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Canceled!: Boxing's Lost Summer of 2009

Mayweather-Marquez isn't the only postponed or canceled fight harshing boxing's summer buzz.

Mayweather-Marquez isn't the only postponed or canceled fight harshing boxing's summer buzz.

While commenting on another post, it just moments ago really dawned on me how unexciting much of boxing's summer schedule has become. The recent rash of cancellations and postponements has turned what looked pretty decent into something that now feels empty, like months of wasted time in a sport that needs big fights.

I'm not trying to demean the fights we're going to get (for now, anyway), but when you look at June 22 through the end of August and the biggest thing there is a 140-pound title unification between Timothy Bradley and Nate Campbell, that's trouble. If you count June, July and August as "the summer months" for the sport, we're going to wind up having passed a quarter of the year where the biggest fight was Miguel Cotto's rumble with Joshua Clottey on June 13.

The Klitschko-Haye debacle of June 20 was big, as it took a fight that people all over the world were interested in seeing and replaced it with YAKC (Yet Another Klitschko Cakewalk). Kelly Pavlik's return -- though a "light" fight against Sergio Mora -- was turned into an uninteresting Juan Manuel Lopez fight against an unknown challenger on June 27. Even the June 20 rematch between Chris John and Rocky Juarez factors in.

The biggie, of course, is the postponement of Mayweather-Marquez, likely being rescheduled for September, when it's also expected that Pavlik will fight again.

There are good fights that will happen. Bradley-Campbell is good. Joseph Agbeko-Vic Darchinyan (July 11) is good. Juan Diaz-Paulie Malignaggi (August 22) is decent. I like the Nonito Donaire-Hugo Cazares fight on August 15, but that's pay-per-view, too.

Cotto and Manny Pacquiao will get it on in November, and the fall block looks loaded right now. With that, the rescheduled Mayweather-Marquez fight and the Pavlik return likely in September, a highly-anticipated rematch between Chad Dawson and Glen Johnson, and maybe a ring return from Ricky Hatton and hopefully something out of Shane Mosley, boxing can really kick the fires from September through November. I think there's even an outside shot that Cotto-Pacquiao will top Hatton-Pacquiao as the event of the year.

And the thing is, there's really no one to blame. Promoters set up fights, and the fights now aren't happening. But saying the stars aren't aligning for boxing this summer is a huge understatement. It's downright bleak.

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I think there’s even an outside shot that Cotto-Pacquiao will top Hatton-Pacquiao as the event of the year.

Pacquiao gained so many fans after that fight. Cotto brings a very loyal fan base of his own and (hopefully) a bigger challenge to Pac

by ryanwk628 on Jun 22, 2009 3:59 PM EDT reply actions   0 recs

That’s my thinking, too. I don’t believe in any way that people ordered, saw what Pacquiao did and went, “What a gyp!” I think they went, “Holy fucking shit, this guy is awesome.”

by SC on Jun 22, 2009 4:08 PM EDT up reply actions   0 recs

…then told everyone they know.

by ryanwk628 on Jun 22, 2009 4:15 PM EDT up reply actions   0 recs

2009

Started out so edgy with Mosley…

Now practically every other important fight has been postponed or canceled.

"Penelosa is not human." -Max Kellerman on Gerry Penelosa during the Juan Manuel Lopes-Gerry Penelosa bout.

by Sickle on Jun 22, 2009 4:31 PM EDT reply actions   0 recs

As long as Darchinyan-Agbeko doesn't get cancelled

That’s the fight I’m most looking forward to anyway

Bad Left Hook - The SB Nation boxing blog
"Baseball is played on the field, not on a calculator."

by Brickhaus on Jun 22, 2009 5:28 PM EDT reply actions   0 recs

Thank god Cotto and Clottey actually made it to the ring.

If it hadn’t been for that fight, which actually lived up to its billing, we’d have gone from Manny in May to Manny in November without anything to really catch the general public’s attention.

Although detractors decry (MMA) as a brutal, bloody form of human cockfighting, aficionados know it is a brutal, bloody, totally fucking awesome form of human cockfighting. -The Onion

by The Kittitas Kid on Jun 22, 2009 6:51 PM EDT reply actions   0 recs

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