Boxing 2007: The Year That Was

They say that pressure busts pipes. They say that only the strong survive. They say that the way one deals with adversity, not prosperity, defines them as a person. I can only wonder if these are the same “they” who said boxing was dead?

According to most media outlets, boxing was on life support, and the prognosis was bleak. If certain things didn’t happen, death was certain. UFC was sure to be the cause and main beneficiary of the old hallowed sport’s demise, but out of nowhere, a miracle surfaced. No, no seas were parted, no water was turned into wine, but the dead was raised and given a new lease on life.

2007 has been the most entertaining and prosperous years for boxing in recent memory. We saw several mega fights which led to stars being born, stars fading, and other stars maintaining their pound for pound places in the hierarchy.

The first, and most important of these super fights that we were blessed to see was Floyd “Money” Mayweather fighting for the first time at junior middleweight against the living box office legend and multi division champion, Oscar De la Hoya. The fight had a build up that attracted the casual fan who wanted to see this brash young competitor who dared to challenge the darling of the sport.

While most of us would have loved to see the knock down, drag out fight that was promised, we settled for a well fought boxing exhibition by Mayweather that led him to a victory via split decision while also breaking pay per view numbers for a prize fight.

Next up was the middleweight fight that we all were waiting for. Without the good guy/bad guy pre-fight build up, we had two fighters who were well liked…outside the ring. Due to Taylor’s previous unconvincing wins, many had hopped right off of his bandwagon and they were searching for someone to knock him off the top of the middleweight division.

In stepped the “Ghost”, Kelly Pavlik. After being blitzed early by Taylor, who was eager to end the fight with bad intentions, Pavlik gathered himself and rallied back for a seventh round stoppage of the champion to take away the belt and the title as king of the middleweights.

The next fight took place across the pond, and it featured a very well known story line; old lion versus young lion. We had pound for pound great Joe Calzaghe versus Mikkel Kessler for supremacy in the super middleweight division.

The fight was intense and it started with power shots being exchanged between both warriors. But it was only a matter of time, before the old lion took charge and dominated the out-manned youngster. Calzaghe showed his ring savvy and arsenal to pull off the unanimous decision and cemented himself as one of the greatest super middleweights ever.

To wrap up the year of super fights, we had Mr. Mayweather back again to battle The UK’s biggest boxing star, Ricky “The Hitman” Hatton. This much anticipated fight was brought on by Hatton’s calling out of Mayweather right after his summer destruction of the only man who’s actually come close to beating Floyd, Jose Luis Castillo.

Fans from across the pond came over to see their champion fight the pound for pound best in boxing. The bout started of with intensity from the opening bell, with Hatton pressing from the start. Before the fight, Hatton promised to use educated pressure to systematically break down Mayweather.

After a few overhand rights, and some effective body punching, he resorted to plan b…the only thing was, there was no plan b, and class was in session.

The systematic breakdown was delivered by Mayweather in the form of a TKO in the tenth round, which saw Hatton floored twice. The first knockdown was due to a perfectly placed “check hook” that Hatton never saw coming. The second was a combination of fatigue and a barrage of fast and accurate head shots which led for the ref to stop it while at the same time Hatton’s corner was throwing in the towel.

This fight capped off an awesome year in which boxing answered the bell, and sprung to life. Pride between promoters was put aside, and fights that people wanted to see were made. Also, the UFC is to be thanked. They say that pressure brings out the best in the best.