By Matthew Hurley

My, how far the heavyweight division has fallen.  Of course this is not news to followers of the sport but even diehard fans have got to be scratching their heads over the August 12th rematch between current WBC belt holder Hasim Rahman and challenger Oleg Maskaev.  It’s not so much the match up itself, as questionable as it is, but the fact that HBO and promoter Bob Arum are asking boxing fans to shell out $49.95 for a fight that isn’t even worthy of HBO’s After Dark program.

This is the network whose talking heads (Larry Merchant and Jim Lampley) constantly deride sanctioning bodies, preferring to recognize Ring Magazine’s title belt holder as the king of the division.  So why is this bout on pay per view?  The only answer is, it’s a “championship” fight.

Are you kidding me? 

HBO’s broadcast of Rahman’s last fight against, what we thought would be a legitimate challenger in James Toney, for free!  That weekend HBO provided cable viewers with a free weekend of programming including what they hoped would be the coronation of the “true” heavyweight champion.  The successor to the retired Lennox Lewis (or his successor Vitali Klitschko – depending on how much stock you placed in the big Ukrainian’s abbreviated run). 

What we got was a fat, out of shape Toney whose skills could have carried him to a victory if he just had the commitment to train properly, against a svelte, motivated Rahman who still couldn’t get rid of the blimp in front of him.  The result was a dreary, disappointing draw.  Any non-boxing fan, or even a casual fan, probably said, “This is why I don’t watch boxing.”

Now, after all that, after analyst Larry Merchant chewed them both out on the broadcast, HBO is expecting us to pay $49.95 to see the one dimensional Rahman against a fighter who was knocked out by Corey Sanders, Lance Whitaker, Kirk Johnson (remember him?), David Tua and Oliver McCall?  Oleg Maskaev, with all do respect, has to be one of the most undeserving title challengers in recent memory, despite the fact that he knocked Rahman out of the ring seven long years ago. 

But then maybe I’m being too harsh on these two fighters.  After all Maskaev has won his last ten bouts – of course I’ve never heard of any of the opponents he’s beaten.  And Rahman has been a mainstay in the division for nearly a decade.  Even though he only came out victorious in one big fight, the surprise knockout of Lennox Lewis in 2001 – which Lewis reversed by knockout later that same year.  And they’re both fighters, men who step through those ropes and in just doing so they deserve respect, even from the most jaded boxing scribe.

No, I’m not angry with them.  I’m angry at HBO and Bob Arum.  How dare they charge money for this fight?  If anything, this bout should be on free television just so enough people will watch. 

People who love boxing don’t need the heavyweight division and Arum, who spent most of his career dealing with lighter weight fighters, should realize this.  We can go through these periods of heavyweight malaise because there are always better, more exciting fighters in the lower weight classes anyway. 

Sure, we all love a heavyweight slugfest, but we yawn politely behind our hand when a Rahman – Maskaev fight poses as a heavyweight title bout.  The majority of boxing fans will probably pass on this fight because they’d rather save their money for the Erik Morales – Manny Pacquiao rubbermatch.  Now that is a pay per view event.

But as far as mainstream appeal is concerned boxing needs the heavyweight division and it doesn’t need another baseball or football beat writer-denigrating boxing because of the low-ticket sales and pay per view buys of the latest heavyweight fiasco.  Most of those writers not only don’t know the names of the heavyweights, they don’t even realize there are lower weight classes with boxers who rival the skills of the best athletes on the baseball diamond or the football field.  To them every misplaced sentence they write in regards to boxing must be negative because “no one is watching”.

Well, the last time I checked Oscar De La Hoya did pretty damn well in terms of sales in his rout over Ricardo Mayorga.  The aforementioned fighters, Erik Morales and Manny Pacquiao, are so popular in their respective countries, Mexico and the Philippines, and here in the United States and their rivalry is so excitingly intense that they have earned pay-per-view status.  A pay-per-view fighter, or fight, should be a no-brainer.  Rahman – Maskaev on pay-per-view is brainless.

Forget the garbage Arum has been spewing about, “Rahman is America’s last line of defense,” and that “Rahman is a great fighter and a great champion” – the word “great” is used way too much in sports anyway.  Rahman is Arum’s only investment in the heavyweight division and he wants that investment to pay off.  That’s why he is charging you the consumer so much money because he knows he has a shaky, inconsistent fighter under contract who could easily blow it all against even a limited fighter like Maskaev.

He’s going to push this “Last American Hope” nonsense for all it’s worth because, other than the revenge factor, it’s all he’s got to sell this turkey. 

And in terms of revenge, this isn’t Thomas Hearns waiting 8 agonizing years to get his shot at redemption against Sugar Ray Leonard in 1989.  They were all time great fighters, worthy of pay-per-view bucks.  This is Hasim Rahman and Oleg Maskaev.

All I can say is, let the buyer beware.