Boxing: The taboo that isn't

"I'm at home the other night watching some old boxing movies and by far the strangest one had to be Rocky IV. I'm sitting there thinking to myself, 'Two white guys fighting for the heavyweight championship of the world?'"

-- Chris Rock.

Boxing is an interesting sport, and for more than just the action in the ring.

"I've seen less racism in boxing than I've seen in any other sport," says Lou Di Bella.

Unlike baseball, football and the majority of team sports, boxing does not have a racism problem. It's one of the only sports where ethnic, or even racial identity, are shamelessly promoted as a marketing tool.

"In boxing, ethnicity was something they used. Boxing celebrated differences, socially and commercially, especially commercially," claimed Hebert Goldberg, editor of the International Boxing Digest while speaking of the boxing scene at the beginning of the 20th Century.

It's still true today.

Controversial-but-popular Prince Hamed calls his manager "Old Irish." His manager calls him the "Little Arab." Words like that in baseball would get you tarnished with a John Rocker-like reputation.

Meanwhile, today's heavyweight fighters are promoted either as "The Black Rhino" (Cliff Etienne), or "The White Buffalo" (Francois Botha) in a way that is not much different than how Joe Louis (The Black Bomber) or Abraham "The Little Hebrew" Attell were promoted in the 1930s and '40s.

Today, there is a taboo regarding any mention of racial identity in American sports. As a Canadian, I'm always amazed at the use of the word "ethnicity" in the United States. Elsewhere, an "ethnicity" is not if you're black, white, Latino or Pacific Islander, but rather if you're French, Danish, Chinese, Korean, Portuguese, Brazilian or any other multitude of nationalities.

A few months ago, after he beat the Canadian boxer Stephane Ouellet in Las Vegas, Palestinian fighter Omar Sheika challenged Dana Rosenblatt (who is Jewish). Sheika asserted that Rosenblatt was afraid to fight him because of his religion.

But religion has nothing to do with the match. However, the tone has already been set. If that match does happen one day, it is sure to be an extremely volatile situation.

As this example illustrates, race is actually no more important than ethnicity, religion or even sex (remember the man versus woman hype a few months ago?). What counts in boxing is that a kind of contrast or obvious ethnic connotation can be exalted and promoted by the media even when the protagonist themselves could care less. As they say, it's all about marketing appeal.

The pattern is everywhere. Lou Savarese, who lost to Mike Tyson in Glasgow, Scotland, a few months ago, is a Texan Italian-American. Where was the fight supposed to happen in the first place? Not surprisingly, in Italy. As for the Tyson-Nielsen fight, it took place in Denmark -- Nielsen's birthplace.

Bernard Hopkins, the new middleweight champ, is all too aware of the situation.

"I'm a little envious because I don't have somebody in my weight class with an opposite race," he say. "If there were top fighters of opposite race at the top of every weight class, boxing would be a lot better today. People would look forward to every fight. Any good black fighter against a good white fighter today and both have names it would be a jam pack sellout. It always sells. There's a rivalry that we are better than you and we will beat you. It's a pride thing."

Now would boxing really be in a better state if what Hopkins is saying is true?

Perhaps. But something else is at play.

The main problem today with boxing is that its traditional fan base is getting old dangerously fast. But, more than anything else, boxing is suffering from its separation from sports prime time and big network news.

Fortunately, the Internet is keeping the sport in the headlines.

"White fighters used to get breaks because of racism. Today, it's because they are a novelty," Hall of Famer trainer Eddy Futch (who just recently passed away at 90 years old) used to say.

There hasn't been a widely accepted white heavyweight champion since Rocky Marciano, who retired in 1952. And there hasn't been a legitimate great white fighter since 1982, when Gerry Cooney lost to Larry Holmes. Today, only the Ukrainian Klishtko brothers could be considered serious white contenders in the heavyweight division. But, it's not that fact itself that is interesting. Rather, it's that there are few white contenders in any division.

While John Entine wrote about Ethiopian or Kenyan runners compared to the others, the racial patterns of boxing are also quite fascinating to look at. Asians dominate the lightweight, Latinos the middleweight, with some whites and blacks in between. Black fighters totally dominate the heavyweight division.

Would anybody believe that the fact that there are no Asian heavyweight champions, while they dominate the lightweight division, could be explained only by socially constructed factors?

As far as boxing is concerned today, one just has to think of the words of a certain Hugh McIntosh, a powerful American organizer at the beginning of last century: "I will maybe organize in the future the white heavyweight championship since it's indisputable than McVea, Langford, Jeanette, Johnson is now unbeatable."

McIntosh wrote that in 1912. With the like of Lewis, Tyson, Grant or Holyfield, perhaps some marketing wizard will arrive at that idea again. Imagine that, sports affirmative action.

Since we're on the subject, let's push the idea to the limit. Here are some new championship categories for the next Olympics: the non-black 100 meters, the non-Chinese 10-meter diving board gold medal competition, the non-white swimming competition, the non-communist and ex-communist contras gymnastic gold, silver and bronze medals competition, and last but certainly not least.... the non-Cuban Olympics boxing sweepstakes.

Who says it's not a race thing?

Yvan Petitclerc also writes for blackathlete.com.