By Norm Frauenheim—
From presidential to pound-for-pound, it’s the political season. The first will conclude, hopefully, in a few days. Only relief will be unanimous at the end of a presidential bout with more low blows and cheap shots than rules and decorum.
The other will continue, as contentious as it is entertaining. Actually, the pound-for-pound campaign is just starting all over again, re-ignited a couple of weeks ago by Teofimo Lopez’ upset of Vasiliy Lomachenko.
Lopez’ victory in a compelling lightweight bout knocked a leading, longtime contender out of the debate. Lomachenko had been No. 1 or No. 2 in virtually all of the pound-for-pound ratings. But his loss shuffled the deck, moving Lopez into the argument for the first time with a ranking among the Top 10’s second five.
It also left Canelo Alvarez alone and idle at No. 1.
Idle is the issue. Time is the question. How long? How long will Canelo’s lawsuit against streaming-service DAZN and promoter Oscar De La Hoya keep him out of the ring?
There are no victories in inactivity. It’s fair to argue that Canelo should not be penalized because of legal process. But he filed the lawsuit. Fair or not, inactivity is an unwanted consequence. Nevertheless, a prolonged stretch outside of the ring will only erode his claim on No. 1.
Only a current, convincing argument keeps you in the debate. Canelo doesn’t have one. The middleweight champion’s last fight was almost exactly a year ago – an 11th-round stoppage of light-heavyweight Sergey Kovalev on Nov. 2, 2019 in Las Vegas.
Since then, a speculated bout with super-middleweight Billy Joe Saunders never happened because of the Pandemic. Then, there was the Canelo lawsuit for $280 million in damages. It’s a huge number, all adding up to potential complications that could keep the lawyers in court and Canelo out of the ring for who-knows-how-long.
Meanwhile, the pound-for-pound contenders and wannabes will fight, each hoping to deliver a performance convincing enough to further their own claim. Two of the contenders will be in the ring Saturday.
In Las Vegas, there is top-five contender Naoya Inoue in his Top Rank debut and his first appearance since his Fight-of-the-Year performance against Nonito Donaire, also last November. Inoue, appropriately nicknamed The Monster for a Halloween-night fight, faces Australian Jason Moloney. Inoue is supposed to win. Still, it’s an interesting bout, in part because Moloney is the bigger fighter. He started at junior featherweight (122 pounds) before moving down to bantam (118).
There’s a reason for weight classes. Inoue, a former junior-flyweight (108) champion, suffered a fractured eye socket in his dramatic victory over Donaire at 118 pounds. That might have been a red flag in Inoue’s attempt to move up the scale. We’ll see. If Inoue emerges unscathed and delivers a big victory, however, his pound-for-pound cred only strengthens.
Meanwhile in London, Oleksandr Usyk has an opportunity to prove he belongs among the top five pound-for-pound contenders and in the heavyweight division. Usyk faces Dereck Chisora at Wembley Arena. Usyk, who can twist his face into a scary Halloween mask, ranks as one of the best cruiserweights ever. But his heavyweight debut in a seventh-round TKO of Chazz Witherspoon Oct. 13, 2019 in Chicago left questions. Usyk can answer and reaffirm his right to pound-for-contention.
Then at the Alamodome in San Antonio, there is pound-for-pound wannabe Gervonta Davis in a 130-pound pay-per-view fight (Showtime) against Leo Santa Cruz in what might be the best Halloween offering. Davis is younger. He turns 26 on Nov. 7, a week after the fight. He possesses more power than Santa Cruz, 32, who was at his best at featherweight. Davis is bigger.
Does Santa Cruz still have the wheels and energy to take Davis into the 12th and final round for what would likely be a victory on the scorecards? Can he elude Davis’ power? Can he endure it?
Davis thinks not. So, too, do the oddsmakers, who make Davis a minus-700 favorite, meaning he has an 87.50 percent chance of winning.
“I think the winner should be in the top 10 of the pound-for-pound list,’’ Davis said Thursday at a news conference.
It sounds as if Davis is already campaigning for a ranking that might lead to a showdown with Lopez, who started this edition of a pound-for-pound debate that promises to get very interesting.
