While watching O’Shaquie Foster put on a masterful defensive display against Robson Conceicao last weekend only to find himself booed by the crowd and then victimized by one of the worst judging decisions in recent memory, it occurred to me that we have officially gone full gladiator.
In the 2000 film, as Maximus, memorably played by Russell Crowe, prepares to go to Rome and fight in the Coliseum, his mentor Proximo tells him that beating your opponent is not enough. You have to win the crowd. “I was not the best because I killed quickly,” Proximo says. “I was the best because the crowd loved me.”
And there’s some historical accuracy there. We think that the best gladiators were undefeated because the loser always died, but that’s not true. Monuments to gladiators have been found which include their fighting records, losses and all. One was 10-3, meaning that he lost three times but the crowd voted to save him because he was so entertaining.
Fortunately, and mercifully, we no longer let the crowd determine the life or death of a combatant. But the crowd can absolutely determine the career of a pugilist in the sense that if the paying customers do not appreciate a boxer’s work—however remarkable and difficult that work is—then that pugilist will not find himself headlining major cards or televised events. Meanwhile, many less talented but all-action type fighters get the hype, and the money.
One also has to wonder if the boos from the crowd affect the judges. Of course, the judges should know better, but you don’t have to watch boxing for long to know that they often don’t.
None of this is news to the serious fight fan. We all know that crowds are there for state-sanctioned violence, that what goes on in the squared circle is in part an outlet for the Id in all of us, that ESPN is going to roll the highlight of a one-punch knockout instead of the slickest of slips.
And I’m not claiming to be above that. I love Corrales vs Castillo, Ward vs Gatti, and The Thrilla in Manilla as much as anyone. The thing is, the fans who can’t also appreciate defense have to admit that they haven’t moved much past the Roman mob in the coliseum. Two thousand years on, with so much knowledge of what it takes to be a successful boxer, and still crowds don’t welcome slips and ducks and artful timing. Then, when the crowd goes “Gladiator,” promoters have to go AC/DC: if you want blood, you got it.
And who can blame the promoters? They’re there to make money, not save the sport. They promote cards, not the sweet science. If fans want to see Edgar Berlanga score sixteen straight first round knockouts against guys no one’s ever heard of, then that is what fans are going to get. And, to take from author HL Mencken (who covered a few fights himself), they’ll get it good and hard.
I’m even willing to give the spectators a little bit of a break. There is a particular frenzy in a crowd when two warriors unleash their inner gladiator and really go at it. Being in that crowd is fun. Even being on social media while a ring war is going on and chatting about it with other fans is a good time. But here at The Fight City, we do appreciate defense. I’m certainly not the first to say so. As Rafael Garcia wrote:
Mastering defence in boxing requires discipline, focus, sharp reflexes and coordination, as well as quick thinking in order to adapt to the opponent’s patterns. This way, the defensive fighter can exploit vulnerabilities in the opponent’s style. A defensive fighter does not hope for the single punch that changes the momentum of the fight; he knows the odds are too low. Neither does he throw 100 punches per round hoping enough of them will land; he knows the effort of doing that exceeds the potential benefit. Instead, he controls the pace of the fight, neutralizes his opponent’s weapons, and attacks when he can do the most damage. He thinks and then he executes, all at lightning-quick speed.
Enjoying multiple knockdowns and mouth guards flying into the first row with blood and gore splattered all over the canvas doesn’t prevent a fan from also enjoying defensive genius. Baseball fans can appreciate both Hank Aaron and Roy Halladay, so why can’t fight fans appreciate both Gennady Golovkin and O’Shaquie Foster? They should be able to. But for some reason, they just don’t.
As Rafael Garcia says, it takes more effort to appreciate defense. It takes a nuanced view of a fighter. And in boxing, as in almost every other aspect of life, people hate nuance. We’ve got the slow motion, high definition instant replay right in front of us. We have Hall-of-Famer Tim Bradley explaining how extraordinary O’Shaquie Foster’s defense is while Foster fights. It’s almost like the majority of fans willfully ignore that, as if this lust for brutal offense and little else is a fundamental aspect of human nature that people will never get over, despite having all the tools to do so.
And so we’re back at Gladitor, and gladiators. While I was watching the Foster fight my wife asked me if boxing reminded me of Roman gladiators. She was talking about the exploitation of the fighters (which happens, for sure, but is a subject for another time). Turns out that, on that night at least, the real parallel was the crowd’s frenzy for pummeling head shots over an elite show of skill. Two millennia, and we really haven’t changed so much. It’s too bad because skilled boxers like O’Shaquie Foster deserve better. Much better. –Joshua Isard
