WILL EUROPE BEAT AMERICA IN THE RING?
A paradoxical fact: proclaiming Mohammed Ali (he left behind the soccer king Pele, the ice-hockey wizard Wayne Gretzky, and His Basketball Highness Michael Jordan), the outgoing century’s best athlete, some influential sports publications had to sadly admit in unison that this happened at the moment when the mightiest professional boxing power failed to present the audiences with a new idol in the most prestigious heavyweight category. Alas, you cannot find for love or money such people as Ali, the world’s twenty-first champion, who when young would boast of his ability to “float like a butterfly, sting like a bee.” The Americans think so, too. There is no denying the current season has only brought disappointments to overseas boxing fans, and they accepted with pain, rather than rapture, the victorious performance on the ring by Mohammed’s daughter, Leila Ali. What’s done cannot be undone.
Yes, America is going through a real tragedy. It has been left for the first time without a world heavyweight champion in any of the four existing versions and has also suffered a moral fiasco. Very recently, in the second attempt, Englishman Lennox Lewis defeated America’s beloved Evander Holyfield and won the absolute champion’s title, which made some say that the Yankees are gradually losing the image of trendsetters in the world of professional boxing. This is even the subject of conversations in the narrow circles of the omnipotent sports bosses.
But, as the saying goes, the truth will out. This situation was taken immediate advantage of by old Europe which, for the first time in 39 years, knocked American heavyweights flat out, robbing them of all their titles. This was the deplorable outcome of the seven-year war the Briton Lennox Lewis had waged against what seemed to be an unshakable professional boxing empire. The winner said later, “I am fed up with overseas backstage intrigues (for I had an indisputable edge over Evander even in the first match!) which have become almost the main rules of the game in professional boxing. I am also fed up with the overseas neurasthenic audiences, used to humiliating foreign athletes. This is over. Now I am going to call the tune. To test strength with me, come over to my place, England.”
As recently as a year ago, such an unheard-of escapade of the Briton would have cost him excommunication from the ring, but today the US has to meekly swallow such an insult. It simply had nothing up its sleeve. Not a single champion on the throne of the most prestigious category. Moreover, there is not even a more or less decent candidate able to pull the Europeans down a peg in the immediate future. We can see Lewis’ point here: he had to beat Holyfield twice to win a victory. But it is a bit difficult to see America’s point: where have all its Black stars gone? For they used to light up almost several times a year.
There is still no shortage of boxers overseas, but there is a lack of super boxers. The overthrown absolute champion Evander Holyfield turned 37 last October, so his star days are over. Another American, the 26-year-old Michael Grant, on whom great hopes are being pinned (he ranks third in the WBC and WBO and seventh in the WBA), is considered by experts as a media hyped figure rather than one presenting a true challenge. Take, for instance, his fight with the Pole Andrzei Golota, where he was twice knocked down and only won thanks to the unclear (or, as many claimed, “clear”) refusal of his rival to continue the bout.
Of course, some may well ask: and what about Mike Tyson, now ranking second in the WBO despite all his troubles? Frankly, this is a puzzle nobody can solve today. Indeed, Iron Mike’s authority is still quite high, for everyone still remembers him making short and merciless work of his rivals. But he has been doing lately anything but boxing. He was in prison, converted to Islam, served a term of suspension from the ring, and, in the intervals between all this, would trounce obviously weak boxers. So even Mike Tyson himself must be unaware today of who he really is.
But all the promoters, nevertheless, understand that the eccentric heavyweight is still a gold mine. His first wife is also adding fuel to the flame, saying her husband is a depressed maniac, and it is difficult to suggest that he acted consciously when he thrust his teeth into Holyfield’s ear, tried to break Botha’s arm, or knocked down Norris after the round was over. Also indicative is the statement that Tyson made after his latest antic to the effect that if Norris had really been hurt it happened when he landed his backside on the seat and that his opponent messed his pants when Tyson went after him.
Meanwhile, the gold mine himself is in bad need of money. The American has already squandered about $200 million he earned throughout his sports career, running through his exorbitant prize money indiscriminately. Today, the ear- biter is being harassed by numerous creditors headed by the US Internal Revenue Service to which he owes $13 million. Yet, the debts, according to those initiated into his problems, have topped $20 million, with $50,000 in interest accruing daily.
Lewis, as well as Andrzei Golota, Croatian Zeljko Mavrovic, Britons Henry Akinwande and Herbie Hyde, have driven a strong European wedge into the overseas hegemony. Their positions became still stronger with the emergence of two more excellent fighters, brothers Vitaly and Volodymyr Klychko. The Ukrainian heavyweights are climbing, slowly but surely, to the peak of the boxing Olympus. The elder, Vitaly, won, althouh recently lost the WBO world champion. The younger, Volodymyr, is wearing the Europe best’s belt and awaiting the fight against Lennox Lewis. They have substantially raised their ratings and discovered America, while the latter in turn has discovered them. The Klychko brothers proved to be not Golota and Mavrovic who, although having won a certain measure of prestige, never dreamed of encroaching on the titles of champions. The Kyivans, on the contrary, proved to be extremists and ardent followers of the European style of fisticuffs. They more than once openly declared that the American rules of the game are not to their liking, so they chose as their promoter not the Mafia-connected Don King but the calm and well-behaved German, Klaus-Peter Kohl. Of course, the latter has far less money and influence, but honesty is always the best policy.
Professional boxing is up to its neck in corruption, US official bodies recently concluded. To inquire into this matter, they even set up a special Congress commission to put the heat on, among others, Don King & Co. We will soon learn the results, but what is clear is that the obscure promoter had to “work” quite a lot to catch the eye of such high-level bodies. Let us not forget that the untamable Mike Tyson is also sharpening his sword against his former manager: King cheated him out of a couple of tens of millions of dollars. And, as is known, Tyson is not one to forgive insults.
Returning to the Klychko brothers, let us say it is now their turn to prove their strength. It will be recalled that Vitaly Klychko last year said, “There are four main titles in the world of professional boxing, and Volodymyr and I are going to share them between ourselves, two each.” And today these words do not seem braggadocio. It is absolutely clear it makes no sense to ignore the strength of the Ukrainian duo. An agreement is known to have been reached between the promoters Klaus-Peter Kohl and Shelly Finkel about a Vitaly Klychko vs. Mike Tyson match in August next year, for the latter is bursting to regain at least one championship belt for the US. And he may have quite ample grounds to strive for this because experts saw, despite the Norris bout scandal, that the American was in excellent physical shape after his nine month break: he dictated his conditions to the rival throughout the first round and, although he took a few staggering blows from “the goof Norris,” he would have surely finish the bout ahead of schedule had it not been for a new antic after the bell.
Meanwhile, America is frantically searching for new stars and losing titles. Europe is advancing, although it does not lay claim to being the hub of professional boxing. What is more, it is so far unable to challenge the traditions and money of the overseas powerhouse of super heavyweights. Let us stress again: so far. But nobody is calling to question the fact that the Europe-America face-off has entered a new phase.
