Title Shot Boxing
Hermila Farquhar
This is simply the game logic of the minimum ranking required for a title shot and then the desires and logic of the champion in who they choose from the available (and upcoming) challengers.
We will continue to analyse this (as we continually do anyway) to look for issues but this looks exactly as we want it.
Richmond, Virginia had the honor of hosting the first World Boxing Championship title fight in the River City in a long time on Friday, May 19th. Put on by Vintage Boxing and River City Promotions, the affair was held in the Renaissance building, an intimate but elegant venue that had the quiet sophistication needed to host a global event. The Renaissance was built originally as a Masonic temple, and it was in the very place that those secretive men placed their square and compass that each fighter would raise themselves to degrees of glory.
I arrived a bit before the first fight, making my way up the stairwell as I began to be taken in by the soothing red of the carpet and the pattern therein. In the foyer were neoclassical paintings in gilded frames. I watched light gleam off the sides of the frames as I scanned the room to get a feel for the event. People were lightly socializing, murmuring amongst themselves in the drink ticket line in cocktail attire, discussing their proximity to boxing and their excitement for the evening.
Though the significance of the evening was not lost on me, I felt a certain reticence at being optimistic for ringside seats at a boxing event. Ringside seats were the most expensive option for that night, ringing in at a total of 150 dollars. They included balcony and ringside seating but did not include drinks. Having paid the price for ringside, I knew that after drinks and food for the night, I was saying goodbye to at the very least 250 dollars. This was my only night off for the next six days. I needed this night to add up.
I walked up to the balcony seating, considering it at first as an option for the night. The people of the balcony and most of the crowd put their hands to their hearts as a woman sang the national anthem. There was a projection of red, white, and blue stars on one wall that served as the semantic equivalent of a flag for the evening. I watched the men of the balcony in fine clothes with their hands on their hearts, all with the blank but pensive look they give to the wall above a urinal.
With the first loss of the night in the bag, the first fighters took the ring. I felt a familiar school-yard tension knowing a fight between two people was imminent. The bell rang, and the tension began to paradiddle inside my chest until it had built into a deafening crescendo. In the blue corner was James Willis, and in the red corner was Nathaniel Copeland. With the very first blow of the evening, the tension burst in my chest and was replaced with a colossal wave of consumer satisfaction.
The fight between Willis and Copeland was hard to judge at first. The two heavyweight boxers were both massive, but Copeland was in seemingly better shape and had an obvious reach and height advantage. One thing that overcame reach in this fight was attitude.
Boxing is a sport fought with your eyes, mind, heart, and fists. James Willis came to the ring with an attitude that outreached that of his opponent. Nathaniel Copeland had an air about him that seemed unconcerned, nearly lackadaisical, as if the win he was about to pick up was on the way home. He had the reach and conditioning that made him a choice at first glance, but as I compared the body language of the two, I began to see James Willis had a belief in himself Copeland would need a pickaxe to get through.
Next to take the blue corner was Roberto Cantos, a lightweight fighter from Orange County, Virginia. He was opposite Gabriel Gerena, of New Jersey. The beauty of watching boxing as a casual observer is in its simplicity. There are two people fighting. Pick a side.
The featherweight Andre Donovan was the next true strategist in the ring and used his cunning to put a KO/TKO on his boxing record against Weusi Johnson in the second round. Donovan had a bombastic fighting style that complemented his impregnable aura. I and the rest of the crowd stood and cheered the man for his victory, all impressed with the speed, skill, and grace with which he finished the job.
Hadribeaj and Stefano stood apart from all other boxers that night. There was a feeling of awe for the magnitude of the moment that brought a quiet hush to the room as they entered the ring. The men touched gloves and were off in a pugilist chess match to global championship under a crystal chandelier. Hadribeaj would live up to his nickname throughout the night, landing distant blows that were as fast as they were lethal. But Di Stefano was not easily bested and gave back much of what he was given.
The fight lasted ten rounds, each fighter pushing for victory and control of the center. Between rounds, each fighter would return to their corners, their coaches advising strategy until it was time to rise to the occasion once more. The bell would ring, and it was on again.
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I must say I thoroughly enjoyed being part of the festivities at the recent Tyson Fury-Wladimir Klitschko heavyweight world title fight held at the ESPRIT arena, in Dsseldorf, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany. It reminded me at times of all of the hoopla surrounding my world title fights not too long ago. Of course the biggest difference between Klitschko and myself, was that I was the linear, universally recognized, undisputed heavyweight champion of the world. Whereas Klitschko held most of the title belts but not all of them. American Deontay Wilder still holds the WBC heavyweight world title belt.
I am not sure if fans could tell on their TV screens but sitting ringside it was easy to see that Klitschko looked very old in the ring and that his legs had no spring in them whatsoever. His legs were dead. This is why Klitschko was unable to move well in the ring. He looked slower and more robotic than usual. A boxer needs his legs to generate power on his shots, as well as to get him out of trouble and to create angles from which to throw his punches. Klitschko legs were unable to do any of these movements. He spent most of the fight, unsuccessfully trying to catch Fury, a much younger man.
Klitschko demonstrated a certain lack of respect for those people in his corner. You must listen to your corner because they can see things during the round that the fighter is unable to see. However, it was abundantly clear that Jonathan Banks was clearly not getting through to Klitschko on any level. Klitschko was definitely somewhere else when he was in his corner between rounds. His mind was not focused on what his trainer Banks was telling him.
Picking up where he left off in their first fight, a confident Zhang flattened Joyce with a right hand toward the end of the round in front of the Londoner's home crowd. The win and the manner in which he delivered it might earn Zhang a world title shot in 2024.
Zhang, a native of China who is based in New Jersey, stopped Joyce in six rounds in their first encounter in April, one month before his 40th birthday, and then followed that up with an even better finish in their rematch at OVO Arena Wembley in north London.
But Zhang still faces a wait to get to Usyk as the WBO's No. 1 challenger. Usyk is expected to hold talks with Fury about a unification title fight, and IBF mandatory challenger Filip Hrgović is then next in line for a shot at Usyk.
While Zhang, with huge commercial potential from China and an outside chance of taking on Fury next in a title fight, faces a potentially exciting 2024, Saturday's result leaves Joyce facing the reality of a second successive setback at age 38. Joyce can take encouragement at the way Zhang's career has gone into overdrive since he turned 39, but will now be questioning the wisdom of putting on 25 pounds for the rematch.
"He got caught with an extremely good punch," said Joyce's promoter, Frank Warren. "Zhang is the mandatory challenger for the WBO title, and mid next year the WBO will order a mandatory against whoever is the WBO champion."
Joyce, from Putney in London, had charged toward the top of the division since winning a silver medal in his last amateur bout at the 2016 Olympics, but knew his career would likely take a big step back with a second loss to Zhang.
Do they deserve it? It has always been a passionately debated topic among fans around the world, and for good reason. We love the sport, largely because of the sacrifices its combatants make to obtain the highest prize. So when we see a fighter getting their shot at the big time without earning it, we naturally object.
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