Modern boxing, going down for the count

Saturday marked the last important fight in the boxing world this year. The rematch between Bernard Hopkins and Jermain Taylor, every bit the old assassin taking a last stand against the upcoming swashbuckler, was chockfull of good story. It turned out to be the most important fight of the year, but it was definitely not the best (that goes to Diego Corrales vs. Jose Luis Castillo). The rematch between the two lasted 12 rounds, much like the first fight and, in the end, Taylor took it by one round again. It left me wondering what the hell "B-HOP" was doing in the 11th round, and why I had to pay $50 to watch a boxing match. \nThe squared circle that helped define American sport in the 20th century has been turned to weeds by the thieves, pimps and general swindlers that plague the sport like an interminable case of pubic lice. They have rubbed the sport raw. \nIt's a sad fact that nine out of 10 of you couldn't tell me the heavyweight champion today. Yet, if I asked who the champion was 30 years ago, many would be quick to offer, "Muhammad Ali!" What other major sport is more famous for men in their sixties than the current crop of stars?\nAmericans didn't have to pay to watch Ali fight. Boxing belonged to the public, not to people like Don King. Ali, more than any other boxer, epitomized the force a boxer can wield on society. \nThe fighter carried hopes and fears far greater than his own into the ring. Look at Joe Louis for Black America of the 30s. Or Alexis Argüello for Latinos. All that history, though, is going down the drain. \nI've heard Bob Dylan say even the president of the United States must stand naked, but I think we can officially testify that our president will never stand as naked as those two men Saturday night. He will never face the hard truth that he has no left hook. \nHe will never feel like 41-year-old Bernard Hopkins, who had not lost in 10 years, and now finds himself with a losing streak and the fourth loss of his career. Hopkins' place among the top-three middleweights is gone forever -- the work of his life forever diminished. No other athlete is stripped down to his core like the boxer, left to fight for his life three minutes at a time. That's what makes it so compelling, but boxing is set for a fatal shift.\nThe sport can't exist as it does much longer. Even though the fights have shortened to 12 rounds (the glory of those last three championship rounds will never be witnessed again) and refs are quicker to stop fights, boxing is on its way out. The reasons for its demise are more complex than any one thing. Take your pick. It's too corrupt outside the ring and too honest inside. Boxing never formed a unified body. Kids ditched dreams of being the next Joe Louis for basketball and football. Money got in the way of the sport's best interest. All have played their part and all are responsible.\nAll of this has led to a general diminishment in the sport magnified after the Mike Tyson era. Tyson was the last hurrah for boxing and a brutally weird one at which the public balked. As boxing's place in the sporting public lessens with each year and I look at Don King smiling so smugly on my TV, only one thought comes to my mind -- Muhammad Ali fought on ABC.