FOX CANCELS UNSETTLED MID DECEMBER SHOW
New York, NY-Sometimes, a fight card just seems snakebit. This past fall, Showtime saw their scheduled September 3rd doubleheader of junior middleweight Daniel Santos vs. Jose Antonio Rivera and heavyweights Owen Beck vs. Sergei Liakhovich degenerate over the course of a couple weeks due to injuries to Rivera and Liakhovich. Eventually, Showtime ended up with a Guillermo Jones-Wayne Braithwaite WBC cruiserweight elimination bout headlining, with Beck taking on journeyman Ray Austin. At least they were able to stage a couple competitive bouts, even as fans all over the internet scoffed at the names gracing Showtimes flagship boxing program. In the end, upsets by Jones and Austin provided more action than quite a few of the star-studded cards televised in 2005., SHOW WAS DOOOMED SOON AFTER ANNOUNCEMENT
Fox Sports December 15th card just wasnt as fortunate. At one time the card, presented as part of the networks Best Damn Sports Show Period boxing series, appeared to be the channels strongest offering to date. Topping the bill was the series ever-present James Toney, between the ropes this time in a stay busy fight against Rob Calloway. Toneys last in-ring appearance on the program, in another walkover against Rydell Booker, had tallied the best ratings number ever for the fight series. Opening the show was to be the WBA lightweight title rematch between Juan Diaz and Lakva Sim, which promised to be an action fight. The lightweight tilt alone was several cuts above the usual Fox Sports fare, a competitive title bout with serious implications in one of the sports most compelling divisions.
VITALIS INJURY IMPACTS TONEY IN BIG WAY
The scheduled show took its first hit when WBC champ Vitali Klitschko called it a career due to injury. Klitschkos opponent and decided underdog Hasim Rahman all of a sudden found himself with the WBC heavyweight strap, and an open dance card. Toney, who has been given a platform by Fox Sports for over a year to hype and promote himself during their broadcasts, told his partners at Best Damn Sports to take a hike rather than risk a title shot at Rahman with some freak occurrence in the Calloway fight. It was a good decision for Toney, as the scheduled fight was meaningless to Toney. Not so meaningless to Fox Sports (or to Calloway for that matter, who responded in a previous edition of this column), who now had to salvage the date.
A LIGHTWEIGHT BOUT OF NOTE INSTEAD?
Rewarded for building a strong card in the first place, Fox was then able to smoothly shuffle Diaz-Sim to the top spot, still a fight with considerable juice to fight fans, if not the mainstream appeal of James Toney. That plan was short-lived unfortunately, as a cut in training scuttled the new main event. Amazingly, this is the second straight TV title defense for Diaz that has been iced by a training cut, as his April scrap against Ebo Elder was cancelled by a cut to the champ himself. Perhaps all future contracts for Juan Diaz title defenses should contain a stipulation that both participants spar in football helmets.
ROAD WARRIOR & OLYMPIC CHAMP TO HEADLINE?
Into the gap stepped the Road Warrior Glenn Johnson, the former light heavyweight champion, who agreed to headline the Dan Goossen-promoted card, while 2004 Olympic gold medalist Andre Ward was inserted into a familiar position opening the Best Damn broadcast. Or so it seemed.
WITHOUT QUALITY, FOX JUST WONT GO!
Sources at Fox now confirm that the December 15th broadcast has been scrapped altogether. After doing everything possible to salvage the date, Fox was not able to get both fights locked down. Unable to feature two premier fighters on the show, the network decided to turn out the lights on this broadcast completely. They arent ruling out the entire month of December quite yet, but it looks like weve seen the last Best Damn Sports Show fight card of 2005.
ONE CANT FAULT FOX OR GOOSSEN HERE!
As an observer, its unfortunate to see one of boxings few media outlets trying to step up their game, and watch it fall apart. Make no mistake about it, a James Toney/ Juan Diaz-Lakva Sim card was a huge step up for Fox Sports, and a show that could firmly position Fox Sports Net as a network that fight fans really had to keep track of or miss big fights. With the big boy on the block HBO feeding us garbage like Floyd Mayweather, Jr. vs. Sharmba Mitchell, I wont shed any tears for the damage the pay network will take as a result of their main man Vitali Klitschkos retirement. But when a network is earnestly trying to build something positive with their boxing broadcasts as Fox Sports was doing with the December 15th show, all fans lose when it falls through.
Lou Ciaccia
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