Of Respect & Legacies

September 17, 2008
published at boxingcapital.com on september 19, 2008
link: http://boxingcapital.com/News_Article_190908Ofrespectandlegacies.html

Only but few give respect to the courage in facing greater odds. The fans, especially of this naturally brutal sport, tend to ridicule with sadistic tone the fighters who dare step into less explored terrains. The essential feature of the game that separates people of different sizes for safety purposes is one of these sacred grounds that nobody dared to mock. Until there was Henry Armstrong.

Nobody could argue against moving up in division to seek greater challenges and fatter bank accounts. It’s natural nowadays to see fighters capturing titles in three or even four divisions. But leapfrogging multiple divisions to fight much bigger guys is not natural. A featherweight titlist going up against a welterweight champion is simply crazy.

But Armstrong was both crazy and great. And only but very few could do what he managed to do: capture titles spanning three weight classes all at the same time, during an era when there were fewer divisions.

Boxing have never been friendly fans. They don’t welcome with open arms new ideas that mock the sport and its features. They mock you. They don’t roll out the red carpet for fighters who dare cross the line of widely accepted conventions. They roll litanies of contempt for you. They only become friendly when a feat of historic proportion is done. But then, there was Armstrong. Then, there was Roberto Duran, Thomas Hearns and few others who have followed suit and set their own records in boxing history.

These fighters have had their own shares of critics and detractors. It’s never easy to win a great number of boxing loving populace if you’re not Jack Dempsey, Muhammad Ali or Ray Leonard. Taking on greater challenges and bringing your game to a new level may be a mark of a great fighter but there would always be some skeptics around. For one, it’s always stupid to take on bigger opponents when you can have plenty of them in your natural weight class. It’s not natural to take on guys who comfortably reside on several divisions north of yours. Oscar De La Hoya can only expect a lukewarm reception for his choice of fight in Manny Pacquiao on December 6. The gutsy Pinoy on the other hand, can never hope for a better audience aside perhaps for Freddie Roach, his legion of Pac diehards, and his beloved president Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. The reason being is that it’s not natural to do so.

But what is natural in boxing? Rocky Marciano carried lethal power into his unnaturally small hands. Thomas Hearns, who packed his right hand with vicious power, was an oversized welterweight and light middleweight. Sam Langford was known for his murderous power and long arms. Willie Pep was almost supernatural in his ability to get away from your line of sight in an instant. Ceferino Garcia could KO people with his long, swinging and wide uppercuts while other users of such technique could only dazzle their opponents with it. And of course, there was Muhammad Ali’s chin and body, which can absorb tremendous punishment that could immediately put lesser mortals in a body bag. Buster Douglas’ victory over Mike Tyson was not natural either.

Freaks of nature are a fixture of this sport. They happen to be the elite of the elites. Whoever believed Roberto Duran could beat Iran Barkley—the guy who twice beat Hearns who was the same guy he himself could not beat—at middleweight? Nobody in his right mind would place his bets on Duran considering that the bout was at Duran’s 9th weight class.

Thomas Hearns has set the benchmark for capturing titles in multiple divisions. He has set several firsts in this sport: the first guy who has ever won four titles in four divisions; the first guy who has ever won five titles in five divisions; the first guy who has ever won six titles in six different divisions.

De La Hoya was also a six division champ and Floyd Mayweather was a five division champion. Manny Pacquiao, on the other hand, has captured four titles (or five including the featherweight lineal title he earned by demolishing Marco Antonio Barrera in 2003) in a span of eight divisions.

It’s easy to see what motivates De La Hoya in picking the Pacquiao fight which is not worthy of his stature and legacy: money. Pacquiao may well be the best fighter in the pound for pound rankings today but the huge size discrepancy between the two is a huge turn-off.

But then again, freaks of nature are a fixture in this sport. Leapfrogging multiple divisions and winning titles was unheard of until there was Armstrong. Winning titles in a span of nine divisions is unheard of until there was Duran. Capturing four, five and six titles in four, five and six divisions was unheard of until there was Hearns. A former flyweight titlist winning belts in super-featherweight and lightweight was unheard of until there was Pacquiao.

While it’s hard to see how Pacquiao could pull-off a win against the much bigger Mexican-American, it’s laudable enough that he has enough balls to face De La Hoya in his 10th weight class. But who knows? Manny’s nickname wasn’t really “Pacman.” It’s “upset.”