By Cliff Rold

This Saturday, away from U.S. cameras, hopes for a vibrant Heavyweight division continue.  Those hopes have traveled a healthy road since the 2004 retirement of Lennox Lewis.  Leaving behind recognition as the lineal World Heavyweight champion at his exit, Lewis has watched with the rest of the world as multiple men have claimed titles.

None have truly claimed the crown. 

As of today, Wladimir Klitschko is close but, for now, prevented from making full claim by his big brother Vitali and Ruslan Chagaev.  Chagaev and Vitali are similarly ceilinged by Wladimir. 

It is, by years, the longest vacancy the top of the division has ever seen, far outpacing the vacancy that existed between the retirement of Gene Tunney in 1928 and Max Schmeling’s victory over Jack Sharkey in 1930 for the vacant title.

28-year old David Haye (21-1, 20 KO) and 26-year old Alexander Dimitrenko (28-0, 18 KO) surely would like to vie for its filling.  They are, along with Chris Arreola and Alexander Povetkin, some of the most intriguing new contenders for the honors.  Whether any of them have the stuff remains to be seen.  Haye and Dimitrenko have immediate opportunities to catch eyes. 

Haye of course is already somewhat of a Boxing star, beginning to be noticed in the U.S. and well established in the United Kingdom.  In late 2007, he captured the lineal World Cruiserweight championship from Jean Marc Mormeck in a back and forth battle that saw both men hit the deck.  Haye got up; Mormeck didn’t.

Haye never went down at all in facing a WBO titlist and regional rival in Enzo Maccarinelli this past March, instead opting to score a blazing two-round knockout in what had been an anticipated showdown.  An eye-popping combination of personality, speed, and power, Haye was calling out Klitschko’s even before Maccarinelli and remains in the mix for one heading into 2009.

Three things stand against him this weekend: veteran trial horse Monte Barrett, a questionable chin, and the history of Cruiserweights succeeding at heavyweight.  It’s a history one name long.

Evander Holyfield.

That’s it.

Numerous other cruiserweight notables have ventured into the Heavyweight division and come away with less than glory.  Orlin Norris was a capable Heavyweight who dropped down to become a champion and returned only to find he was still just capable.  Al Cole moved up and promptly lost to an ages old Tim Witherspoon.  Vasily Jirov?  Knocked out by Michael Moorer.  Juan Carlos Gomez?  He’s currently a mandatory to Vitali but suffered for years under the weight of a first-round loss to the immortal Yanqui Diaz.  Former Middleweight titan James Toney had the most recent success, ironically beginning with a stoppage win of Holyfield in 2003.  But for a pesky steroid test, he would have collected a title off of John Ruiz and went to a draw in another alphabelt title shot at Hasim Rahman. 

It’s not the sort of history which weighs in Haye’s favor and it’s probably why ultimately he dips his first serious toe in the water against the 37-year old Barrett  (34-6, 20 KO).  Barrett’s most recent claim to fame was exposing the already obvious fraud which was Tye Fields.  Before that, he split knockouts with Cliff Couser.  It’s hard to say exactly what he’s got in the tank at this point but he’s played spoiler before against once hot prospect Dominick Guinn.  It would seem Haye’s team is counting more on the Couser version showing up than the one Guinn faced; probably a smart bet.

Dimitrenko is more of an enigma than Haye, but he’s got many of the attributes looked for in modern era heavyweights.  He’s 6’7 and has some power to go with the frame.  What he doesn’t have yet is much serious opposition and, already 28 wins deep, it indicates either serious flaws being protected against or a work in progress project being groomed patiently.  This weekend, he has his own 37-year old challenge with just as many miles of wear as Barrett.  Luan Krasniqi (30-3-1, 14 KO) was once a viable fringe contender who gave Lamon Brewster a go for the WBO title but, including that bout, he’s been stopped in two of his last four. 

That leaves fans with two heavyweight bouts that stand to prove only negatives this weekend.  A loss by either, or both, simply eliminates more names from the pool of potential Heavyweights of interest.  Wins merely confirm what looks obvious already: heavy favorites will act like it. 

Hope for the latter.  At least it might create something to look forward to.  There’s of course an actual fight on U.S. TV to look forward to.  Let’s call it…

The Superfight That Wasn’t

One of the most fascinating elements of this weekend’s showdown between former World Middleweight champion Jermain Taylor (27-2-1, 17 KO) and former IBF Super Middleweight titlist Jeff Lacy (24-1, 17 KO) is what it is not. 

It’s not a pay-per-view superfight. 

A few years ago, these two former 2000 U.S. Olympic teammates only one division apart seemed destined to be just that.  It’s proof that hype and management is never a substitute for tests under leather and both Taylor and Lacy struggled mightily in their biggest.  Taylor lost twice, by stoppage and decision, to Kelly Pavlik after an uninspired title reign.  Lacy was drubbed by Joe Calzaghe before suffering a nasty shoulder injury in his next bout against Vitali Tszypko and was last seen in a nip-tuck war with rugged journeyman Epifanio Mendoza.

And yet, while they did not ‘pass’ their biggest tests neither did they completely fail.  Lacy showed, and continues to show, incredible will and heart.  Most men would have quit under the torrent of leather Calzaghe dished out much less continued fighting Tsypko with only one good arm.  Lacy is a warrior who demands an exit on his shield.

Taylor, against Pavlik in their rematch, showed mental strength, stepping in with a man who’d left him slumped in a ring corner only months earlier and coming close to pulling off a bit of revenge.  Both he and Lacy enter the ring this weekend still with a hint of damaged goods attached to them, but fighting hearts intact.

In another time, the setbacks they’ve faced would just be called having a professional career.  The stakes in the modern game are higher on a per fight basis than they were forty years ago because sometimes a single fight or two a year is all one can get out of the sports best.  The stakes are high for both because they can’t sustain much more damage to their reputations at this point.  Instead of a superfight, they instead are each other’s avenue to the chance at ever being in one again.  The winner will leave with a WBC mandatory at the winner of December’s Carl Froch-Jean Pascal.

For the average fan, that’s not so bad.  They save $50 bucks and still get a Taylor-Lacy fight that matters.  But it’s hard not to think of what this once was intended to be.

Saving Impressionable Minds From B.S.

It never ceases to amaze me how much history can change with time.  Case in point could be found last week in multiple articles hyping/reporting on the lead-in to Joe Calzaghe-Roy Jones.  Numerous writers repeated that Roy Jones knocked off a James Toney who in 1994 was the best fighter in the world pound-for-pound. 

Um, no, not quite.

There was this other guy running around making guys miss, making them pay, defending the lineal World Welterweight championship after unifying the Lightweight division.  Let me see, former Olympian, name is on the tip of my tongue…yeah, not really.  This one is easy.

Pernell Whitaker.

Whitaker was actually still enjoying his move to universal acclaim after making a fool out of previous consensus choice Julio Cesar Chavez in 1993.  In October 1994, just six weeks before Jones-Toney, Whitaker became one of the last fighters to grace the cover of Sports Illustrated with a headline reading, “The Best.”  It honored a masterful rematch victory over the excellent Buddy McGirt and his widely accepted place at the time as Boxing’s overall best. 

That is not to say Toney wasn’t catching Whitaker at the time, or didn’t have his backers, but he wasn’t there yet, tossing in uneven performances that played down to his opposition on occasion without even factoring Toney’s 1992 ‘win’ over Dave Tiberi. 

Whitaker of course was never caught by Toney and held off Jones for complete recognition as best in the world until a controversial win against Wilfredo Rivera in 1996 marked the beginning of Whitaker’s slide.  After all, Jones couldn’t have passed him in 1995.  Whitaker was winning a fourth title in a fourth division that year against Julio Cesar Vaquez; Jones was having perhaps the most egregiously matched year of his career against Antoine Byrd, Vinny Pazienza and Tony Thornton. 

Seriously.  

I don’t know if it became okay to just pretend Whitaker wasn’t there back then, if some folks are just unconsciously repeating a trope they’ve picked up without thinking, or if some just don’t know better.  Whatever it is, it bears correction. 

Glad to help.

The Weekly Ledger

But wait, there’s more, most of it concerning more positive aspects of last week’s Calzaghe-Jones fight:

Cliff’s Notes…

When did Taylor, 30, and Lacy, 31, start getting old?  Perhaps because so many fighters last so long these days, that reality seemed odd to me this week.  With so few fights on their ledgers it feels like both should still be fairly new….Felix Sturm talking trash about Arthur Abraham?  I like it.  Make the fight, winner for Pavlik, and Boxing would look like it makes sense…Besides, Sturm-Abraham might be a bigger money fight than either versus Pavlik right this second…Glen Johnson just keeps on winning and showing no age at near 40.  How come no one ever wonders about a Hopkins-Johnson rematch?  Now that would be interesting…Finally, congratulations to HBO’s Max Kellerman on the birth of his first child. 

Cliff Rold is a member of the Ring Magazine Ratings Advisory Panel and the Boxing Writers Association of America.  He can be reached at roldboxing@hotmail.com