CARVILL'S NOTES: Looking Too Hard for a Hero?

Independent

2 days ago

The cry for a heavyweight champion is so loud that it often drowns out the need for common sense and rationality.
Nine years ago, I was in the Scholars Lounge in Rome. It was not a place of learning, but one of the city's numerous 'Irish' bars. I was on my way back from the International Journalism Festival in Perugia and had stopped for two nights in the Immortal City.
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It was the weekend that Anthony Joshua challenged 'Prince' Charles Martin for the IBF heavyweight title. Joshua, 15-0 (15), was coming into the ring after beating Dillian Whyte, his somewhat rival, in seven rounds. Martin, 23-0-1 (21), was defending his title for the first time, having beaten Vyacheslav Glazkov for it two-and-a-half months earlier.
There was a young couple sat on the same table with me. We were not together as a group, but we were all interested in watching the fight.
'What do you think of Martin?' asked the man.
'Not much.'
'So Joshua wins?'
I shrugged. 'I guess. But the problem is who he fights afterwards. Fifteen fights, knocking out all those guys to get here – what happens when he starts having mandatories against those who can really fight back?'
Joshua stopped Martin in two rounds that night. He defended against Dominic Breazeale and Eric Molina in subsequent bouts, then stopped Wladimir Klitschko in eleven.
But it was after that the sheen began to come off. The underrated Carlos Takam pushed Joshua hard, who would go onto look less than inspired in subsequent bouts against Joseph Parker and Alexander Povetkin. Then Andy Ruiz knocked him out in seven.
Even though Joshua would win the rematch, he looked almost hesitant. A win over Kubrat Pulev inspired few. Then there were the losses to Oleksandr Usyk and Dubois. Even with the run of victories of lesser opponents, it seems that Joshua either left something behind in the ring along the way or it was never developed in the first place.
I lean towards the latter, and that is why I have been thinking that thought a lot this week, because we are running up to Saturday when the undefeated Moses Itauma, 12-0 (10), is set to meet Dillian Whyte, 31-3 (21), in a twelve-round bout in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. It is a fight that either moves Itauma into true contention – where is already being lined up in some quarters to be the next, and final, dance partner of Oleksandr Usyk – or relegates him back down a few levels.
And yet I feel that this fight may be coming too soon for Itauma. He has only fought twelve times in the professional ranks. Ten of his victories have come by stoppage, with only two of his wins going past the second round.
A twelve-fight professional record is still the record of an amateur learning the ropes of the trade. When Anthony Joshua was 12-0, his next opponent was Kevin Johnson. At that time, Johnson was on the long downslope of his career, having slipped into the role of gatekeeper.
Other heavyweight champions, in their thirteenth fights, fought opponents of a similar level. For Lennox Lewis, it was Mike Acey, 11-4-1. For Mike Tyson, it was Conroy Nelson, 15-7-2. For Wladimir Klitschko, it was Marcos Gonzalez, 18-11-1. Brother Vitali fought Anthony Willis, 16-6, in his thirteenth pro fight. Tyson Fury went in against Zack Page, 21-32-2, at the same point.
I doubt Whyte is at the stage of his career that those fighters were at. He may have last had a significant fight in 2022 (against Fury), but he is has stopped three men in the years since – all of whom would be better learning fights for Itauma, still a relative novice.
The other fighter I have been thinking of this weekend has been David Price, who was 15-0 (13) when he went out to face Tony Thompson, 36-3 (24), in Liverpool. Thompson stopped him in two and, five months later, repeated the same trick in five. At the time of their first bout, Thompson was only one fight away from challenging Wladimir Klitschko for the world heavyweight title.
Again, Price had been rushed into it. And he paid the price with two losses and a career that was derailed to finish at 25-7 (20).
I thought then that Price had been set to fight Tony Thompson too soon. Such was the hubris of those around him that they made that fight. And that same hubris led them immediately to the rematch.
I fear that same hubris is being played out again.
And on that note:
· There is an effort right now in Germany to revive the nation's boxing scene. When I arrived here over a decade ago, the Klitschkos were filling arenas and stadiums throughout Europe. Arthur Abraham was also headlining arenas, as were Marco Huck and Felix Sturm. It was not unusual for fights on German soil to have 40,000 spectators. But those days now seem long past, with three of those five fighters now retired and events being lucky to have 5,000 spectators. Not long ago, I heard a rumour that Abraham and Sturm had discussed fighting one another, but their individual asking prices of €500,000 have so far been deemed 'too high'. Even nostalgia, it seems, has its limits.
· If normal life is stranger than fiction, then boxing is often stranger than normal life. One of the most-interesting characters I've met through my time in boxing is a guy called 'Jack'. That is not his real name, but I know him through a former boxer, a once European champion, who met 'Jack' through a gym that 'Jack' trained in. The boxer and 'Jack' became friends. 'Jack', who is a high-priced lawyer in London, helped the boxer with some contractual battles with his former promoter. He is also a white-collar boxer. Not long ago, I was watching a Vice documentary on bareknuckle boxing and saw 'Jack' sitting in the crowd at a fight in the Midlands. I sent him a message, asking if it was him. He confirmed it was and said, 'Yeah, I'm thinking of having one or two bareknuckle fights.' I would not put it past him.
· Speaking of Kevin Johnson, the former heavyweight contender has disappeared off the radar. I last saw him fighting outside a bar in Hamburg, Germany (not as sleazy as it sounds). He had a couple of more fights here but seemed to be content to have slipped into the role of journeyman, seemingly losing all of them by decision. I may not have spoken to him in a while, but it seems that he has joined up with a foreign army, taking as his name that of the nation's president. Indeed, if normal life is stranger than fiction, the boxing is stranger than normal life.
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