By Norm Frauenheim-
Mandatory means order, command. Do it or else. But it could mean just about anything in today’s boxing dictionary, which is another way of saying it means bupkis.
There are mandatory challengers. Super-middleweight champion Caleb Plant faces one in another Caleb, Truax, Saturday (Fox 5 pm PT/8 pm ET) in Los Angeles.
There are mandatory defenses. Canelo Alvarez is scheduled for one on Feb. 27 (DAZN) against super-middleweight challenger Avni Yildirim in Miami.
Trouble is, there’s no mandatory watching.
Mandatory in boxing is just another day at the office. (Insert yawn here.) It’s process, procedure. It’s a nice enough idea, a fair way to reward journeymen like Truax and Yildirim. For Plant and especially Canelo, it’s a prerogative, one that comes with a belt and their respective records. Take an easy, stay-busy fight and call it a mandatory.
But there’s no mandate that anybody has to care. Guess here: Few do. In the end, it’s the fans who still have a mandate that hasn’t been reduced to euphemism.
They can choose to watch.
Or not.
Their prerogative.
It’s a slam dunk to say that they’d watch David Benavidez against Plant instead of Truax. The Benavidez-Plant rivalry has been boiling for a couple of years now. Their ongoing exchange of trash talk was there throughout this week, despite Plant’s imminent date with Truax and news that Benavidez will fight Ronald Ellis on March 13.
Benavidez, a Phoenix fighter who lost his belt on the scale in August, posted a photo of Plant on a Wanted, Dead Or Alive poster on Instagram this week.
“But he’s gonna have to wait in line like a good little boy, off to the side, because I got my fight January 30th and then I got bigger fish to fry with Canelo after that, and then I’ll get to him when I get to him,’’ Plant told FightHype.
Expect more of the mandatory trash talk not long after Saturday’s fight. Plant by stoppage –say the seventh round – looks likely. Plant is an overwhelming favorite – from minus-1200 at SportsBettingDime.com to minus-3000 at BetMGM
Odds favoring Canelo over Yildirim are even bigger. He’s at minus-5000 and counting, according to some books. In other words, Yildirim has about as much a chance at winning as Donald Trump has at apologizing.
Meanwhile, we wait on some real drama at 168 pounds, perhaps with Plant-Canelo or Canelo-Billy Joe Saunders in May. It’s a loaded division, but for now it’s loaded only with potential. It’s those mandatories that get in the way.
A path around that process, however, might be emerging. So-called exhibitions are a threat to business-as-usual. There’s been more talk this week about a possible Ryan Garcia-Manny Pacquiao exhibition than there has been about Plant-Truax, a sanctioned title fight. The Mike Tyson-Roy Jones Jr. pay-per-view exhibition in November drew a bigger audience than any bout last year.
On one level, it’s ridiculous to call any fight an exhibition. The risk of injury is still there. A fight is a fight is a fight, whether in a parking lot or in a regulated ring.
Garcia’s social-media popularity and Pacquiao’s enduring celebrity are part of the buzz. At opening bell, however, people will watch no matter what it’s called. Garcia-Pacquiao is an interesting exhibition. Interesting fight, too. A title belt and all of the attached mandatories just don’t matter much anymore.
Garcia, who holds an interim (aren’t they all?) belt, put it best in an interview with ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith.
“What doesn’t matter is belts,’’ said Garcia, who made a belt sound like a hood ornament. “I wear this belt because it looks good. Doesn’t it look good? It does make me look good. The truth is, there’s too many belts, there are too many champions. You don’t know who the true champion is.’’
The genuine in Garcia looks better than any belt ever could. It’s what appeals to young fans, who have a mandate of their own. Pay attention to it. That’s a mandatory warning.
