Tournament May Help Put Some Order Back in Heavyweight Class

The boxing fraternity convened this weekend for the latest episode in HBO’s heavyweight soap opera, the Larry Holmes-Michael Spinks rematch for the International Boxing Federation crown.

Holmes-Spinks II continued the tournament promoted by Don King and Butch Lewis which seeks, over the next 18 months, to unify the heavyweight championship and put some order into a division that might best be described as scrambled.

“The state of the heavyweight division is semi-critical and the prognosis is grave,” said Dr. Ferdie Pacheco, boxing analyst for NBC-TV. “It is not in optimum condition.”

When the tournament began, there were three heavyweight champs--Tim Witherspoon in the World Boxing Assn., Pinklon Thomas in the World Boxing Council, and Spinks. When Thomas lost his title to Trevor Berbick, it marked the third straight heavyweight championship fight in which the crown had changed hands, remarkable instability for a division that once featured long-term rule by people like Rocky Marciano and Joe Louis.

“What we have is a series of dog fights by a dreary succession of heavyweights who are incapable of holding on to the title for more than one or two fights,” Pacheco said. “They are meaningless fights by overweight, untalented people. There’s no hook to hang on to like (Muhammad) Ali.”

Like so much else in the sport, Ali was in the middle when the heavyweight title was first split. It was his stunning loss to Leon Spinks--Michael’s brother--on Feb. 15, 1978 that triggered the turmoil.

Ali had been recognized by the WBC and the WBA. By beating him, Spinks became the undisputed champion, but only until he chose to give Ali a rematch the following September. That violated WBC rules and that organization stripped Spinks of the title. So, when Ali won the second meeting with Spinks, he captured only the WBA title.

The WBC, meanwhile, turned its version of the crown over to Ken Norton, the No. 1 contender. His reign lasted lasted little more than two months and ended when he lost a 15-round decision to Holmes on June 9, 1978.

Holmes held the WBC crown until he refused to fight contender Greg Page and was stripped of it by the organization in 1983. That marked the birth of the IBF, which gave Holmes its heavyweight belt.

The WBC and WBA titles then passed through a variety of hands, including Witherspoon, Page, John Tate, Mike Weaver, Michael Dokes, Gerrie Coetzee and Tony Tubbs. Only Weaver was able to defend the crown more than once before losing it.

On the eve of the King-Lewis tournament, Witherspoon outpointed Tubbs for the WBA title in a dreary 15-round bout. When post-fight tests found traces of marijuana in the new champion’s system, the WBA fined Witherspoon and ordered a rematch with the winner expected to fight British contender Frank Bruno later in the year. Bruno’s bid for a title fight was fueled by his knockout of Coetzee, who has been beaten by, among others, long-gone contenders like Page and Tate.

Pacheco doesn’t understand the logic of the rematch ruling. “That’s punishment with a profit,” he said. “The punishment is to let him go out and make another $350,000 or $400,000.”

Despite the WBA ruling, Tubbs-Witherspoon II may go on hold. There have been suggestions that Tubbs would step aside to permit a Witherspoon-Bruno outdoor match this summer in England because of Bruno’s drawing power there. Tubbs would then meet the winner.

“The problem is there is no one regulatory body with uniform rules,” Pacheco said. “The HBO tournament is a well-conceived idea which, if everything worked for the best, would be excellent. But you have three organizations with three sets of contenders and three mandatory defenses. Two of them (the WBA and the IBF) sanction fights at 15 rounds, the other (WBC) at 12. As soon as they unify the title, it will be split again.

“In the world of reality, with the quality of the division deteriorated over the years and without a ruling body to decide what’s good for boxing, it’s virtually impossible to accomplish the unification of the heavyweight title and the return of the word ‘champion’ to its rightful meaning.”

Outside of the tournament, other heavyweights have further confused the picture. Newcomer Mike Tyson is on a knockout streak that eventually may force him into the Lewis-King hoedown. Weaver, another of Coetzee’s many conquerors who had been more or less discarded at age 33, suddenly surfaced with a sensational three-round knockout of Carl “The Truth” Williams.

When James “Bonecrusher” Smith lost a 10-round decision to Marvis Frazier and Weaver on the rebound, courtesy of the Williams KO, a bout between the two quickly was arranged. This was a fight that could have had tournament implications for Weaver. But his jaw had the bad fortune to run into a right hand from Smith in the first round for a quick knockout, restoring Bonecrusher’s credentials and clouding a planned summer match between Weaver and Tyson.

Lured by HBO’s involvement in boxing, Showtime, another cable network, has signed a five-show contract with King’s longtime rival, promoter Bob Arum. The series begins June 4 with three title fights, the heaviest being the Davey Moore -- Buster Drayton match for the IBF junior middleweight crown.

Showtime will have few if any heavyweight shows because most of those fighters are controlled by King and Lewis. But that hardly disturbs Alan Sabinson, the network’s senior vice president for programming.

“There is not a wealth of terrific heavyweights around,” Sabinson said. “This is not exactly the golden age of heavyweights. I don’t know if we would have been interested in the unification tournament if it had been brought to us. Our feeling is that two mediocre heavyweights slugging it out doesn’t amount to much.”

Ferdie Pacheco couldn’t agree more.