Tale of the Tape: Boxing (and Tennis)!

We’re in the middle of March Madness, the only time I watch college (or any) basketball on TV. It’s been entertaining, but nothing like two of my favorite spectator sports: boxing and tennis.

Growing up in the 1960s and ‘70s, I was a big boxing fan. The “circle in the square,” as boxing is known, rivaled Major League Baseball as the dominant sport in the U.S, with heavyweight greats Mohammed Ali, Joe Frazier, and George Foreman, along with hard-hitting Ken Norton, Larry Holmes, and Leon Spinks holding the heavyweight crowns (there were multiple, competing sanctioning bodies) from 1965 through 1979, except for brief stints by Ernie Terrell and Jimmy Ellis. 

Fights between any two of Ali, Frazier and Foreman were major events, much bigger than the Super Bowl, of which the first was played in 1967 and watched by 51 million viewers. Four years later, the NFL’s top player and its first real superstar, Joe Namath, earned $250,000. To put things in perspective, the first Ali-Frazier fight, in 1971, dubbed The Fight of the Century and won by Frazier, was viewed by a billion people worldwide, or a quarter of the world population, and the combatants shared a jaw-dropping $5 million purse.

Other renowned fights from that era include the Rumble in the Jungle in 1974 between Ali and Foreman and the Thrilla in Manila the following year, the third and final fight between Frazier and Ali. The Rumble in the Jungle, in Zaire, was the first major fight for Ali after he was suspended from the sport and stripped of his titles for his refusal to comply with the Vietnam War draft, and he was a 4-1 underdog against the powerful Foreman. Ali won the fight by employing the “rope-a-dope” strategy of leaning against the ropes and covering up to deflect Foreman’s onslaught of body punches. When Foreman eventually tired in the eighth round, Ali went on the offensive with a flurry of punches and won by technical knockout.

As the 1970s drew to a close, heavyweight boxing was waning. The triumvirate of Ali, Frazier and Foreman retired and a carousel of lesser fighters competed for and held the various crowns: John Tate, Mike Weaver, Michael Dokes, Gerrie Coetzee, Tim Witherspoon, Pinklon Thomas, Greg Page, Tony Tubbs, Trevor Berbick.

The 1980s was the decade of the smaller weight classes. The so-called Fabulous Four – Sugar Ray Leonard, Roberto Durán, Thomas Hearns, and Marvin Hagler dominated boxing the way the heavyweights Ali, Frazier, and Foreman had the previous decade (the 1985 Hearns – Hagler fight is considered by some to be the greatest boxing match of all time; watch it here). The greatest of these smaller, faster boxers, and one of the greatest of all time in any weight class, was Leonard. He won world titles in five weight categories, and of all the fighters I ever watched, none could finish a match like Leonard. If he had his opponent in trouble, it was over. Leonard would attack with ferocity like a shark after a seal and with the same predictable outcome.

By the 1980s I was married and we had young children. I remember (and my kids often remind me of) the time I was in charge of them one evening. We were sitting around the TV watching a movie, Jaws, of all things. When we got close to the part where the Great White was about to disembowel the swimmer, I wisely and responsibly switched the channel, with the sage and fatherly admonishment, “This movie is too violent; let’s put something else on.” Of course, that something else was a boxing match.

I enjoy watching tennis almost as much as boxing. In the 1980s a wave of brash and talented men swept onto the scene: John McEnroe, Jimmy Connors, Ivan Lendl, Pete Sampras, Boris Becker, Andre Agassi. There was never a shortage of epic matches on clay, grass, or hard court.

But my real interest in the sport came later, with the rise of Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, and later, Novak Djokovic. I never came to root for Djokovic, but his talent is undeniable, and his legendary matches against Federer and Nadal, like those between Federer and Nadal, have been among the greatest sports competitions over the past decade.

Djokovic has won 18 Grand Slam men's singles titles, including a record nine Australian Open titles, and has held the No. 1 ranking for a record total of 313 weeks. The graceful, gentlemanly Federer, and the powerful Nadal, are nearing the end of their careers. Each has 20 grand Slam titles and seems destined to be overtaken by Djokovic. A new generation of players is rising, but it’s hard for me to get excited about them yet.

It’s sad for me to see the coming end of the rivalry among the three greatest tennis players of all time, just as it was to see the end of the golden age of heavyweight boxing. But what great fun it’s been to watch.

Someday, if I happen to be watching something on TV with my grandkids, and it gets too graphic or scary, I’ll switch to tennis. I might not recognize the players, but it won’t get me in trouble.