One reason why I read Kevin lole articles from Yahoo sports is because he straight out tells it like it is with out holding back.
By Kevin lole, Yahoo! Sports.
One of the worst things that ever happened to boxing fans is when rematch clauses gained widespread use in the sport.
If you don’t believe that, consider that on Saturday at The Joint in the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino, Chad Dawson and Antonio Tarver will meet for the International Boxing Federation light heavyweight title.
This is a rematch of an Oct. 11 bout, one which Dawson won by scores of 117-110, 118-109 and 117-110. It was a non-competitive match with no tangible signs that, short of a mugging with a weapon, Tarver could reverse the outcome.
That first match is, you may have forgotten, the one in which the eye-popping lowly total of 911 tickets were sold, according to Nevada State Athletic Commission records. I suspect that many of those that were reported as sold were, in fact, given away. All a promoter has to do is pay the state tax on a ticket and it is counted as sold, regardless of what it is actually done with it.
The fight was a dud on television, as well. Showtime’s broadcast, combined with a delayed showing of the Vitali Klitschko-Samuel Peter fight in Germany, did a 1.4 household rating and attracted just 376,000 viewers.
It was a lousy fight that consumers rejected.
Common sense would dictate moving on to the next project. This being boxing, though, there’s a rematch.
There seems to be no way Tarver can win the fight. There seems to be precious little interest in the bout. The television ratings – this time on HBO – again will be dismal. If it weren’t for the replay of last weekend’s blockbuster Manny Pacquiao-Ricky Hatton fight, which will precede it, Dawson-Tarver II might struggle to gain the rating it did in October.
None of it will come as a surprise to those involved with the promotion.
The public is cheated out of the fight it should rightfully have gotten, a rematch between Dawson and Glen Johnson, who engaged in an entertaining and competitive battle in 2008.
Boxing’s run of compelling bouts on television, which began in January when Andre Berto and Luis Collazo made a bid for Fight of the Year, will come to a screeching halt.
Fans were once treated to a plethora of spine-tingling matches. There was the compelling scene on Jan. 24 at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, when nearly 21,000 fans turned out to watch Antonio Margarito and Shane Mosley. There was the frenzied crowd at the Toyota Center in Houston on Feb. 28, roaring on hometown heroes Rocky Juarez and Juan Diaz in separate bouts. There was Carl Froch’s compelling comeback against Jermain Taylor in Mashantucket, Conn., on April 25, as well as Timothy Bradley’s gut check victory over Kendall Holt in Montreal on April 4.
April 4 was the same night in Austin, Texas, when a series of veteran boxing writers were compelled to stand and applaud Carlos Hernandez’s courageous effort in a loss to Vicente Escobedo.
Pacquiao’s electrifying knockout of Hatton brought the house down in Las Vegas last week, sending a sellout crowd of more than 16,000 that paid a live gate of more than $9 million into a frenzy.
And on Saturday, we get Dawson-Tarver II.
The fun has to end sometime. Read full article here.