Empty Frame: Fight is on to be Face of the Game

By Norm Frauenheim-

It can be scarred. It can be friendly. Scary, too. Sometimes, it’s a booking photo.

It’s the face of the game.

It’s anybody’s guess as to how it started and how it continues to evolve. At one level, it’s as subjective as the pound-for-pound debate. It’s also closely linked to it, yet not defined by it.

Think Roberto Duran and then Roy Jones Jr. At some point in their careers, they were a solid choice for the pound-for-pound No. 1. Yet, neither was ever really seen as the game’s face, not during respective eras when bigger crowds and television ratings were generated by Sugar Ray Leonard and then Oscar De La Hoya.

Think Mike Tyson. For many years, he was that face, even when he was losing. Evander Holyfield would beat him, yet Tyson’s lifestyle was the imminent accident that crowds and pay-per-view customers could not resist.

In a notoriously jagged business, it’s safe to say that the pieces don’t always fit. Yet, the search goes on – and on — for the right face to fill what now appears to be an empty frame, left vacant by Floyd Mayweather Jr.’s retirement.

A fight to fill that frame is underway, starting three weeks ago with Errol Spence Jr.’s one-sided decision over Mikey Garcia and continuing April 12 with lightweight champion Vasiliy Lomachenko’s title defense against Anthony Crolla on April 12 at Los Angeles Staples Center.

Then, there’s welterweight champion Terence Crawford on April 20 against Amir Khan at New York’s Madison Square Garden followed by middleweight champ Canelo Alvarez on May 4 against Danny Jacobs and finally UK heavyweight Anthony Joshua’s American debut against Jarrell Miller on June 1, also at Madison Square Garden.

It’s an intriguing spring. But it’s hard to tell whether it will produce a clear successor to Mayweather’s rich reign as the face.

Spence has been trying it on, almost like a crown prince rehearsing a role he believes he will soon have to himself. The numbers for his decision over Garcia – more than 47,000 at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Tex., and between 300,000 and 400,000 pay-per-view customers – add up to a face that has the potential fill the frame

But he won’t win the role against Keith Thurman or Shawn Porter. To repeat what’s already been said here and elsewhere, the PBC welterweight can only win it in a showdown down with Top Rank’s Crawford, who first has to beat Khan. Negotiations for that one figure to be problematic at best

Then, there’s Lomachenko. He’s up next, meaning he’ll have the bully pulpit to amplify his claim for the next couple of weeks, or at least until Crawford gets back in the pulpit against Khan. A shoulder injury and getting knocked down by Jorge Linares has left some lingering questions about Lomachenko, but the Ukrainian’s unique skillset speaks for itself and figures to so with its usual dynamic edge against Crolla. Question is, can he draw?

The same question has been asked of Crawford, although less so since scoring a big rating for ESPN in a twelfth-round stoppage of Jose Benavidez Jr. last October. The bigger current question is about who he has beaten. It’s one Khan has parroted in the build-up for their April 20 opening bell. Khan has been quoted as saying Crawford’s fights have been “walks in the park.’’ Guess here: It’ll be a walk that Khan will regret he took. Nevertheless, Crawford has the same chance Spence does at being the next face. To wit: They have to face each other.

For now, the best chance is with Canelo. It’s no coincidence that most of the money is with him, too. DAZN bet $365 million over five years that he already is the new face. PPV proof is on Canelo’s resume. Each of his two victories over Gennady Golovkin did over one million buys – 1.3 in 2017 and 1.1 in 2018. But the results leave questions. The first one was a split draw. The rematch went to Canelo in a majority decision. Canelo needs a convincing victory in a rivalry that begs to be a trilogy. DAZN is gambling that he will.

Then, there’s Joshua, who for now is the face of another British Invasion. At stake is whether he can become the face of the American side of the pond. U.S. fans were captivated by his dramatic stoppage of Wladimir Klitschko. He got up from a sixth-round knockdown before Wembley crowd of 90,000 UK fans for a stoppage of Klitschko two years ago.

Since, however, he has appeared cautious, promoting questions about whether the Klitschko battle tempered his aggressiveness. Against a Miller with nothing to lose, an answer looks likely. Beating Miller would presumably set up a long-awaited bout against American Deontay Wilder.

An empty frame is waiting.