Heavyweight Division Still Needs to Shape Up

Remove a big boulder stretching across a creek bed and fresh water will flow in.

The same would be true, it was hoped, in boxing’s heavyweight division.

The big boulder is two-time heavyweight champion Mike Tyson and, for far too long, his ominous shadow has stretched across the division. Despite his dwindling funds, dwindling skills and dwindling interest in remaining in the ring, he has continued to be a dominant figure in terms of earning potential, attracting fans fixated mostly on whom Tyson might next bite, gouge or otherwise maim.

That and whether Tyson will ever get a matching tattoo on the other side of his face.

Remove the Tyson bottleneck, went the argument, and new blood will flow into the division.

And sure enough, that’s what appeared to happen in June at Staples Center. Tyson, who was supposed to fight in the semi-main event under headliner Lennox Lewis, dropped out.

Enter Vitali Klitschko.

When Lewis’ opponent, Kirk Johnson, was injured in training camp, Lewis and Klitschko were matched up. And Klitschko proved to be quite a match for the man generally considered the bona fide heavyweight champion, leading Lewis on all three judges’ scorecards when the fight was stopped after the sixth round because of a bad cut above Klitschko’s left eye.

Boxing appeared to be the big winner that night because the heavyweight division, already shaken by Roy Jones’ victory over John Ruiz several months earlier, seemed truly invigorated.

Along with Vitali, there was his brother, Wladimir, both reared in Ukraine, trained in Germany and living in L.A. Both possess doctorates and are articulate and impressive physical specimens.

In other words, a pair of Ivan Dragos with brains.

Jones had his own appeal as the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world, in the minds of many, who had moved up from light-heavyweight to the ultimate weight to prove that his speed and skill could offset anyone who dwarfed him in size.

Add James Toney, who is moving up from cruiserweight, and Evander Holyfield, who refuses to move aside although most consider him a shot fighter at 40, and the possibilities seemed endless.

That was two months ago.

Lewis has since disappeared from public view while he contemplates retirement at 38, perhaps realizing he was lucky a cut eye enabled him to fend off a young lion like Klitschko, and that he may not be so fortunate the next time.

Vitali is returning to the ring on Dec. 6, but he’s having trouble finding an opponent.

Jones, after declaring that he would need at least $10 million to again venture into the heavyweight ranks, is about to step back into the light-heavyweight division to face Antonio Tarver on Nov. 8.

Perhaps Jones realized he may not be so fortunate the next time to find a heavyweight as inept as Ruiz.

With Lewis perhaps gone, Klitschko looking over the usual stiffs for an opponent, and Jones headed back to the division where he was largely ignored, what remains is the Oct. 4 match between Holyfield and Toney at Las Vegas’ Mandalay Bay Events Center.

It is certainly an intriguing match.

Can Toney make that big step up to the heavyweights as did Jones? Does Holyfield have anything left?

But the fact is, Holyfield, a four-time heavyweight champion who once declared he was interested only in unifying the title, has agreed to face a blown-up cruiserweight in a nontitle bout.

Where are all the title bouts? Where is all the excitement generated only a few months ago?

As golden eras go, this was a short one.

Oh well, it could be worse. Tyson could return.

Kind Words

When Bob Arum, Oscar De La Hoya’s promoter, learned Shane Mosley had hired promoter Gary Shaw, Arum looked as if he had just won an all-expenses-paid trip to Baghdad.

With the deal for next Saturday’s super-welterweight title fight between De La Hoya and Mosley at Las Vegas’ MGM Grand Garden Arena already completed, Arum was not looking forward to Shaw’s coming in as a mouthpiece for Mosley.

Shaw has never been accused of reticence when defending his fighter. So imagine Arum’s surprise when Shaw praised him.

“If I was to teach a class at Harvard on the business of boxing,” Shaw said, “I would spend one whole class on what I consider the masterpiece of Bob Arum’s career, his promotion of Oscar De La Hoya. It has been a textbook example of how to operate, a masterful job.

“He has made every right move. Bruce Trampler [Arum’s matchmaker] has picked all

the right opponents and Bob has done a great job of marketing.”

Shaw has Arum just where he wants him: Speechless.