The Most Honest Sport

By Thomas Hauser

Thomas Hauser is among the most decorated boxing writers ever. He burst upon the fistic scene four decades ago with publication of The Black Lights: Inside the World of Professional Boxing and followed that triumph with Muhammad Ali: His Life and Times—the definitive biography of the man who was once the most famous person on earth.

Hauser is the only person to be honored by the Boxing Writers Association of American with both the Nat Fleischer Award for Career Excellence in Boxing Journalism and the A.J. Liebling Award for Outstanding Boxing Writing. On ten occasions, articles he has written have been designated by the BWAA as the "best investigative journalism of the year."

The Most Honest Sport continues Hauser's tradition of excellence and includes all of his articles about boxing from 2023 and 2024. As always, Hauser chronicles the big fights and gives readers a behind-the-scenes look at the sport's biggest stars. He shines a penetrating light on the murky world of illegal performance enhancing drugs and explores how the Saudi Arabian General Entertainment Authority has become the most powerful force in boxing today—and perhaps ever.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Admission Press
• Release date: May 9, 2025
• ISBN: 9781955836319

Thomas Hauser

Thomas Hauser (b. 1946) is the author of forty-two books on subjects ranging from professional boxing to Beethoven. His first work, Missing, was made into an Academy Award–winning film. Muhammad Ali: His Life and Times earned numerous awards for its author, including the prestigious William Hill Sports Book of the Year. In 2004, the Boxing Writers Association of America honored Hauser with the Nat Fleischer Award for Career Excellence in Boxing Journalism.

Book preview

The Most Honest Sport

THE MOST HONEST SPORT: Two More Years Inside Boxing

Copyright © 2025 by Thomas Hauser

All cover art copyright © 2025

paperback ISBN: 978-1-955836-32-6

eBook ISBN: 978-1-955836-31-9

hardcover ISBN: 978-1-955836-33-3

All rights reserved under the International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher or author.

Cover photograph: © Wojtek Urbanek

Author photo © Wojtek Urbanek

Contents

Books by Thomas Hauser

Author’s Note

Fighters and Fights

The Brutal Artistry of Terence Crawford

Gervonta Davis vs. Ryan Garcia in Perspective

The Fights that Weren’t, the Fight that Was, and Boxing’s PED Dilemma

Back to Back: Don King and Bob Arum

Adam Kownacki and a Sad Night at Madison Square Garden

Usyk-Dubois: Treading Water in the Heavyweight Division

Canelo Alvarez Dominates a Reluctant Jermell Charlo

What Should We Make of Fury-Ngannou?

A Shocking Day of Reckoning in Saudi Arabia

Joshua-Ngannou and the Heavyweight Picture

Fantasy, Reality, and Haney-Garcia

In a Changing World, Canelo Alvarez is Still Here

Oleksandr the Great

Canelo Alvarez and Turki Alalshikh

Usyk-Fury II in Perspective

Historic One-Punch Knockouts

Fight Notes

It’s Only Blood: Heavyweight Boxing’s Most Memorable Cuts

Larry Holmes at Sony Hall

Warrior: Matthew Saad Muhammad

Josh Popper’s Pro Debut

Some Thoughts on Mike Tyson vs. Jake Paul

The Rumble in the Jungle Fifty Years Later

Curiosities

Emile Griffith and the Metropolitan Opera

Don Elbaum: An Appreciation of Sorts

Notable Fat Men Who Fought for the Heavyweight Title

The Inoue and Serrano Championship Watches

Will There Ever Be Another Great Men’s College Basketball Team?

College Football Fight Songs

Fistic Nuggets

The Noble Art of Record Keeping

Issues and Answers

A 50-Point Primer on Boxing and Performance Enhancing Drugs

Ryan Garcia and the New York State Athletic Commission

DAZN: Charging More for Less

The DAZN Experiment

Conor Benn on DAZN

The Bravest Thing Anthony Joshua Could Do Is Retire from Boxing

A Modest Proposal: Saudi Arabia, Boxing, and VADA

Riyadh Season Comes to America

Joshua-Dubois and the Mandatory Challenger Rule

I Still Think That Anthony Joshua Should Retire from Boxing

Fistic Notes

Literary Notes

Movie Notes

In Memoriam

Harry Belafonte: A Great Man and a Good One

The Death of Ardi Ndembo

About the Author

More By Admission Press

Books by Thomas Hauser

General Non-Fiction

Missing

The Trial of Patrolman Thomas Shea

For Our Children (with Frank Macchiarola)

The Family Legal Companion

Final Warning: The Legacy of Chernobyl (with Dr. Robert Gale)

Arnold Palmer: A Personal Journey

Confronting America’s Moral Crisis (with Frank Macchiarola)

Healing: A Journal of Tolerance and Understanding

With This Ring (with Frank Macchiarola)

Thomas Hauser on Sports

Reflections

MY MOTHER and me

Boxing Non-Fiction

The Black Lights: Inside the World of Professional Boxing

Muhammad Ali: His Life and Times

Muhammad Ali: Memories

Muhammad Ali: In Perspective

Muhammad Ali & Company

A Beautiful Sickness

A Year At The Fights

Brutal Artistry

The View From Ringside

Chaos, Corruption, Courage, and Glory

I Don’t Believe It, But It’s True

Knockout (with Vikki LaMotta)

The Greatest Sport of All

The Boxing Scene

An Unforgiving Sport

Boxing Is . . .

Box: The Face of Boxing

The Legend of Muhammad Ali (with Bart Barry)

Winks and Daggers

And the New . . .

Straight Writes and Jabs

Thomas Hauser on Boxing

A Hurting Sport

A Hard World

Muhammad Ali: A Tribute to the Greatest

There Will Always Be Boxing

Protect Yourself At All Times

A Dangerous Journey

Staredown

Broken Dreams

In the Inner Sanctum

The Universal Sport

The Most Honest Sport

Fiction

Ashworth & Palmer

Agatha’s Friends

The Beethoven Conspiracy

Hanneman’s War

The Fantasy

Dear Hannah

The Hawthorne Group

Mark Twain Remembers

Finding The Princess

Waiting For Carver Boyd

The Final Recollections of Charles Dickens

The Baker’s Tale

For Children

Martin Bear & Friends

For the Lehrburgers

Author’s Note

The Most Honest Sport contains the articles about professional boxing that I wrote in 2023 and 2024.

The articles I wrote about boxing prior to 2023 have been published in Muhammad Ali & Company; A Beautiful Sickness; A Year at the Fights; The View From Ringside; Chaos, Corruption, Courage, and Glory; I Don’t Believe It, But It’s True; The Greatest Sport of All; The Boxing Scene; An Unforgiving Sport; Boxing Is; Winks and Daggers; And the New; Straight Writes and Jabs; Thomas Hauser on Boxing; A Hurting Sport; A Hard World; Muhammad Ali: A Tribute to The Greatest; There Will Always Be Boxing; Protect Yourself At All Times; A Dangerous Journey; Staredown; Broken Dreams; In the Inner Sanctum; and The Universal Sport.

Fighters and Fights

The most significant fight of 2023 was

Terence Crawford vs. Errol Spence

The Brutal Artistry of Terence Crawford

The long-awaited welterweight showdown between Errol Spence and Terence Crawford came to pass at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas on July 29, 2023. Crawford was masterful and dominated Spence en route to an unexpectedly one-sided ninth-round stoppage.

Crawford and Spence have been at or near the top of most pound-for-pound lists for years. But neither man had the signature victory on his resume that a fighter needs to be considered great. Crawford’s most impressive performance had been his 2021 stoppage of Shawn Porter (who’d gone the distance in losing a split-decision to Spence two years earlier). Errol had dominated some good fighters but no great ones.

Boxing makes fans wait years for matchups that other sports deliver during the course of a single season. Spence-Crawford took far too long to make. Six months ago, ESPN analyst and Hall of Fame fighter Tim Bradley voiced his frustration with the delay and held Errol’s feet to the fire, placing blame for the delay squarely on Spence.

Errol Spence is running from Crawford, Bradley declared. He’s running like a son of a gun. That’s the only fight that you said you wanted. That’s the fight that you said you were gonna deliver to the fans after you won the three titles. You straight up lied.

Finally, on May 26, Spence-Crawford was announced. No purse totals or financial splits were made public. What overcame the reluctance of Spence and Premier Boxing Champions impresario Al Haymon (Errol’s de facto manager and promoter) to make the fight?

First, Crawford was now free and clear of contractual obligations to Top Rank, which meant that PBC could completely control the promotion. Second, the financial success of Gervonta Davis vs. Ryan Garcia earlier this year led to the belief that pay-per-view revenue from Spence-Crawford might be greater than previously thought. And third, it’s uncertain that Showtime will continue to televise boxing after its current contract with PBC expires. And without Showtime, PBC would be without a network partner. Fashioning Spence-Crawford and distributing it on Showtime Pay-Per-View was an attempt by PBC to strengthen Showtime’s boxing franchise for the future.

Fights between elite fighters in their prime are far too rare in boxing. Usually, when future Hall of Fame fighters collide, one of them is clearly on the downside of his career. Not so with Spence (who entered the ring with a 28-0, 22 KOs record) and Crawford (39-0, 30 KOs).

Mega-fight might be the wrong word to describe the proceedings because the promotion didn’t reach significantly beyond the boxing community. But for true fight fans, this was the most important fight that could be made at the present time. The fact that all four 147-pound belts were on the line (while the subject of considerable hype) was almost incidental.

A lot of people is asking why it took so long, Terence said at the June 14 kick-off press conference in New York. Doesn’t matter. We’re here now.

Spence and Crawford evinced mutual respect throughout the promotion. In fact, they seemed to like each other. Many of the barbs that they exchanged during the build-up to July 29 were spoken with a twinkle in the eye. Both men stayed refreshingly clear of the ugly name-calling and histrionics that too often mar the selling of a fight.

I have a lot of respect for him, Spence said of Crawford. He’s a great fighter, very good skills, talent, mindset. He’s a cool dude. I don’t have to not like somebody to make a good fight.

Crawford responded in kind, saying, I’m a fan [of his]. This fight sells itself. You don’t need me going out there, acting all crazy. You don’t need him going out there, acting all crazy. Boxing doesn’t have to be aligned with disrespect to be entertaining. You don’t have to talk about somebody’s dead people in the grave to get him mad. I think it can be where you all both respect each other but let each other know that, come fight night, you all coming for each other’s head.

Tensions rise as a fight gets closer. Things got heated between Derrick James (Spence’s trainer) and Brian Bomac McIntyre (Crawford’s mentor) at the final pre-fight press conference. Then the entourages got loud. But Crawford made a plea for sanity, imploring, My family, Errol’s family, you gotta calm down. ’Cause things can get real sticky real quick and then everybody will say this is what we do every time we come out. Bro, listen. It can turn deadly real quick. On both sides. So why not support your fighter. Ain’t nothing wrong with that. Let’s come together. Make this event a success instead of everybody saying every time we get together it’s always shootin’ and violence. You can say whatever you all want. But I’m probably older than you and more mature. I wish Errol and his people the best. Let’s go.

Amen.

Age wasn’t expected to be a factor. Spence is 33 and Crawford is 35. Both fighters had been clear favorites in all of their previous outings. This time, the odds favored Crawford by a 7-to-5 margin.

Each fighter voiced confidence in the outcome of the fight.

Whoever can impose their style on their opponent will win, Spence said. He’s gonna come and fight. But I’m gonna break his will. I’m gonna break him mentally and physically. It’s gonna take a few rounds because he’s a tough dude. But everyone gets broke and we’re gonna break him down. I just have the better fundamentals. He’s gonna find out that my skills are superior.

I’m going to show everyone why this era is the Terence Crawford era, Crawford countered. Everything about me is better than Errol. When you look at what I do in the ring, it’s better than what he does. You all are going to witness greatness. I’ve been waiting for this moment for a long time.

Spence was the naturally bigger man, having fought his entire career at welterweight or a shade heavier while Crawford had worked his way up from 135 pounds. But Errol had fought only twice since 2019. He’d been hospitalized following a harrowing automobile accident that occurred while he was driving under the influence in late-2020, underwent surgery for a detached retina in 2021, and was involved in a second automobile accident (that wasn’t his fault) last year.

As for the size differential between them, Crawford declared, All my life, I’ve always been the smaller guy, but I’ve always been the strongest guy. So come fight night, we’ll see.

And there was one more factor to consider. Crawford seems to have more meanness in him as a fighter than Spence does. When everything else is equal, meanness can determine the outcome of a fight.

There was a lucrative ticket resale market that the promotion deftly exploited. The marketers kept drawing comparisons with Leonard-Hearns I. But Leonard-Hearns I had Edwin Rosario, Tony Tucker, Tony Ayala Jr, and Marvis Frazier on the undercard in addition to Leonard and Hearns in the main event. The Spence-Crawford undercard was mediocre.

Spence had weighed in at 147 pounds on the morning before the fight; Crawford at 146.8.

Terence won a coin toss which enabled him to walk to the ring after Errol. He looked happier during his ringwalk than Spence did. Those who had predicted a relatively slow-paced, tactical fight (including this writer) were wrong.

Spence is a southpaw. Crawford is ambidextrous but fought virtually the entire fight from a southpaw stance.

Round one was a feeling-out stanza. Neither guy did much, but Spence was the aggressor behind his jab.

In round two, things started to go wrong for Errol. He’d never been down as a pro and appeared to be comfortable when, out of nowhere, Terence dropped him with a stiff counter jab.

He was just throwing the hard jab, Spence said afterward. His timing was just on point.

Spence continued to force the fight in round three which could have been scored either way. That meant, but for the flash knockdown, Errol arguably could have won all three rounds. Then the roof caved in on him.

Earlier in the week, Spence had acknowledged, Every fight that I done fought, I always envision a hundred different scenarios. Some scenarios got me hurt, coming back and winning. Some scenarios, I get beat up. It’s just different scenarios that go through my head throughout training camp.

In the real-life scenario, Spence got beaten up. Badly. As the battle unfolded, the storyline was written on his increasingly disfigured face.

Crawford took control in round four, mixing a punishing jab with a variety of power punches. On the few occasions when Spence landed solidly, Terence took the blows without apparent distress. It seemed that he could hurt Errol far more than Errol could hurt him.

From that point on, Crawford dominated the fight. In round seven, he dropped Spence twice. First with a right uppercut and then with a hard right hook.

The bout was no longer competitive. In round nine with Errol being pounded around the ring, reeling and helpless, referee Harvey Dock stopped the fight. Dock did Spence a favor. It was about to get much uglier for Errol.

All three judges had Crawford ahead 79-70 at the time of the stoppage.

He was just better, Spence said afterward.

Hard to argue with that.

After the fight, Spence’s face was puffed, bruised, and swollen. Crawford was unmarked.

We gotta do it again, Errol said. I’m going to be a lot better. It’ll be a lot closer.

But Spence took a beating, physically and psychologically. We might not see the fighter that he once was again.

Meanwhile, let’s evaluate what boxing fans just witnessed.

Crawford looked spectacular. When the spotlight shone brightest, he was at his best. With Canelo Alvarez having slipped a bit in recent outings, Terence now deserves to be recognized as boxing’s reigning pound-for-pound king.

One reason that boxing was once a popular national sport in the United States is that it served up fights like Spence-Crawford on a regular basis. When people talk about Leonard-Hearns I, they don’t talk about how many closed-circuit theater buys it did. Joe Louis’s 1938 knockout of Max Schmeling isn’t remembered for the size of the live gate.

Fighters are judged historically in large measure by how they perform in big fights. Against Spence, Crawford fought a defining fight. He’s now a candidate for ring greatness. The ball is in his hands. Let’s see what he does with it.

In the ring, Gervonta Davis conducts himself like a champion. Outside the ring, too often, he acts like a thug.

Gervonta Davis vs. Ryan Garcia in Perspective

Gervonta Davis knocked out Ryan Garcia with a body shot in round seven of their much-publicized April 22, 2023, encounter at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. The fight showcased boxing at its best and worst. The best in that Davis-Garcia was the most anticipated event so far this year in an era when the fights that fans most want to see rarely happen. But Davis-Garcia also embodied a range of issues that plague boxing and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future.

Davis (28-0, 26 KOs) and Garcia (23-0, 19 KOs) went into the fight with unblemished ring records. But as writer Jimmy Tobin noted, many of their opponents were sacrifices made for their burgeoning popularity, not tests of ability. Davis, age 28, had beaten past-their-prime smaller men and fighters who were never world class. Garcia, four years younger than Gervonta, had a comparable resume.

Once upon a time, boxing superstars had to earn that designation in the ring. It couldn’t be granted by a publicist’s fiat. And super-fights featured fighters who had fought their way to the top by beating other elite fighters. When 24-year-old Ray Leonard fought Roberto Duran in his first super-fight, Leonard had already won an Olympic gold medal and beaten the previously undefeated, future Hall of Famer Wilfred Benitez. Duran was 71-1 with victories over Ken Buchanan and Carlos Palomino on his resume.

Neither Davis nor Garcia had scored a defining win prior to fighting each other. But through savvy marketing, each had amassed a huge social media following.

Davis, through words and deeds, has propagated a thug image. His most recent five fights (all on Showtime PPV) had averaged more than 200,000 buys. That’s an impressive number given the fact that the opponents were Hector Luis Garcia, Rolando Romero, Isaac Cruz, Mario Barrios, and Leo Santa Cruz. Moreover, those fights—contested in Washington DC, Brooklyn, Los Angeles, Atlanta, and San Antonio—did well at the gate. Davis-Romero engendered the largest attendance and live gate for a fight in the history of Barclays Center. The celebrities at ringside that night included Naomi Osaka and Madonna.

Thereafter, Corey Erdman wrote, Davis has turned into a box office draw that, on a single-night basis, rivals some top-level pop music acts. Garcia has tapped into the influencer ecosystem, using his boxing prowess and the requisite fitness the sport requires (along with his good looks) to validate himself and cultivate a following that is both attracted to him and compelled by his career and daily life. Their popularity outpaces their accomplishments, which isn’t a knock on their achievements but an endorsement of their appeal. Davis vs. Garcia will be a success, not just because it’s a good fight but because it’s a collaboration between two celebrities in their own realms.

As of this writing. Davis has 5.4 million followers on Instagram. Garcia (who has done his best to cultivate a Hispanic American heartthrob image) has 10.1 million. Showtime Sports president Stephen Espinoza stated the obvious when he declared, This is a social media promotion.

Davis and Garcia had been trash-talking back and forth for more than a year before meeting in the ring. Each man seemed to genuinely want the fight. But there were impediments to making it happen.

First, the fighters were aligned with different promoters and different networks (Davis with Premier Boxing Champions and Showtime, Garcia with Golden Boy and DAZN). But as a practical matter, Golden Boy and DAZN needed the fight to monetize Garcia. So during negotiations, they deferred to PBC and Showtime on most issues.

The financial split between the sides wasn’t announced but it’s believed that Team Davis received the lion’s share of the money. Showtime controlled the entire production. DAZN literally streamed the Showtime feed.

More significantly from a competitive point of view, the contracts called for a 136-pound catchweight. That protected Davis’s 135-pound belt and worked against the naturally bigger Garcia (who had weighed in for his most recent fight at 140 pounds). In addition, a rehydration clause provided that neither fighter could weigh more than 146 pounds at 11:00 a.m. on the day of the fight with a stiff financial penalty to be assessed in the event of a breach. And Davis had a contractual right to an immediate rematch if he lost, whereas Garcia didn’t.

More problematic with regard to making the fight, Davis is troublingly familiar with the criminal justice system.

On February 5, 2020, Gervonta was arraigned in Miami and charged with battery and domestic violence. The charges stemmed from an incident (much viewed on social media) that occurred at a charity basketball game. The legal proceedings were delayed multiple times. Finally, on December 13, 2022, the prosecution dropped the charges. It appears from a December 28, 2022, Instagram post by Davis (since deleted) that he paid $300,000 to the woman (the mother of one of his children) to settle a claim in conjunction with the incident.

On December 27, 2022, Gervonta was arrested again in Florida, this time by the Parkland division of the Broward County Sheriff’s Department, after being charged with battery causing bodily harm in an incident that the police classified as domestic violence. He was released from jail the following day on a $1,000 bond and issued a no-contact order with regard to the woman in question.

The woman (apparently the mother of another of Davis’s children) had called 911 twice on December 27, saying in one of the calls, He’s going to kill me. The police report contained the allegation that Davis struck the woman on the right side of her head and that the blow caused a cut over her upper lip on the right side of her mouth.

On December 31, 2022, Vanessa Posso (the previously unnamed woman) posted a message on Instagram that read, These past few days have been hurtful and extremely exhausting for all parties involved. I pride myself on being extremely private; this situation was the last thing I wanted to be made public. The state of our relationship has been in a fragile space and Gervonta and I were both at fault for the argument. While the emotions were running high, I made an unnecessary call to law enforcement in an intense moment while I was frantic. Gervonta did not harm me or our daughter.

On January 5, 2023, Davis entered a plea of not guilty to the charges against him and his counsel filed an affidavit from Posso that read, I have been listed as the purported victim in the above-styled case against my boyfriend, Gervonta Davis, whom I am aware was arrested on December 27, 2022, for domestic battery by the Parkland Police Department. Without any hesitation or reservation whatsoever, I want to advise the Court and the State Attorney that it is my absolute, complete, and full desire that this criminal prosecution be withdrawn and terminated, and that the Office of the State Attorney dismiss any and all such charges against Gervonta Davis. I am signing this affidavit of non-prosecution of my own free will, knowingly, freely, voluntarily and intelligently. I have not been tricked, coerced or threatened in any way in order to sign this and no promise of any nature has been made in exchange for my execution of this affidavit.

There was more to come.

On February 16, 2023, Davis pled guilty to charges of (1) leaving the scene of an accident involving bodily injury, (2) failing to notify an owner of property damage, (3) driving on a revoked license, and (4) running a red light. These charges related to a November 2020 hit-and-run accident in Baltimore.

According to court records, Davis was identified by eyewitnesses as the driver of a 2020 Lamborghini which ran a red light and struck a 2004 Toyota at 1:47 a.m. on November 5, 2020. The Toyota, which was owned by a woman named Jyair Smith, was totaled in the accident.

As reported by Jake Donovan, The Lamborghini—which was not registered to Davis—was abandoned after its contents were transferred to another vehicle in which Davis and an unidentified female left, according to witnesses and video obtained by investigators. Four people were injured in the incident, though none [of the injuries] were life threatening. All were treated at University of Maryland Shock Trauma. Three of the four victims have since reached civil settlements with Davis, who has yet to do so with Smith.

Counsel for Davis negotiated a plea deal with the Baltimore City State’s Attorney’s office that called for Davis to receive a one-year suspended sentence with sixty days of home confinement. But Judge Melissa Phinn rejected the agreement as too lenient after Smith told the court that she had begged Davis for help after the accident: I looked him in his eyes. I said I have to get home to my daughter, I’m pregnant. He never once came over to help me. He got his things and left.

A guilty plea by Davis without a promise from the Court with regard to sentencing followed. That sentencing will take place on May 5.

Given this history, it might be that PBC impresario Al Haymon decided it made sense to monetize Gervonta by making Davis-Garcia now rather than later.

Here, it should be noted that, when a fighter has been indicted for assault, domestic abuse, or another comparable crime, the justification often relied on in allowing him to fight is, Well, he hasn’t been convicted yet, so he’s still an innocent man.

This excuse doesn’t hold here.

Davis has pled guilty to a serious criminal offense and has yet to pay his debt to society. He wouldn’t be allowed to participate in most high-profile professional sports. But the bar of legality is exceptionally low in boxing. Let’s not forget, boxing sent network-TV cameras into Rahway State Prison to televise fights involving James Scott, who was serving a 28-year sentence after being convicted of armed robbery and murder.

Hall of Fame fighter and ESPN commentator Tim Bradley spoke to Davis’s rap sheet when he declared, I’m not a fan of Tank [Davis’s nickname]. I’ll be honest with you. I’m not a fan of what he does and how he operates outside the ring. I don’t like the guy because of what I hear and what I see. I think he’s a piece of shit, I honestly do. You put your hand on women like that, bro, you’re a piece of shit in my book. You’re not a man.

The March 8 kick-off press conference in New York for Davis-Garcia was scheduled to begin at 12:30 p.m. Gervonta didn’t arrive onstage until 2:23. Just traffic, not prepared, things like that, he said.

Garcia had his own take on the matter, saying, It kinda shows his being unprofessional and kind of continues a pattern of his character and his integrity as a person and as a professional.

In the weeks that followed, there was a lot of hype about this being a fight to save boxing. Golden Boy CEO Oscar De La Hoya predicted that realistically the event would engender in the neighborhood of 2.5 million buys (an absurdly high estimate).

On Monday of fight week, the hype balloon lost some air when the promotion announced that newly available tickets for the bout could be purchased online. A check at AXS.com two days before the fight showed that tickets in all price ranges were still available.

Still, there was a nice buzz for the fight. And numbers released after the bout indicated that Davis-Garcia generated approximately $22.8 million in ticket sales (the fifth largest live gate in Nevada boxing history).

Davis proclaimed himself a legend, called Garcia’s mental toughness into question, and pledged, I’ve put a lot of guys to sleep. They gonna have to pick you up. I promise you that.

Calvin Ford (Gervonta’s trainer) declaimed, We’re vicious. We ain’t just boxing. We’re gonna put some knuckles on somebody. I don’t train ’em for knockouts. I train ’em for punishment.

Joe Goossen (who succeeded Garcia’s father and Eddy Reynoso to become Ryan’s third trainer) said of his charge, He’s got power like nobody I’ve ever seen. And I can tell you, I’ve trained a lotta great punchers.

Goossen then ventured into silly territory, claiming, Ryan’s speed is, you know, I mean, you’ve gotta slow the film down when you wanna see some of his short left hooks. I mean, they’re just almost imperceptible, you know, naked eye, unless you slow it down.

Each fighter called the other delusional and promised to break the other’s jaw.

Garcia also offered thoughts like, When I step in the ring, he’s going to feel something he’s never felt before. I’m going to conquer him. He’s done. It’s nap time for Gervonta . . . Gervonta says he’s going to take me into deep waters. Guess what, I know how to swim. He needs to come up with something better than that . . . This is a fight to show everybody that I’m great. I’m not daring to be great. I know I’m great.

But at an April 11 media workout, Garcia offered a more measured appraisal. I feel like people have lost touch with what boxing truly is about, he said. We live in a world where people expect you to be perfect and they don’t understand that this is real life. We’re really fighting here.

Davis weighed in one day before the fight at 135.1 pounds, Garcia at 135.5. On Saturday morning, Gervonta weighed 144.1 and Ryan 144.9.

Davis was an 11-to-5 betting favorite. He has one-punch knockout power, is a solid defensive fighter, and makes opponents pay when they miss. Gervonta doesn’t just counterpunch. He counterpunches with power, which leaves ring adversaries wary of throwing heavy artillery at him. His southpaw stance makes the puzzle even more dangerous and difficult to solve.

Garcia has power (particularly in his left hook) and exceptionally fast hands. But his footwork and head movement leave something to be desired. And as a reader emailed me in making a prediction before the fight, When Street fights Sweet, almost always Street wins.

Once the bell rang, it was an intriguing fight but hardly a classic. The stakes and personalities involved gave it drama.

Round one was a cautious feeling-out stanza with little action. Garcia tried to dictate the pace with his jab. Davis, as is his custom early, bided his time. According to CompuBox, Gervonta threw only seven punches and landed one (a jab). Ryan landed three jabs.

Round two began with Garcia fighting more aggressively behind his jab. Davis sought to blunt the attack by moving and holding. Ryan is five inches taller than Gervonta and had a three-inch edge in reach. But those advantages vanished on the inside. Then Garcia got sloppy, and Davis (who threw only six punches in the round) decked him with a counter left. Ryan rose largely unscathed.

Both men continued to fight cautiously as the fight evolved. In round three and again in round five, they landed only seven punches between them. But Davis looked like a man who was enjoying himself. Garcia didn’t.

The end came suddenly and was unexpected given the flow of the fight up until that point. Midway through round seven, Garcia took a knee as a much-delayed reaction to a body shot and rose at ten-and-a-half (after referee Thomas Taylor had counted him out). Gervonta was ahead by two, three, and four points on the judges’ scorecards at the time of the stoppage. The two-point spread was the most accurate in the eyes of this writer.

He caught me with a good shot and I just couldn’t recover and that’s it, Garcia said afterward. I couldn’t breathe. I was going to get back up, but I just couldn’t get up.

I didn’t think that body shot would end it, Davis offered. It was a good shot, for sure [but] I thought he was going to get up. Then Gervonta added, I was just a level above him. Everything he was doing in the ring, I was already aware of. I just let him make his mistakes, and I countered off his mistakes. It was fun while it lasted.

As for the future, it’s a given that Davis will rise on pound-for-pound lists and deservedly so. He’s a very good fighter. One hopes that boxing fans have the opportunity to find out how good. That means making more fights for Gevonta against top opponents and his staying out of jail so he can fight those fights.

Years ago, Paul Magno wrote, Boxing ain’t a morality play. The sport lends itself to a lot of fairytale nonsense. But at the end of the day, it’s all about skill and will. The biggest louts, woman-beaters, racist pricks, thieves, and thugs have been highly skilled professional fighters. The only morality play in boxing should be the one between hard-workers and lazy slobs because, ultimately, that’s what determines how high a fighter rises and how long he stays on top.

I’m definitely the face of boxing, Davis told the media after beating Garcia.

How will it look if the face of boxing goes to jail?

Illegal performance enhancing drugs continue to haunt boxing.

The Fights that Weren’t, the Fight that Was,

and Boxing’s PED Dilemma

Eight years ago, Anthony Joshua and Dillian Whyte met in the ring at the O2 Arena in London as undefeated young fighters on the rise. Joshua scored a seventh-round knockout and went on to extraordinary fame and riches. Whyte has had his share of paydays since then and became a useful heavyweight, good enough to beat solid fighters but not elite ones.

Joshua and Whyte were scheduled to fight at the O2 Arena for the second time on August 12, 2023. Then things got complicated. On August 5, promoter Matchroom Boxing sent out a press advisory that announced, Today, the Voluntary Anti-Doping Association (VADA) informed Matchroom, the Association of Boxing Commissions and the British Boxing Board of Control that Dillian Whyte had returned adverse analytical findings as part of a random anti-doping protocol. In light of this news, the fight will be cancelled and a full investigation will be conducted.

On August 8, Robert Helenius was announced as Joshua’s new opponent. Very few people were surprised when AJ knocked him out in seven rounds.

Let’s look at how we got to where we are today.

Joshua is 33 years old and six years removed from the high point of his career—an eleventh-round knockout of Wladimir Klitschko. In his most recent six fights, he’d lost three times (a knockout defeat at the hands of Andy Ruiz and two losses by decision to Oleksandr Usyk). Even in the fights he won, AJ had looked tentative and vulnerable.

Whyte, now 35, had engaged in four fights since 2019 and been knocked out in two of them.

Joshua-Whyte II wasn’t the fight that boxing fans wanted. Initially, there had been talk