By Bob Markus

I'm a little like the Robert Duvall character in "Apocalypse Now" who exults, "I love the smell of napalm in the morning." I've never smelled napalm at any hour and I doubt that a sniff of the lethal stuff would send me into peals of ecstacy. What I love is boxing and a good many people think that's just as bad. I know it's not politically correct to enjoy watching two men trying to club each other senseless. But I can't help it. I've loved boxing since I was a small boy and I love it still. I know that boxing is brutal. I've seen two men die in the ring, one on television and one up front and personal. I've sat at ringside often enough to know it's not a good idea to wear your best clothes because there's a good chance they'll be blood-spattered before the night is over. Yes, boxing is brutal, but apparently not brutal enough for some. By all indications, the so-called sweet science is losing out to the more pungeant sport of mixed martial arts, in all its forms. Personally, I can't watch it. Whenever I inadvertently tune in a bout where the contestants are barefooted I immediately switch channels. Sharon Robb, the boxing writer for my local paper, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, does an excellent job, especially considering the fact that in addition to boxing she covers participant sports in all its permutations. There are days when her byline fills out half the sports section. But increasingly, her Sunday columns are more about kung fu style fighting than classic boxing. That may be because the martial arts shows are consistently outdrawing the local boxing cards. Perhaps that is just the natural order of things in these times when movies and television dramas assault us with ever increasing violence. On the other hand I have to admit that despite the bloody mayhem that characterizes MMA and ultimate cage fighting, there have been far more fatalities in the ring than in the cage. In fact I'm not sure if anyone has ever died as the result of an MMA fight. There is some hope for us boxing fans. Legendary promoter Don King, he of the electric hairdo, has joined forces with a local tribe of Indians to try to revive the dying sport in South Florida. His most recent effort drew a near capacity crowd to the Seminole Hardrock Hotel and Casino and was televised live on HBO.

Put a boxing match on TV, any boxing match, and I'll watch it. I'll watch the Friday night fights on ESPN2, the sporadic live boxing shows om Showtime and HBO; I'll even watch reruns of fights that were held months ago. Since I've never heard of any of the fighters involved and don't know who won the fight, I'm perfectly content. I'm not sure how this passion for boxing came about. Most likely it's because my father and I used to watch televised boxing matches together. It was one of the few things we shared at that time of my life. He even took me to some live fight shows and I can remember seeing local Chicago favorites like Johnny Bratton (who briefly was a world champion) and Bob Satterfield, a light heavyweight who had a punch like a mule and a chin like rare crystal. When you went to a Satterfield fight you knew somebody was going down. That was the golden age of boxing. There were televised bouts every Wednesday night and every Friday night, one sponsored by Gillette, the other by Ballantine's beer. And the best fighters of that era were featured. Willie Pep and Sandy Saddler squared off four or five times for the featherweight championship, nasty fights all. A welterweight championship fight between Bratton and Charlie Fusari remains one of the best fights I've ever seen. There was Sugar Ray Robinson vs. Jake LaMotta several times. Robinson vs. Bobo Olson, Robinson vs.Carmen Basilio. There were Tony Zale, Marcel Cerdan, two Rockys, Graziano and Marciano (but not Balboa). Unfortunately Joe Louis was past his prime and I never saw him at his best. Back then the most recognizable voice in boxing was that of Don Dunphy, the ringside blow-by-blow announcer. Today it's Michael Buffer, whose ubiquitous, throaty "Uh, let's get ready to r-u-u-u-m -m-m-b-l-e" is more famous than most of the fighters he introduces. There were only eight world champions back in the day and I knew who they all were, with the possible exception of the flyweight champion, who was usually from some exotic place like Thailand.
Today there are at least twice as many divisions and an infinite number of sanctioning bodies and I probably couldn't name more than three or four legitimate champions. I know that the most recognized heavyweight champion and the next four highest ranked heavyweights are all from the former Soviet Union. Since two of the heavyweight title holders are brothers who refuse to fight each other I doubt there will be a unified heavyweight champion in my life time.