Dereck Chisora has been ordered to stay away from his former girlfriend, but perhaps the circus known as boxing should be court ordered to stay away from itself, for its own good.
Boxing fans were treated to another night under the big top on Saturday, when the aftermath of the WBC heavyweight title fight between Chisora and Vitali Klitschko devolved into an embarrassing postfight brawl between Chisora and former WBA champ David Haye.
Haye confronted Chisora in the news conference after Klitschko defended his belt, Chisora went into the audience to exchange a few swings with Haye and everybody else either laughed or shook their heads. Chisora was detained at Munich airport and taken in for questioning on Sunday morning, although it wasn’t clear if he would face anything beyond questioning.
Unfortunately for this once-great sport, it really doesn’t matter. Nonsense like this is why boxing ceased sometime in the past two decades to provide any legitimate entertainment.
Chisora is the posterboy for a sport that has become more about grandstanding and poor behavior than about a sweet science. Chisora was given a suspended sentence for beating and spanking his then-girlfriend, Yalda Kontratchy, in 2010, and was suspended from boxing for four months after biting Paul Butlin in 2009.
Most recently, he slapped Klitschko in the prefight weigh-in, spit water in the face of Klitschko’s brother Wladimir Klitschko prior to Saturday’s fight and then got into a donnybrook with Haye after the fight. He also threatened to shoot Haye “physically,” as opposed to, I don’t know, mentally?
Every once in a while, some grizzled sportswriting veteran writes a column wondering how the great sport of boxing fell from its perch in America’s consciousness. Presumably it’s the violence that fans no longer have the stomach for, but that’s not the case. If it were, millions of Americans wouldn’t tune in to the bone-crushing NFL on Sundays and UFC wouldn’t be growing at its current pace.
The reason boxing has plummeted into obscurity is because what was once about the battle of two men, alone in a ring, is now about general foolishness. Chisora isn’t an embarrassment to boxing in the 21st century — he is boxing in the 21st century.
Photo of the day
Chisora won the weigh-in, so that counts for something, right? No? OK, then.
Quote of the day
“It wouldn’t be the first time, so I thought for sure I took him out.”
— Phil Mickelson, assuming he drilled a fan with a shot on the 15th hole at Riviera. It turned out the ball had simply become lodged in the fan’s shorts.
Tweet of the day
We’ll try not to let you down.
Video of the day
They just don’t make bicycles like they used to. (They’re a lot less flimsy now.)
