The Silent Science Part 1

Boxing is known to those who love it as the sweet science, but it is truly a dying art or if you will, it has become a silent sport.

Most peoople have no idea that in less than a month a huge fight is about to take place. Even worst than that if they heard the names Manny Pacquiao and Shane Mosely, they would not even know that this event is a big deal. Only Pacquiao and Mayweather would raise eyebrows, but even that would not appeal to the average sports fan.

Who would buy the pay-per-view?

I would, but I am one of the few silent fight fans left. Some people even call us the fight cult. A lot of diehard sports fans tell me that boxing is boring and that all the fighters do is hold each other. Boxing is hard to watch until you understand it. American Football would be hard to understand if you had not grown up with it, just ask the rest of the world.

And here lies the problem, (a little history lesson if you don't know). Boxing and the people in and around, it got greedy in the 80's. People like Don King began to bleed the sport. Big fights became pay-per-views. If you don't have HBO or Showtime (maybe) you don't know boxing. ESPN has all the C and D fighters or guys who have 1 or 2 wins and are just getting started. Boxing is like watching minor league baseball and that will not sell to the mainstream sports fans, unless boxing has a thirsty Thursday.

Long story short, the common sports' fan has no idea what is going on in boxing and even diehard sports' fans don't care.

This is sad because I watched a fight Saturday night that was as good a sporting event as I have seen in a long time.

People who love team sports love to talk about the one on one match ups that make a game great, and there are too many match ups in all sports to name, just fill in the blanks _______ vs ________. Well that is what boxing is all about. Two men enter and only one man leaves... a winner.

The Andre Berto vs. Victor "Vicious" Ortiz fight was no exception. These guys had it all on the line and the underdog Ortiz emerged as the winner. Both men were awesome and Berto lost for the first time, but gained fans even in defeat, showing heart, finishing the fight, after being knocked down in the first round!

If you consider yourself a sports purist and didn't see this fight you truly missed out. NBA may be good, but the back and forward action of the NBA, has nothing on the Berto vs. Ortiz fight, with a handful of knockdowns in a fight that went 12 rounds. I will not recap the fight, if you want to check it out, access this article at http://insidefightweek.com/?cmpid=ABC842.

This fight should be the fight of the year and both men put an amazing show, and for that I thank them.

The Silent Science remains sweet, too bad other sports' fans missed it!




Part II coming soon...