News Story: It Tolls for Thee – by Bernie McCoy

It is traditional in boxing to commemorate a death by a ritual tolling of the ring bell for a count of ten. It may, soon, be appropriate to begin a toll for the sport of Women’s boxing and it’s life span as a viable sport. Women’s boxing is on the verge of suffering the most ignominious of deaths that a sport can endure. It is becoming irrelevant. When was the last time a female boxing bout captured major headlines on a national basis? It could have been the proposed Lucia Rijker/Christy Martin, “Million Dollar Baby” fight and fans of the sport know how that one turned out. In a way, the cancellation of Rijker/Martin may have been a fitting analogy for the sport: two good, well known fighters failing to get in the ring together.

It was not always thus. In April, it will be 11 years since Martin was the subject of a cover story in Sports Illustrated. In the world of sports coverage, that’s as close to “as big as it gets” as it gets. Today, such coverage of the sport might be more appropriately relegated to the pages of MAD magazine. It’s not that the sport or the female boxers that climb into the ring are, in any manner, humorous, it is simply an inescapable fact that Women’s boxing, as currently configured, is no longer being taken seriously by the mainstream sports media or by the sport’s increasingly diminishing fan base. Far too many of the female bouts today are nothing more than a showcase for a “name” fighter winning, all too easily, over an overmatched opponent.

The traditional barometer of a sport’s popularity, television, provides all you need to know about the current health and future prognosis of the sport of Women’s boxing. “Live”, national coverage of the sport is, and has been for some time, practically nonexistent and the occasional ESPN female bout is all too often of the “one good fighter” variety. Showtime and HBO are, currently, the two major boxing networks. Showtime has not has a female boxing bout on the air in this century and HBO, the self proclaimed “leading boxing network,” in it’s over thirty years of existence, has never had a female fight on the air.

Yet on February 10, Showtime will feature a Mixed Martial Arts card from Southaven, MS and included in the scheduled televised fights will be a female bout featuring Gina Carano and Julie Kedzie. The “extreme fighting” sport also has, recently, had several hours of documentary coverage on MSNBC, along with an ongoing weekly series on Spike TV. Additionally, there is a talk, in the television industry, that NBC network is exploring the possibility of adding a program featuring Mixed Martial Arts to it’s late fringe weekend time slot. In television programming circles, MMA is known as niche programming and it is, likewise, apparent that MMA is the current niche sport of choice, on TV, supplanting Women’s boxing among other sports. And it’s hard to argue with that particular programming choice.

And the reason is quite simple. In MMA the top fighters, male and female, constantly seek out and compete against the other top fighters in the sport. Contrast that with Women’s boxing, where, in large part, many of the top boxers in the sport go out of their way to studiously avoid other top boxers in their weight class and opt instead for sure thing wins against overmatched opponents. The result is that many of the MMA bouts are both competitive and compelling while, in Women’s boxing too many of the bouts are neither. Guess which sport makes for more compelling viewing? It’s not the sport of Women’s boxing.

It is only in the sport of Women’s boxing that the most famous fighter chooses, over a period of more than two years, to fight a series of bouts where the lone competitive aspect of the matchup is that both fighters weigh in at approximately the same weight. And after exhausting, quite literally, this lineup of overmatched opponents, the erstwhile “face” of the sport of Women’s boxing does not look for a step up in competition, but rather schedules another bout with one of the previously defeated opponents, while at the same time dropping a hint that following this “rerun,” she may take a year off from the sport. Of course that suggestion of a hiatus begs the question how will fans of Women’s boxing be able to discern the difference between a year off and the last two years of desultory bouts.

It is only in the sport of Women’s boxing where another top ranked fighter, this one in the heaviest weight class, chooses to defend her title against a fighter whom she has previously beaten twice. It is only in the sport of Women’s boxing where still another top ranked boxer, unbeaten in over twenty bouts, chooses as a “championship” opponent, a fighter who has not been in a professional boxing ring for over five years. And that is only the most recent examples of the problems that continue to plague the sport of Women’s boxing inside the ring.

The sport, similarly, gets no help from outside the ring. It is overpopulated with managers who refuse to permit their top ranked fighters to stray from the warmth and comfort of hometowns in order to take competitive bouts. These managers manage only to do the sport harm. Likewise, there is an overabundance of promoters who have a penchant for overstating the quality of opponents that are imported into those hometown venues. A recent press release tabbed a well known fighter, who over a 10 year career, has yet to gain a win over a quality opponent, as one of the “best pound/pound fighters” in the sport. It is nothing more than ludicrous rhetoric designed to sell a bout that is essentially a sure win for the hometown fighter. Probably the biggest, outside-the-ring detriment to the sport are the so-called sanctioning bodies and their largely valueless title belts. In practice, these organizations are designed to bring some order to the chaos of the sport, but in reality, most sanctioning bodies do little or no sanctioning of the many noncompetitive bouts and while seemingly more interested in ringside tickets, buffets and limousines they do little to prevent the long line of mismatches, masquerading as championship bouts for worthless belts. It is most sanctioning bodies that should be sanctioned, out of existence.

Are there exceptions to this dismal picture? Sure. Tex Woodward and Jane Couch have taken any and all fights offered to them, willing to go any place at any time and have done so, over a long period of time, with both class and distinction. Melissa Hernandez has, from the first day of her short career, looked upward, not sideways or downward, for opponents and has proven, time and again, that one tough fight is never enough for one tough fighter. She proves that once again on Valentine’s Day in Las Vegas when she goes twelve, three minute rounds with Layla McCarter. Ann Marie Saccurato is an example of a “take any fight, any time” professional and, after years of dues-paying, it has paid off for her with a title and, in March, she’ll charge into one of those “hometowns” to take on Holly Holm. The NABF is a relative newcomer to the sport of Women’s boxing, but under the direction of Jill Diamond, this sanctioning body has provided some creative innovations to the sport, such a the recent establishment of the Atomweight division for fighters who are smaller than the lowest existing weight class. (That may be the first time that the word “innovation” was credibly used in the same sentence as “sanctioning body.”) Finally, Arnie Rosenthal and his Rock and Sock Productions have fought the good fight by promoting good fights thru “A Ring of Their Own” program and has done so, largely, without the benefit of a great deal of mainstream media support.

But unfortunately, those fighters, managers, promoters and sanctioning body are clearly the exceptions and despite the presence of the Woodwards and Couches, the Herandezes and Saccuratos, “A Ring of Their Own” and the NABF, the sport of Women’s boxing continues to spiral downward. And unless and until managers take their top fighters to where the other top fighters are, unless the biggest names in the sport agree to climb into the ring with the other big names, until promoters relegate their own self interest and that of their local fighters and concentrate on a goal of making the best possible fight with the best possible fighters and until sanctioning bodies actually do some sanctioning, the path of the sport will continue, inevitably, towards extinction. It won’t be immediate, the sport will continue to slowly diminish and the usual suspects will continue to hang on trying to convince the few fans that are left that the sport can be saved. But, if Women’s boxing continues with it’s “business as usual” demeanor, the demise of the sport is assured. And when the time comes to toll ten over Women’s boxing, those usual suspects, who will still be clamoring for “one more chance” might do well to listen to the sound of bell and the words of John Donne, which will serve as a proper epithet:

“Therefore, send not to know
For whom the bell tolls,
It tolls for thee.”

Bernie McCoy