Here’s hoping for some electricity in ring after low- wattage build- up
ime for a bit of dirt under the fingernails. After an interminable week of buildup that was more prepackaged than primal, the WBO world heavyweight title bout between Joseph Parker and Andy Ruiz Jr needs a fight worthy of the honour.
If fight night came with a menu, you’d pick a punchfest; you’d pick two corners working overtime to fix cuts; you’d pick a late- round knockout.
What you wouldn’t choose is what we’ve got so far: two God- fearing and humble fighters being God- fearing and humble.
Earlier this week, the short- fused Dereck Chisora threw a table at Dillian Whyte at a press conference ahead of their British heavyweight bout.
In Auckland, it felt like we were only an acoustic guitar away from the principals of this fight joining hands for an Anglo- Spanish version of Kumbaya.
They often say you can’t coach brave, and in a similar vein you can’t train nasty and nor would you necessarily want to; the public tends to see through the sort of manufactured nonsense that normally serves as a prelim for nights like tonight. Nevertheless it was heartening to see Parker give a little bit more than usual at the weigh- in, when he confidently predicted he was “going to pierce [ Ruiz Jr’s] face with my jab”.
Okay, okay, it’s not in the same league as Mike Tyson’s promise to Lennox Lewis that he was going to “rip his heart out . . . I want to eat your children, praise be to Allah”, but then again Parker is not a cocaine- crazed, damaged soul like the New Yorker was.
He’s well- raised, respectful and, here comes that dreaded word again, humble. What he doesn’t seem to have is that chip on the shoulder, the wellspring of anger we’ve come to expect from world- class heavyweights.
Perhaps that’s a small part of why, for a world title fight — albeit for just one of the four belts recognised by the International Boxing Hall of Fame — it has been a surprisingly hard sell.
Price- point has no doubt played a part. Mid- range tickets that were originally touted for $ 400 were dropped to $ 200 when they failed to sell and, anecdotally, the resistance to the $ 60 payper- view offering remains strong.
Coverage certainly hasn’t been an issue. As one of Duco’s spruiker- in- chiefs David Higgins gleefully pointed out, the media will now cover a Parker sneeze.
We’ll continue to do so, too, as long as he wins.
If the thinkable happens, however, and he loses, then interest will quickly wane. Then they’re going to have to find a new trick to get us back.
That’s a question for the future though.
Right now we have a title fight to look forward to between two of the nicest guys in the sport. Mike Tyson, eat your heart out.