Vitali Klitschko after setting the postponement record against Hasim Rahman, and of course, ending the year with a fiasco in Germany in which a Russian giant clubbed his way to a controversial decision, happily ending the Ruiz reign for all of us except for stormin’ Norman Stone, Ruiz’s trainer, who figured he’d go out swinging against Valuev’s corner. A perfectly sad ending to the saddest division in boxing today. Byrd, Brewster, Rahman, and now Valuev would even be a disgrace to Joe Louis’ bum-of-month club. Being the heavyweight champion used to mean something to the world, today it means nothing.

Since we’re talking heavyweights, let’s finally send Evander Holyfield home for the last time. Please don’t fight again Evander. It’s not fair to those select few who still find a way to admire you even after you destroyed your Hall-of-Fame legacy by chasing past glory and a doomed battle with father time. 2005 is a good year to retire. There are others whose time has come and gone. Kostya Tszyu quit on his stool against Rickey Hatton and it’s likely we may never see him in the ring again. Roy Jones, Jr. has been beaten three times in a row and suddenly looks quite old after being a dominant force for so many years. I guess that’s why a fight with Bernard Hopkins is now so appealing since The Executioner has finally lost his hold on the middleweight division. For both fighters, this is the final farewell on their farewell tour.

Regardless of who wins, I hope both never fight again.

The sport of boxing can give us so much joy and excitement, but its brutal nature can also cause us terrible heartache. We can live with our fighters losing their titles, but when they sacrifice their lives as well, it’s a tough burden to bear. Leavander Johnson, lightweight champion, succumbed to his injuries suffered in his title fight earlier this year. Critics tell us that boxing is too rough and that the sport sends a bad message of violence to our youth. Sometimes it’s hard not to question why I’m so enthralled with a sport in which people die. But then I remember what boxing did for Leavander Johnson and why he was so grateful to do what he did. He died doing what he loved most, and he wouldn’t have had it any other way. Nobody wants to ever see such tragedy happen, but the gladiators that we love willingly go into battle knowing and embracing what their ultimate fate could be.

As we welcome 2006, and look forward to another exciting year in the sport of boxing, we must not forget our fallen soldiers, Leavander Johnson and all those fighters around the world who didn’t make it through 2005. To the families of these brave men and women, I’m deeply sorry for your loss. On behalf of The Sweet Science and the entire boxing fraternity, please know that you are all in our thoughts and prayers. Happy New Year to all the boxers and their families that make this great sport what it is…and to all the extended members of Pugilistica, may you have a healthy and prosperous year ahead.

Benn Schuberg writes for the Sunday Herald and The Sweet Science. To read more of his work