Match Delays and Cancellations Turn 2010 into Year of Boxing Disappointment

When 2010 first dawned, it was shaping up to be a banner year for boxing—or at least one that held an abundance of promise.

Back on January 1, we were still a few days away from finding out that the biggest fight in recent memory, Floyd Mayweather versus Manny Pacquiao, had fallen apart.

Rising star Andre Berto was set to face Shane Mosley in late January in a very intriguing welterweight showdown, and Showtime’s Super Six tournament was remarkably snag-free.

Since then, though, it’s been one piece of dismaying news after another for fans of the sweet science. Consider the following:

—No more digital ink needs to be spilled dissecting the fallout from the disintegration of Mayweather-Pacquiao. Boxing simply had a lot of the wind sucked out of its sails when that bout went by the wayside.

Pacquiao ended up saving the March 13 date to a certain degree by fighting Joshua Clottey instead.

But while that bout may have been a financial success that opened the eyes of the boxing world to the potential of venues like Cowboys Stadium, no one who sat through it would consider Manny’s one-sided decision victory an aesthetic success.

The man who can honestly claim to have signed the next best opponent is Mayweather, who is scheduled to face Mosley on May 1. Sugar Shane is a talented, accomplished foe, but his advancing age (he turned 38 last September) and lengthy period of current inactivity are at least mild causes for concern.

—Since he is of Haitian heritage, no one blamed Berto for canceling his fight with Mosley to concentrate on helping with earthquake relief efforts. The only shame of it was the loss of the opportunity for the 26-year old to earn a career-defining win.

Berto will return to the ring in April, but Carlos Quintana represents a step down in terms of opposition. Depending on the outcome of the Mayweather-Mosley bout, there’s no guarantee Berto will find himself immediately back in the mix with the welterweight division’s big names, so his star turn likely will have to wait until at least 2011.

—Only the most optimistic fan would have expected the Super Six World Boxing Classic to come off without a hitch, but after a smooth opening batch of round robin fights, it’s almost like the tournament has been cursed.

The first fight of Phase Two of the Super Six, between Arthur Abraham and Andre Dirrell, should have taken place on March 6. A training injury to Dirrell forced it to move back three weeks, though the change of venue to Detroit (close to Dirrell’s hometown of Flint, Michigan) may be a blessing in disguise.

The other two bouts haven’t fared any better. Both were scheduled for April 17 but were bumped back to April 24 without any obvious reason.

Mikkel Kessler and Carl Froch will still fight on that date, but Andre Ward’s second fight is proving to be particularly difficult to nail down. First he had to deal with a new opponent, with Allan Green substituting for Jermain Taylor.

Then came word just a few days ago that Ward would be unable to go on April 24 due recurring trouble with his right knee. A new date has yet to be set, and the sniping between the promoters of Ward and Green has turned downright nasty.

Even less anticipated cards are running into problems. Steve Cunningham and Cory Spinks aren’t huge names, but both men are ranked highly in their respective divisions, and both were set to take part in a rare world title fight doubleheader on ESPN2’s Friday Night Fights on March 26.

Earlier this week, it was announced that those fights were also off due to an inability for ESPN and Don King to agree on financial terms. To echo a recurring theme, the date for Spinks’ fight had already been changed once, and there’s no word on if or when it will still go down.

That doesn’t mean that there haven’t been any bright spots. Devon Alexander opened a lot of eyes with his impressive knockout of hard-nosed Juan Urango a few weeks ago and now has the look of stardom about him.

Beginning on March 27, the boxing schedule is packed for six straight weeks, a stretch that includes multiple televised cards on HBO and Showtime, the years-in-the-making rematch between Bernard Hopkins and Roy Jones and a potentially dynamite fight between Kelly Pavlik and Sergio Martinez.

The Super Six will hopefully get back on track, and there’s even a chance Mayweather-Pacquiao could be revisited in the fall.

So there’s no reason to say 2010 is down for the count just yet. Boxing fans may still look back fondly on the year when it’s all said and done, but a lot more will have to go right—and a lot less wrong—over the next eight months for that to happen.

Nick Tylwalk is the editor and co-founder of BoxingWatchers.com. Follow his Twitter feed @Nick_Tylwalk.