By Norm Frauenheim
There are more great anniversaries than great fights these days.
The latest is the 30-year anniversary of Sugar Ray Leonard’s controversial decision over Marvin Hagler.
The debate rages on and on over the three decades since the legendary middleweight clash in an outdoor ring on a back lot behind Las Vegas’ Caesars Palace on April 6, 1987.
Generations of young fighters hear it and probably wonder what in the hell these old guys are talking about. For the record, I’m one of those old guys. Yet, I sympathize with those younger fighters. On a day when Don Rickles – another legend from the 1980s — died, we must sound like a bunch of hockey pucks.
I confess, there are moments when boxing resembles an old man with only memories to sustain him. It was only a few weeks ago that Leonard’s welterweight stoppage of Thomas Hearns in 1981 was recalled in the promotional build-up to Keith Thurman’s decision over Danny Garcia on March 18.
It was unfair to Thurman and Garcia to suggest that their fight could ever be the second coming of Leonard-Hearns. It wasn’t, of course. Only a fool would have thought it might be.
That said, legends remembered are one way of keeping a troubled sport alive. A legend forgotten is just an eroding antiquity, an ancient ruin from a bygone time.
If not exactly healthy, boxing is hardly bygone. Fact is, it’s thriving in some places. To wit: The UK.
A crowd of 90,000 at London’s Wembley Stadium is expected for heavyweights Wladimir Klitschko and Anthony Joshua on April 29.
Please-please-please, hold all the parallels to Joe Louis-Max Schmeling, Muhammad Ali-Joe Frazier and Ali-Foreman. Within the ring, Klitschko-Joshua won’t be that. Not even close. But that anticipated crowd at Wembley adds up to interest still lively as ever. Done right, there’s still nothing like a good fight.
Bob Arum knows that better than anyone. That’s why I applaud him for remembering Leonard-Hagler the way he has over the last week. Sure, there’s self-interest in the scheduling. He’s a businessman, after all.
He talked about his Hagler-Leonard memories last week during a conference call that helped promote an April 22 card at StubHub Center in Carson, Calif. It features emerging featherweight champion Oscar Valdez Jr., super-middleweight champ Gilbert Ramirez, junior-featherweight champ Jessie Magdaleno and Olympic silver medalist Shakur Stevenson in a pro debut.
Then, there was a news conference for Vasyl Lomachenko’s next title defense on Thursday, the same day as the Hagler-Leonard anniversary.
In Lomachenko, Arum has a fighter whom he says has Ali-like skills. Translation: Lomachenko, who faces Jason Sosa Saturday night (HBO 10 pm ET/PT) in Oxon Hill, MD, could be a key to restoring the business. On a historical day, Arum introduced a fighter who he thinks can make history, maybe even repeat some.
On the call with Valdez, Ramirez, Magdaleno and Stevenson, there was a different tactic. Arum was both boxing promoter and history professor. Hagler-Leonard happened before the four twenty-something fighters were born.
Arum asked each to watch and score the fight. The exercise was intriguing, mostly because it brought to life a debate lively then and lively now. Valdez scored it 115-113 for Hagler, favoring Hagler’s aggression. Ramirez and Stevenson scored it 115-113 for Leonard, both favoring Leonard’s quickness. Magdaleno had it for Leonard, 116-112, also favoring Leonard’s overall skill and speed.
“Hagler-Leonard,’’ Stevenson said, “that was a great era but now it’s our turn to begin our own legacy and create our own era where we have fights like that down the line. I can’t wait for that to happen.’’
Throughout the call, Arum never predicted that Valdez, or Ramirez, or Magdaleno, or Stevenson would lead boxing back to a future defined by late journalist and author George Kimball’s Four Kings – Leonard, Hagler, Hearns and Roberto Duran. That would have been unfair to the young fighters. It would foolhardy for the promoter.
At the end of the call, I asked if Ramirez thought he could hang with them. Ramirez, nicknamed Zurdo, was no longer on the line. But Arum was. He immediately jumped in, calling out Gennady Golovkin.
“He doesn’t have to worry about hanging with those guys,’’ Arum said. “The fight Gilberto wants, if he is successful on April 22, is GGG and I would agree to take that fight winner-take-all. I think Zurdo destroys Golovkin the same way that he destroyed Arthur Abraham.”
I asked if Arum agreed with those who argue that the years have begun to catch up with GGG, who turns 35 on Saturday.
“Yes we all do, even me,’’ Arum said. “I’m 85 and showing my age. But, yeah, sure he is. There’s no question. There’s a great A.E. Housman poem, To An Athlete Dying Young. An athlete’s life is relatively short.’’
But the memory of him can be very long if the business reminds the athletes after him of everything he made possible.
