Boxing writer Bert Sugar summed it up best when he said the heavyweight division started dying when the NFL started paying better. And that if they didn’t we’d be watching Ray Lewis fight Michael Strahan for the heavyweight title. The Spinks Brothers, Larry Holmes and definitely Mike Tyson were as wealthy, if not more, than top NFL stars. And now it isn’t even close, so what young athlete would want to get brain damaged for a living for less than he\’d make playing football? Therefore I doubt it will ever recover in America. And if there is a good American heavyweight, he’d probably fight in MMA.

In other boxing news, Floyd Mayweather Jr.’s people are out looking for fights. LVRJ did a story talking about how he’s lost/spent 35% of his net worth in the last 12 months.

Yvel approved? What a joke. The guy shouldn’t be allowed in a cage or ring in any sanctioned state.

Either way, I can’t find myself to purchase that PPV. The Barnett & Buentello fights do little for me. Belfort is consistently flakey, and something tells me that is 15 minutes of lay and pray fighting. Soko had such bad showings in the UFC, I really don’t need to pay to see him fight.

I actually do like Horodecki/Lauzon. And Fedor/Arlovski is a good fight, but Heavyweights in general have never been my thing.

I don’t know if I’m ordering UFC 93 either. It’s not very strong of a card outside a few key fights.

““Yvel has been cleared through the CSAC (California State Athletic Commission),” said Atencio.”

If this is true, it would make the “New CSAC” a joke, especially given the newly installed ability for fighters to get away with taking steroids if they have a doctor’s prescription and/or if they can show that their supplements have steroids in them.

But, like the gentleman before me said, everything about this one was just “off” from the moment it was first rumored to be happening.
From the strong denials from Valuev about such a match up ever occurring after it leaked out that talks were in progress for it to occur. After which came the complete about face once it was signed & suddenly it was an “honor for him to meet such a legend” …

Then, after a plethora of other rather odd things leading up to yesterday’s contest, we got what was in essence, a complete non-effort from the titlist in defense of his belt. He lumbered through the match as if his feet were mired in quicksand & his fists were bound by handcuffs. It was just bizarre.

He FAR more resembled Lon Chaney Jr. in those old Universal MUMMY movies of the ’40s than he did the man whom I’d seen crush Owen Beck, KO ( a then still useful ) Monte Barrett, drop a VERY narrow split nod to the world class Ruslan Chagaev & then dominate an decent former titlist in Sergei Lyakhovich this past summer.

THAT Valuev should have not only beaten, but probably stopped what was left of the Holyfield that was nearly shut out by “Barbey Rubble” Ibragamov a full year ago.

But, instead, what we got was a soft looking Valuev barely going through the motions for 12 long, dull rounds. Which, by comparison, made virtually EVERYTHING that Holyfield did over the course of the contest ( which, really wasn’t a whole hell of a lot, but … ) look good.

Then came, given what we’d just seen over the 36 minutes of “action”, a complete disgrace from all three judges. Even the fairest of whose scorecard was way off base at 114 – 114.
Something that would’ve been seen as a rather curious anomaly for sure in a fight in which Holyfield clearly won nine out of twelve rounds.
But then, there were the other two judges scores, which weren’t simply criminal in scope like the vote for a draw. No, these two were damned ATROCITIES for giving the Russian giant the victory.

Something which, IMO, made/makes Holyfield’s subsequent blase response to the verdict & his total lack of outrage at being denied a historical feat in what was very likely to be his last opportunity at doing so, odder than hell to me.

Taken as a whole, it all just doesn’t add up.

It’s as if Valuev, was assured of a decision victory going into the contest no matter what, with the understanding that the fight was to go twelve full rounds & that he not really unload on the old former multiple time champ in the process. And, unhappy & totally uninspired by such an arrangement, Valuev simply went through the motions JUST enough to pass the time in the ring.

In other words, the powers that be foisted what was in reality, a glorified 12 round exhibition match off as a legitimate World Heavyweight Championship fight.

Anyhow, that’s one possible explanation for what we were all unfortunate enough to witness yesterday.

So, what’s YOUR theory?