Growing up as a kid in the 80’s and 90’s I vividly remember such great heavyweights as Mike Tyson, Evander Holyfield, Riddick Bowe, George Foreman, Lennox Lewis and others making the heavyweight division special, but once the 2000’s came in and the Klitschko brothers took over, the focus shifted to other weight classes.
Most recently pugilist pundits packed pubs around the planet to watch “The Fight of the Century” when Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao went the distance in May of 2015, breaking all sorts of records, but failed to satisfy the expectations of the casual fan, as I covered extensively in my May 2015 blog for FightBox HD. With the absence of such a huge super fight in 2016, could 2017 be the year that boxing becomes great again?
Talks of a Mayweather - Conor McGregor fight have been heating up with Mayweather recently stating “I’m coming out of retirement just to fight Conor McGregor. I don’t want no more excuses about the money, about the UFC”.
Many experts think this would be, without question, the biggest fight that could be made this year. In fact, the website mytopsportsbooks.com has gone on record stating that “If this fight happens, it will undoubtedly be the biggest fight of 2017. It could even surpass MayPac”.
Even though many fans seem to be intrigued by the prospect of the current UFC Lightweight Champion slugging it out with the 49 - 0 future hall of famer and both parties seem to be working towards a favorable outcome, this does not yet guarantee that the fight will go down. Espn.com has recently stated on its website that “ … [the Navada State Athletic] commission has been made aware of active negotiations between the two camps, but said the fight still faces several challenges”.
If all the loose ends can get tied up and the stars can align for this inter-disciplinary engagement, 2017 could be the year that not only makes boxing great again, but perhaps even brings more combat sports fans together than ever before. Boxing fans, MMA fans and casual fighting enthusiasts alike will undoubtedly tune in to this once in a lifetime event which could ignite the popularity of fighting sports overall.
- Daniel Austin (Don Roid)
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