Look out world, Chicago’s back on the boxing map – well, almost.

A lot of big names flocked to Chicago through the last spring and end of summer of 2005. Thanks to an inquiry with former TSS editor-in-chief Charles Jay, Chicago wasn’t just my kind of town; it was my town to cover at the right time.

I’d get a nasty letter from Sinatra for that ridiculous twist if he were still alive.

Of course, the last time the big heavyweights were in the Windy City, it was Arthur Wirtz in charge of the accommodations at Chicago Stadium. His son, William, did the deals with Don King this time for the United Center. And for the first few hours of the card leading up to Lamon Brewster and Andrew Golota’s heavyweight championship, the town thought boxing and the division had returned to peak form.

It was only the first few seconds of the round that Golota went down, much to the dismay of the Polska-scarf toters. Down goes Golota. A few seconds later, Brewster knocked him down and out of the ring. Wouldn’t you know it, the “Powerful Pole� crumbled to the canvas once more.

The city that held such blue-collar acclaim as to call itself the “City of Broad Shoulders,� which automatically lends itself to the old-fashioned tough guys of boxing, had hoped for the likes of a Dempsey-Tunney. All it got was a flash, a mere taste – albeit a bitter tingle on the fistic palate.

King tried it again in August with Monte Barrett and Hasim Rahman battling for the interim belt until Vitali Klitschko got back on his feet – lest the feet he stands on shatter beneath the weight of his greatness for another layoff.

I’d noticed the Spanish language fight posters actually used the nicknames “La Roca� for Rahman and “Dos Pistolas� for Barrett. It only struck me as add because the Polish language poster featuring Brewster-Golota were still in English. Sure, “Relentless� Lamon Brewster should have been an easy translation, but I’m pretty sure even the savvy people DKP had a hard time translating “Powerful Pole� into Polish. It is a stretch.

The downside to having a quick vicious effort from Brewster was that the cosmic powers, namely HBO, must not have wanted another one-round wonder. Unfortunately, that left Rahman and Barrett dancing around each other for 12 rounds. No joke, by the 12th round, the two stood a few feet apart without the slightest move to hitting each other. Did a mention it was the 12th, meaning there wouldn’t be anymore left to give it all?

Main Events snapped Fernando Vargas up for another card on Chicago’s north side at Allstate Arena. Unfortunately, Vargas came across as he did earlier in the year – not quite what he used to be. Indeed, he had to drop a lot of weight for the fight and it drained him, but he would have maintained it long before the fight had it been the earlier days. The most enthralling fistic connection to Vargas that night was his posse joining a brawl in the stands, which captivated the crowd more than anything Vargas did after he walked into the arena.

Even with the letdowns in Chicago, Ricardo Mayorga put on a triumphant display against Michele Piccirillo for the WBC super welterweight title on the Rahman-Barrett undercard.

The spectators of that fight had already seen rather dull undercard bouts and had turned on the event. It’s almost ironic that Mayorga came out with a new style and dazzled the crowd just as much. Mayorga was sticking and moving rather than mauling, and everyone in the stands swallowed it whole with the greatest delight. I had to check the contents of my Diet Pepsi to make sure I wasn’t hallucinating myself.

BORED WITH THE BIG BOYS: A lot of fights don’t take place because promoters don’t think they can sell them – although that doesn’t explain why we lamented, yet still watched all of those heavyweight cards this year. I pray Ruiz-Valuev goes to the wayside. Yes, John Ruiz may have won that fight, but nobody outside of Massachusetts wants to watch you steal hugs and kisses anymore, Johnny. As for Valuev, the freak show will last a little bit longer for the tallest, heaviest and hairiest champ of all time. But when someone figures out how to chop that tree down or the gates suffer when fans realize Valuev can’t fight, he can go back to his roots. I’m sure he can get his old job back – as a Yeti.

DON’T PLAY IT AGAIN, ROY: Some may cringe at the thought of Roy Jones Jr. fighting off inevitable retirement for a shot at another prospective retiree, Bernard Hopkins. I love both of these boxers. They are some of the best we’ve had in the last 10 years – although Floyd Mayweather Jr. is proving to be the most complete fighter since Ray Leonard. As for the Jones Jr. and Hopkins they’ll attempt to lick their wounds by whaling on each other in March – that is if they decide to throw a few punches. But having Jones Jr. in the ring is a better idea than most would think. It’s all really a brilliant scam to keep him from producing a sophomore album to the sophomoric hip-hop bomb he put out in October with various artists. Oh, he was just a daisy on the cover, doing his best 50 Cent impression, Kevlar vest and all. Roy is a scary prospect in the ring, but the album cover made him look dopey. I’ve got a few slogans to keep Jones going at least through 2006:

• No need to worry about music if Roy’s being fistic
• If Jones is in the ring, he won’t sing

They’re just thoughts.

Jesse K. Cox writes for The Sweet Science. To read more of his work