By Shawn Krest

I used to complain that I had no shoes.  Then I met someone who didn’t have any feet. 

People in the southern U.S. complained about gas prices all summer.  Then, when “No Gas” signs started showing up from Atlanta to Knoxville, $3.90 a gallon didn’t seem all that bad.

Boxing fans used to complain about Pay Per View.  It was a lazy columnist’s dream:  Pick any aspect—their frequency, their price, their undercards—and rant about how greed was ruining the sport. 

Then boxing promoters pulled a fast one.  They stopped showing us fights. 

Starting about two and a half years ago, when news happened in boxing, there was a good chance that U.S. fans were left reading about it on the Internet.  Back-to-back upsets in title bouts were not available in the States. 

First we heard that an unknown giant named Nikolai Valuev beat John Ruiz.  We were told the decision was another in a long line of controversial German judgments.  Not that the stateside audience had any visual evidence to confirm the shadiness of that or any prior German decisions. 

In March, 2006, Chris John scored a momentous upset over Juan Manuel Marquez in Indonesia.  Or so we heard.  Again, the improbable outcome was disputed, and again, we could only listen to the two sides make their respective cases—blind umpires listening to the dugouts argue balls and strikes.

U.S. fight fans should have been thrilled; Grumpy boxing columnists as well.  We weren’t asked to pay $49.95 to watch these bouts.  Plus, Ruiz, another popular target of complaints, had been vanquished.

The WBA title would spend much of the next 2 years in a virtual black-out.  Of the next six defenses, five would be unavailable to U.S. audiences.  This string included two U.S. fighters—Owen Beck and Jameel McCline—fighting for the title, and another surprising upset, when Ruslan Chagaev took a decision over Valuev.  But we also like to complain that there are too many alphabet titles, don’t we?  So it shouldn’t matter if one of them basically disappears. 

Turns out the boxing public is no better than spoiled trust fund kids.  Give us everything we asked for, and we’re still not happy.  If the alternative to too many Pay Per Views is no access to big fights, then maybe paying for boxing isn’t the worst injustice in the world. 

Forget boxing fans, sports fans in general don’t like to miss an event.  Like Jimmy Kimmel says in the ads for the NFL’s satellite package, “and you missed it, because you have cable.” 

Fans of the major sports leagues are willing to pay hundreds of dollars to get more games than they could ever possibly watch, just to make sure that they have access to everything. Boxing is no different.  Imagine a boxing “season ticket” package offering the chance to never miss a world title fight.  Four titles, eighteen weight classes, with three or four defenses a year would be a total of about 150 bouts—a very manageable number compared to other sports.

Of course, boxing probably would have too many parties looking to get involved to ever make a season ticket package a reality.  The best we can hope for is the opportunity to buy the big fights, one at a time. 

Which brings us to this Saturday night.  The eyes of the boxing world again focus on the Rhineland, and this time, the United States will be able to watch along with everyone else.  Arthur Abraham, undefeated middleweight champion with a few controversial German wins of his own will be taking on former champion Raul Marquez.

Abraham is the perfect example of a fighter we’ve missed.  Its easy to criticize him for not fighting anyone, but the fact is, he just hasn’t fought anyone while we’ve been able to watch.  He knocked out Kingsley Ikeke and took decisions over Howard Eastman and Kofi Jantuah.  While it seemed like ESPN2 broadcast every fight in Edison Miranda’s career, when the young Columbian went to Germany and dropped a unanimous decision, we didn’t get to see it.  For the next two years, until the rematch, we had to take Miranda’s word for it that he was robbed.

Saturday’s fight may not go down in the books as a classic matchup.  Marquez is 37 years old, and earned the date by upsetting Giovanni Lorenzo, an undefeated prospect who was being showcased on the same card as Abraham.  Marquez last held a world title six years before Abraham made his debut and last fought for one a year and a half before W took office. 

Still, if the southpaw lands a lucky shot against the champion and shocks the world, we will be able to jump off the couch and shout.  If Abraham escapes with a funny-smelling unanimous decision, we can compare the result to our own unofficial card. 

Boxing has returned to the airwaves.  The title is at stake.  News could be made.  And we can pay to watch it if we so choose. 

We can start complaining again on Sunday morning.