OVER these past couple of weeks the good, the bad and the ugly of boxing has been on display as never before in such technicolour detail.

The good was provided by the much anticipated welterweight undisputed clash between Terence Crawford and Errol Spence at the Fortress in Las Vegas on July 29. Both fighters climbed into the ring as products of the kind of adversity you would instantly associate with a cliched Rocky script. 

From the unforgiving streets of Omaha, Nebraska, Crawford is a man who survived being shot in the head one night in 2008 while sitting in his car counting the cash he’d just won from shooting dice under a street lamp. The guy who shot him was a sore loser, clearly, yet as Crawford later tells it: “It was my own fault. I should’ve taken the money and gotten out of there, instead of waiting to count it in the car.”  

Interesting, and also enlightening, that one of the best to ever lace up the gloves places the blame for being shot in the head on his own failure to take the money and run rather than the fact he was shooting dice in the company of mad bastards willing to shoot people in the head over a game of craps — but hey-ho.

Errol Spence’s travails came in the form of not just one but two car crashes, in 2019 and 2022 respectively. The first one was so serious that it completely totalled the Ferrari he was driving at the time. The Texan was lucky to survive, never mind be able to resume his ring career, yet resume it he did under the tutelage of 2022 trainer of the year Derrick James. 

Backstories aside, the outcome on July 29 was an emphatic victory by TKO in the 9th round by Terence Crawford to claim not only the mantle of undisputed welterweight champion against his hitherto undefeated opponent, but also the status of the sport’s undisputed pound for pound king.

No-one could have predicted how one-sided this battle would turn out. Indeed, to state that Crawford dominated is to be indicted on the charge of understatement. The Nebraskan was clinical and precise from the opening bell in the way he utilised Spence’s much vaunted and usually feared front foot pressure against him in classic matador versus bull style.

By the third round Spence had already run out of ideas and was fighting on heart and will alone, continuing to bull forward behind a normally devastating jab to find himself being stopped in his tracks by Crawford’s quicker jab and a thunderous right hook that couldn’t miss.

There is no argument that much of Errol Spence’s problems were down to him struggling to make weight. On the scales the day before he appeared dry and depleted, but as Crawford’s trainer Brian MacIntyre pointed out afterwards, “He signed the contract.”

Regardless of any weight issues, Spence to his credit made no excuses afterwards and only alluded to his issues in this regard by stating that he would like a rematch at 154lbs. However, given how one-sided the first fight was, there seems little appetite for an immediate rematch among most pundits and commentators. 

What is not in doubt is that the 154lbs middleweight division is where both Spence and Crawford are headed next. The prospect of them doing so is salivating for the much neglected sport’s purists, who’ve seen themselves kicked to the kerb in recent years by promoters and broadcasters more interested in appeasing so-called “casual fans.” 

The “bad” in the triptych underpinning this offering is the banned drugs test registered by Dillian Whyte just one week in advance of his scheduled rematch against Anthony Joshua in London. It came as a depressing reminder that as things stand, top flight boxing is as dirty as a dog’s arse.

The later revelations that Whyte failed not just one but multiple VADA tests in the lead-up to this weekend’s scheduled bout should, if there remains a scintilla of credibility in boxing, mark the end of Whyte’s career, given that he’s failed two previous tests. If so, Dillian Whyte’s legacy will be defined by his good fortune in operating in an era when the heavyweight division was historically weak in comparison to previous times. More than that, it will be defined by him being a cheat in the one sport where to do so is to be potentially guilty of manslaughter.

This latest scandal demands serious reform, because clearly the status quo of multiple sanctioning bodies, lack of a uniform structure and governance, and with promoters wielding more power than is healthy, is in itself a scandal. The greed that has seen the likes of WBC heavyweight champion Tyson Fury being able to avoid facing a mandatory challenger in over a year, and instead face a UFC heavyweight former champion in Saudi in his next fight, is asphyxiating the game to the point where it is fast becoming a parody.

When it comes to ugly, look no further than YouTuber Jake Paul’s continuing attempts to present himself as a serious contender for a future shot at a legitimate world title. His most recent foray last weekend against a punch drunk and shot to pieces opponent in the shape of the UFC’s Nate Diaz was hard on the eyes. 

Diaz was unsteady on his legs even before the opening bell, making it incomprehensible that he was able to pass a pre-fight medical worthy of the name. He fought like a drunk man on a tightrope, so all over the shop was he. Diaz is the archetypal fighter who needs to be saved from himself, but sadly, not to mention grimly, when there are dollars at stake nothing else matters.

Though Paul came out on top of this 10-round affair, he did so with his reputation damaged. Even newly installed trainer Shane Mosley could not and will not be able to polish this turd. Though anyone with the minerals to climb into a boxing ring deserves credit, they don’t deserve opportunities that fighters who’ve come up the hard way never get.

Paul’s form under the lights is woeful, with his throw so wide from his body they need air traffic control to guide them in. His feet and his hands are like strangers, they operate so completely detached from each other, and his chin hangs in the air like his mother’s washing. If Jake Paul’s a boxer then I’m a banana, yet judging by the attendance at this circus in Dallas last weekend, there are thousands of bananas out there with more money than sense. 

Overall, when it comes to boxing, things need to improve — fast.