By Norm Frauenheim-
Fights we want to see. Fights we won’t see. It’s that time of the year. Old is supposed to give way to the new. But boxing is a business that has seen it all, or almost all. We still haven’t seen Terence Crawford-versus-Errol Spence Jr. and I have a hunch we won’t see it in 2020 either. Hope springs eternal, but old habits make the world go ‘round.
Bob Arum, who has seen it all, told The Athletic that boxing is poised for a terrific year. All the fundamentals are there.
“It’s going to be off the charts,’’ Arum said.
But then there was the caveat. The if.
“If,’’ Arum said, “everybody doesn’t bleep it up.’’
Bleep is a boxing habit. For whatever reason, it won’t stay in the spit bucket. It always seems to be there just when you begin to think the battered game is about to get up and off the canvas. Let’s face it, 2019 was forgettable.
Sure, there were some moments. Canelo won at a fourth weight, winning a light-heavyweight title in a 10th-round knockout of Sergey Kovalev. But did anybody really think that wasn’t going to happen?
It’ll be a night remembered more for the delay in the opening bell. In a misguided attempt to boost the DAZN audience, the logistics around a good Las Vegas fight featuring boxing’s biggest draw waited until a UFC card in New York ended. It was embarrassing and a sure sign that boxing’s place in the market and the public imagination had further eroded.
That slide will continue this year without a serious attempt at breaking out of the same old bleep. The Deontay Wilder-Tyson Fury rematch on Feb. 22 looks as if it could be a pretty good beginning, a launching pad to what Arum hopes will be an off-the-charts year. I’d settle for a year that puts 2019 in the rear view mirror.
Here are a few predictions, all with the caveat in mind and the tongue in cheek.
- Wilder knocks out Fury. Fury, already a betting favorite, promises that Wilder won’t touch him. But the real question is this: Can Fury hurt Wilder? Fury is clever, yet he lacks power. Wilder lacks skill, but he is tough. He can withstand punishment. The longer the fight, the more likely it is that Wilder’s lethal right lands. This time, Fury doesn’t get up.
- Canelo, who gave up his light-heavyweight belt, fights Gennadiy Golovkin for a third time. DAZN’s investment mandates the bout. Canelo agrees, knowing it will generate significant income. There’s no debate about the result this time. Canelo wins a dominant decision.
- Mikey Garcia is again reminded of why there are weight classes. Garcia faces welterweight Jessie Vargas on Feb. 28, nearly a year after Spence easily beat him in a performance that said –round-to-round – that Garcia should have stayed at 135. Vargas keeps it close. But Garcia wins a narrow decision in a performance that suggests he’s vulnerable. Manny Pacquiao sees the fight—and the vulnerability. Pacquiao and Garcia agree to fight later in the year.
- Gervonta Davis fights for the second time at 135 pounds. Misses weight for a second time, too.
- Jose Ramirez blows away Viktor Postol in China on Feb. 2 in a junior-welterweight bout. That sets up a unification title fight with Josh Taylor in either the UK or Las Vegas. Ramirez shows he can win anywhere, unifying the title and then looking to move up the scale to welterweight in a fight with Crawford.
- Anthony Joshua talks, talks and talks about Wilder-Fury, yet struggles against Kubrat Pulev in a mandatory defense of one of his titles in a spring bout. A bout with Wilder gets delayed until early 2021.
- Emanuel Navarrete defends his junior-featherweight title two more times and moves up the scale to 126 pounds. But none of the featherweights will fight him. They’re afraid of him.
- Naoya Inoue comes back from eye-socket fracture sustained in Fight of the Year victory over Nonito Donaire. Inoue re-asserts his pound-for-pound credentials and adds another bantamweight belt against either Nordine Oubaali of France or Filipino Johnriel Casimero sometime in mid-year in either Los Angeles or Las Vegas.
- Fury fights MMA, wrestles, writes another book and gets a television series, The Furys, A Kardashian Look at a Boxing Family.
- Floyd Mayweather Jr. says he’s coming back. Then says he’s not coming back. Throughout the next year, there will be as many rumors about Mayweather-Pacquiao 2 as there are pages in a calendar.
- Teofimo Lopez finally gets a shot at Vasiliy Lomachenko late in the year. He pulls off a stunner. He fights to a controversial draw with Lomachenko, the pound-for-pound No.1 in most ratings. But a rematch dictated by the draw never happens. Lomachenko is injured in the fight. Then, he decides to move back down the scale to a more natural eight, 130 or 126
- Bleep happens. That’s the only sure thing in this year or any other year.