Janice R. Andrews
The undefeated WBC lightweight champion and former Olympic medalist Shakur Stevenson fought in his native Newark, New Jersey, on one coast. ESPN aired the bout live, with Joe Tessitore prepared to provide the music for some incredible knockout sequences. The future of boxing was this.
On the opposite side of the country, two former mixed martial fighters who are both approaching forty, tried to revive a rivalry that began in the UFC five years ago—or at the very least, cash a cheque. But now this was a boxing arena. With a 0-1 record as a professional boxer going into the fight in Anaheim, California, which was shown on pay-per-view, Nate Diaz was defeated by former YouTube sensation Jake Paul. The score for Jorge Masvidal was 1-0, but that was 19 years ago. Was this actually happening? This was what irritated boxing.
In front of a crowd that wasn’t quite full, one bout was dull, and spectators were jeering and even walking out during the last rounds due to the lack of excitement. In the other, two boxers engaged in a boisterous and chaotic battle, exchanging many punch combinations and sending the packed house into a frenzy. If you have any knowledge of the present status of boxing, you should be able to tell which was which even if you didn’t watch one or both.
This isn’t a piece proclaiming the death of boxing. There is always boxing. Anyone can get into a bad, boring fight at any time. There are many intriguing, gifted boxers in the sport, including Stevenson, who is 27 years old. All it takes is a fierce competition or a few outstanding, likeable stars from a comeback. However, Saturday was only one difficult night in a run of difficult evenings.
Once again, Diaz and Masvidal demonstrated their ability to pull off a successful one-off event, which was co-sponsored by Diaz’s Real Fight Inc. and Masvidal’s Gamebred Boxing, let alone draw an audience of more than 18,000 people to the Honda Centre. They clashed. They took a chance. They provided entertainment. Together, they threw 1,394 punches (720 from Diaz, who was deemed the winner by the judges) in a frenzied back-and-forth battle that left spectators unable to look away. Just 869 passes were exchanged between Stevenson and Artem Harutyunyan (446 by Stevenson, who also won on scorecards), with both corners pleading with their players to release their hands.
Simply by picking his locations, Stevenson was able to land more punches (170 to 151) than Diaz, demonstrating his far superior boxing ability. However, that isn’t necessarily the main idea. Even if there aren’t actual championship stakes or talent level, a fight is still a battle at some point. Masvidal and Diaz are skilled providers. That explains their devoted followings, the fact that famous people frequent their events, and the fact that the entire on-the-fringe evening managed to come together. They managed to make it function.
Those two were willing to take a chance and were attempting to knock each other out. With Stevenson, things weren’t always as they seemed. There was no disagreement about which was a better watch at the end, let alone which one you would be more likely to pay for going forward if you watched both.
For Diaz, a defeat might have meant the end of his career, but this gave it new life. But there’s a reason he’s still in demand: his genuine personality and his capacity for excitement, which he seemed to lack when he claimed he had no motivation to take on Paul. There might be a rematch with Paul there. Or perhaps the Conor McGregor trilogy remains in the UFC. or perhaps an alternative.
There will be a plethora of WBC lightweight title defences and bouts for Stevenson. He won’t be leaving. However, there was a genuine chance for him individually as well as for conventional boxing as a whole. On a Saturday night with little else going on in the sports world, ESPN did everything it could to promote the bout and a possible star. This was an opportunity to market Stevenson to a general public, using some highlight reel content that may circulate on social media.
Rather, the combatant was forced to ignore the jeers from the indifferent audience, claiming they were directed at Harutyunyan because he thought he was being overly protective. Stevenson remarked, “It’s kind of hard to prove [oneself] if you don’t have a fighter trying to fight back.” “He’s just attempting to get by.”
Philosophically speaking, Stevenson is right, but should the supporters really care? It doesn’t matter who the supporters’ annoyance was aimed at. It was a rational reaction to what was occurring—or, more significantly, what wasn’t. The bout in Newark was supposed to represent the true essence of boxing to die-hard enthusiasts who deserve better than this ridiculous farce in California. The fact is, sideshows can be really entertaining, particularly when Nate Diaz is the ring leader once more.
