Boxing: Heavyweight game on the ropes

Evander Holyfield went through the motions like a 48-year-old man stuck in treacle on Saturday night, there is no firm news about David Haye's next fight, the Klitschko brothers continue to underwhelm and there is still no sign of an American saviour: welcome to the world of heavyweight boxing.

There was a time when being the heavyweight world champion was truly meaningful, but there has never been a time when the best heavyweights in the world met each other in a seemingly endless list of glorious nights. Holyfield and his great rivals Mike Tyson and Lennox Lewis met years after they should have shared a ring.

However, the situation right now is bordering on comical, with too many unknown, fat, dull and hopeless fighters getting the chance to win the tarnished crown against a trio of champions who have divided the sport's remaining fanatics. And not everybody is laughing at the perilous state of what was once known as sport's richest prize.

In America, the heavyweight division has declined and is now neglected by broadcasters and fans. In the last five or so years the best American fighters, many naive and primitive compared to the men they replaced, have fallen over and suffered dreadful and often shameful beatings in world title fights.

The US cameras went dark and stayed dark, guarding their money and robbing the division of its main source of motivation: there was simply not enough interest in the world champions from Europe.

The American dilemma will continue for a long, long time and it is disturbing to consider that had Holyfield come through his routine fight last weekend, he would have been the most marketable American heavyweight.

Holyfield was rescued from a disgraceful continuation of his career when a cut meant his fight with a journeyman called Sherman Williams was stopped after three rounds and declared a "no contest".

The three other American heavyweights above him in the world's top 20 have all been brutalised and exposed by either Vitali or Wladimir Klitschko. Tony Thompson, Eddie Chambers and Chris Arreola are unlikely ever to feature in a world heavyweight title fight on American TV and that is truly disturbing.

"This is not a great time to be an American heavyweight," said Don King, promoter of the sport's most memorable heavyweight showdowns. "The heavyweight road map has changed but I'm still looking for America's next heavyweight champion."

Frank Warren, who worked with King on Mike Tyson's second fight with Frank Bruno, says the Americans are in a sad and dark place. "They have been terrible in recent heavyweight fights and fought like they had never had a clue. I truly believe that we have better prospects in Britain."

In March, Warren's inexperienced but entertaining British champion, Dereck Chisora, will travel to Germany to fight Wladimir for three of the world championship baubles. The fight between Wladimir, who has won 55 of his 58 fights, and 14-fight novice Chisora has been marketed along the lines that Chisora, unlike all recent hapless Americans, will have a go. Chisora will go down swinging.

It is not just Americans who fail to deliver in world heavyweight title fights. Haye's defence of his WBA title against fallen idol Audley Harrison last November descended into farce.

The event was popular, a financial success, but about 20,000 watched ringside in utter amazement as Harrison folded in three rounds and landed just one solitary jab. Haye had predicted a massacre from the day the fight was announced.

There is a rich history of champions in dreadful fights against undeserving challengers, and champions avoiding legitimate challengers; it has not been invented by the reluctant Klitschko boys or the calculating Haye. But some would argue they have taken the abuses to new heights.

In the 70s, Joe Frazier defended his title against two club fighters after beating Muhammad Ali in the fight of the century. Ali, it is often overlooked, met his share of bad fighters in instantly forgettable defences and for years also ignored George Foreman's deserving pleas for a rematch.

"I keep hearing people moaning about Haye not fighting a Klitschko and that he is scared," said Adam Booth, who trains, advises and promotes Haye. "We have been close to a fight and then the margins have changed."

The Klitschkos and their business manager, Bernd Bonte, have disagreed with and refuted every single interpretation of the negotiations with Haye and Booth. It has been a steady and increasingly unpalatable diet of petty claim and counter-claim since December 2009. It was then that Haye in theory first agreed terms for a fight with Vladimir and on the same night was physically ejected from a restaurant in Berlin by Vitali.

Since that lively nocturnal encounter a number of planned and proposed fights have fallen through. It is not a shock that everybody involved calls their opposite a liar and a coward; the dialogue, at least, is vicious.

Vladimir now fights Chisora and Vitali defends his WBC title against Cuban exile Odlanier Solis in March; both fights will take place in Germany, where the Ukrainian brothers are often watched by 17 million viewers on TV. There is every chance both fights will be superior to any recent encounters involving the towering pair and that is long overdue.

Haye has yet to announce an opponent but he is expected to fight former champion Ruslan Chagaev, from Uzbekistan, who is also his mandatory challenger, in London on May 21. Chagaev has failed a medical in the past for hepatitis and has yet to present his medical reports to the British Boxing Board of Control. It is a decent fight and could certainly be difficult for Haye, but it will not capture the public's imagination like the Harrison fight.

Assuming all three win their next defences, there is an outside chance that Haye could share a ring with either Vladimir and Vitali before the end of the year. It is the only fight that can delay the tragic decline of the heavyweight division - and it simply has to happen.

This is not the first time the obituaries have been penned and the requiems written for the heavyweight division, but it is certainly the most alarming.

If Haye never fights a Klitschko and they all drift away from the sport in the next two years they will leave behind a hole, and retire with a pitiful combined legacy. All three deserve better, and so does the sport.

- INDEPENDENT