by Fox Doucette We're all familiar as modern fight fans with the problem of four major sanctioning bodies recognizing as many as three different “world champions” across 17 weight divisions---at any given moment, there may be as many as a hundred fighters calling themselves the champion of the world. Contrast the old days, when you had at most two competing organizations (the … [Read more...]
Search Results for: what if
What If Bernard Hopkins Quit After One Fight?
by Fox Doucette Bernard Hopkins is the ultimate example of how taking the first professional loss can set a fighter free from the pressure that often accompanies a gaudy undefeated record. After all, if you lose your first pro fight, you never have that pressure in the first place---you can regroup, come back, and go on to become a legend. But what if B-Hop never fought … [Read more...]
What If Arturo Gatti Never Fought Micky Ward?
by Fox Doucette Arturo “Thunder” Gatti and “Irish” Micky Ward put on what is, for your columnist's money, the greatest fight of the twenty-first century so far; better than Corrales-Castillo, better than the Israel Vazquez-Rafael Marquez fights, better than Matthysse-Molina, and for damn sure better than the “Fight of the Century”, Mayweather-Pacquiao. Ward-Gatti I, on May 18, … [Read more...]
What If Golden Boy Wins Its Lawsuit Against Al Haymon?
by Fox Doucette (author's note: I know I said I was doing a May-Pac parody with Rocky Marciano and Ezzard Charles as the players in the tale---trouble was, the jokes, which were film noir inspired, just weren't working, and the fight action itself...well, I've done that twice before. So, on short notice, you get a much shorter and less historical edition of this column---on the … [Read more...]
What If Teofilo Stevenson Went Pro? (Part 2)
by Fox Doucette When last we left Cuban sensation Teofilo Stevenson, he'd just taken his third knockout loss, falling first to Earnie Shavers and George Foreman before Muhammad Ali stopped Stevenson, still only 23 years old, on February 20, 1976. Stevenson lost the eye of the tiger after that fight; he'd been in with world championship-caliber fighters, but never sniffing the … [Read more...]