On Saturday night I was feeling kind of bored, and I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do for the evening. I was also pretty tired after working hard on my website, genxchronicle.com, over the past week. We cover news, culture and lifestyle through a Generation X lens.
So by 8 pm I was beat, but I wanted to do something. I flipped on the TV, and ESPN came on, because my TV is set so that ESPN comes on automatically when you turn it on.
There was a fight on, and I was instantly intrigued. I’ve always loved boxing, when it’s good, that is. You have to get past all the promotional BS, the corruption, and the alphabet soup of weight classes, belts and titles.
But a good fight is fun to watch. I know that MMA has become the “it” sport among millennials and younger folks, but I find it so brutal that it’s hard to watch. It can also be pretty boring watching two dudes wrestle on the ground for fifteen minutes.
So I like boxing. When I was a kid in the 80’s, some of the biggest names in the sport were Mike Tyson, Sugar Ray Leonard, Marvin Hagler, Tommy Hearns, and later Evander Holyfield and Lennox Lewis.
But make no mistake, Mike Tyson dominated the 80’s like no other fighter we have ever seen. His combination of raw power with speed and, most importantly, intimidation, was a sight to behold. When he knocked out Michael Spinks in 91 seconds in 1988 in Atlantic City, he was at the height of his powers, and it seemed he would dominate the heavyweight division for a decade or more.
Of course we all know about the loss to Buster Douglas in 1990 in Tokyo, and the subsequent losses to Evander Holyfield, and the ear biting incidents, and all the other sordid events that followed Mike Tyson until he finally got his act together about seven or eight years ago.
So the 80’s were a golden era for boxing. It may not have been like the heights boxing reached in the 60’s and 70’s, when Ali, Foreman, Ken Norton, Larry Holmes and others dominated the heavyweight division. But just like Ali in the 60’s and 70’s, Tyson shone above all others in the 80’s.
Also in the 80’s, the middleweight battles between Marvelous Marvin Hagler and Sugar Ray Leonard were epic. Leonard’s speed and deft touch repeatedly outboxed and outpointed the bigger and stronger Hagler. Tommy Hearns also had some great wars with Sugar Ray at both welterweight and middleweight.
Interestingly, though, one of the fights I remember most vividly took place on September 14, 2002. Oscar De La Hoya, nearing the end of his career but still a potent force, was challenging Fernando Vargas for his light middleweight belt.
All of the pre-fight hype was about how Vargas was younger, bigger and stronger. Most experts had Vargas knocking De La Hoya, who was a welterweight who had moved up in weight class to fight Vargas.
There was also a subplot involving the fact that both fighters were Mexican-American from California, but even though De la Hoya was from East L.A., Vargas was the “true” Mexican and de la Hoya was metaphorically white, “The Golden Boy” who mixed and mingled with the Hollywood Glitterati.
The fight took place at a sold out Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas, and there was a large Mexican presence in the arena. The crowd was overwhelmingly in favor of Vargas, and the broadcasters made sure to note this point multiple times.
No doubt De La Hoya, who had been a longtime champion, was rankled by this, and by the talk that he was not a true Mexican. But in interviews he maintained his calm composure and stayed positive.
In the early rounds Vargas battered De La Hoya and had him up against the ropes multiple times, landing power shots. De La Hoya, though, displayed a strong chin and held up well against Vargas’s power.
The tide of the fight turned in the later rounds, when Vargas seemed to tire and De La Hoya’s hand speed took over. Eventually De La Hoya was peppering Vargas with jabs and crosses that, while not power shots, took their toll. A big welt opened under one of Vargas’ eyes, and his face began to bruise.
I remember that just as it seemed De La Hoya was taking control of the fight in the 8th or 9th round, the bell rang and both fighters returned to their corners. Vargas looked stunned, shocked in fact, that this older, smaller, weaker man could be dominating him.
Vargas’ corner man tried to rally him, and I vividly remember him saying in Spanish to Vargas “vamonos! El no fuerte como tú fuerte.” Which translates roughly as “Let’s go! He’s not strong like you’re strong!” But on this night, at this arena, in this fight, strength didn’t matter. De la Hoya was the better, more technically proficient fighter.
In the 10th round de la Hoya stunned Vargas, and in the 11th he knocked him to the canvas with a left hook to the head. Vargas rose unsteadily, but a further flurry by de la Hoya led the referee to stop the fight moments later. De la Hoya was the victor by KO.
The energy in the arena was palpable, and you could feel it coming through the TV. The crowd was stunned. Vargas was stunned. And I was energized like I hadn’t been in quite some time. It was an incredible fight, and I remember how amazed I was that De La Hoya had been able to come back after being down against Vargas, and to beat a man who was so much younger and stronger than he was. It was a true demonstration of how skill can defeat raw power, and how wisdom can defeat youth.
All in all, it was a super dope fight, and it renewed my faith and interest in boxing, which can perpetually let you down. But when it’s good, like on this night, it’s really good. So I was psyched to have seen such a great fight, and it remains to this day one of the best and most exciting fights I’ve ever seen.
The other great fight I saw around this time was a heavyweight matchup between long-time champion Lennox Lewis and Ukrainian challenger Vitali Klitschko. This is when the Klitschko brothers were new to boxing, before they had become champions and household names. It turned out to be Lewis’ last fight, too, because he rejected a rematch with Klitschko after narrowly defeating him, and opted instead to retire.
What I remember most about this fight is that Lewis looked old and out of shape. He was 37 at the time, and he was just about done. He came into the ring with a gut, which I had never before seen on a guy who had always been a tall, ripped yet lean physical specimen.
The fight occurred on June 23, 2003, at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. Both men were physical giants. Lewis was 6’5” and usually fought at 250 lbs, though he looked heavier in this fight. Klitschko was 6’7” and also around 250 lbs.
Klitschko came in as the decided underdog, but he was able to dominate the first two rounds and land major shots to Lewis’ head. The announcers were all stunned at how well Klitschko was fighting, as was the crowd. Because Lewis had dominated the heavyweight division for a good seven or eight years, and here was this young Ukranian upstart who was taking it to him. Two hard right hands in the 2nd round opened up a cut under Lewis left eye.
Lewis looked like a shell of himself. He was overweight, he was slow, and he was staggering around against the much younger and quicker man. In the 3rd round, though, Lewis found renewed energy and landed a hard right hand that opened up a very deep cut above Klitschko’s left eye. It was raw, it was bloody, and it was nasty. Gash would be a better word than cut to describe it.
But Klitschko fought on, and the fight went back and forth, with both huge fighters appearing to tire in the 4th and 5th rounds. They were both swinging wildly, but to me it looked like Klitschko was getting the better of the exchanges.
The only problem for Klitschko was, that cut was getting worse, and there were rivers of blood pouring down his face, and a valley-deep gash above that left eye. When they say boxing is a blood sport, they’re not kidding.
But you have to respect the men who risk life and limb to do battle with each other every day. It’s just not something most people are built to do, or have the capacity to tolerate.
In the 6th round, both fighters were landing huge shots, and they staggered around the ring looking exhausted. Lewis landed a huge uppercut in the 6th that stunned Klitschko, but Klitschko came right back at him with big jabs and crosses. It appeared that if the fight where to go the full 12 rounds, Klitschko’s youth and energy would win the day and carry him to victory.
Unfortunately for Klitschko, in between the 6th and 7th rounds, ringside doctors determined that his cut was too deep, and that he risked being defenseless since his vision was so impaired from the swelling, so they stopped the fight.
I truly believe that if they hadn’t stopped the fight, Klitschko would have won. Because he was clearly and repeatedly outpointing Lewis, and Lewis was even more out of gas than Klitschko. Since the fight was stopped when Klitschko couldn’t go on, though, Lewis was declared the winner by technical knockout (TKO). All three judges, though, had the fight scored 58-56 for Klitschko when it was stopped.
There was a lot of controversy in the aftermath, with many people feeling that Klitschko was robbed of a chance to take the title from Lewis. Public demand for a rematch was high, and Lewis initially said he welcomed it. But ultimately he opted instead to retire in 2004.
I truly believe that after that fight, Lewis knew he was done. He would have had no chance against the younger, faster Klitschko in a rematch. He had been exposed during the fight, and at 37 it was time to hang it up and call it a great career.
So this was just an incredible fight. And it was a crystal clear example of how much youth means in sports, and it reinforced that age-old saying that “father time is undefeated.” Lewis met father time in this fight, and although he edged out a victory, he would not be so lucky again.
It was just a great battle between two super heavyweight fighters who left it all on the line. It’s also interesting that whereas De La Hoya found the strength and inner reserve to overcome against a younger, stronger man, Lewis perhaps had fought one fight too many and just couldn’t find the will to overcome.
That’s what’s so great about boxing. Two men enter the ring for a test of speed, strength, skill, and, yes, intelligence, and only one emerges victorious. They fight for themselves, they fight for their families, they fight for money, they fight for pride, but most of all they fight.
That is something I will always respect, and it’s why boxing still matters, even in 2018. Because everyone likes to watch a test of wills, and boxing delivers that in its rawest form.
So I say, long live boxing. May it continue to entertain us for many more years to come.
