When you bring up a possible fight nowadays on social media, you invariably get responses -- especially if both boxers are both in their mid-to-late 20's -- that it's too early for such a bout to happen. That it needs to 'marinate' so that it can become a bigger event so both boxers can be paid more.
Sounds fair and reasonable, I guess. Like Paul Masson: they will sell no wine before it's time.
Who doesn't agree that fights should be made bigger and more lucrative for those involved? But is that really the case any longer? Yeah, at one time this was actually done. But nowadays this reasoning is being used as a crutch to either delay, or flat out avoid certain match-ups.
Case in point, you had David Benavidez and Caleb Plant, who were both super middleweight belt-holders in 2020. They were also undefeated and under the PBC banner. The problem was that this was during the pandemic, so both sides didn't believe it was prudent to make this fight at this particular time. Which is certainly plausible. But there was also a belief that this could be turned into a major pay-per-view event.
I penned this column for ESPN about this potential showdown between the heated rivals:
A feud, and great fight, in the making -- Why David Benavidez and Caleb Plant don't get along - ESPN
They eventually met in 2023 with Plant having suffered a loss to Saul Alvarez, and Benavidez having lost his first WBC title at 168 on the scales. It was still an appealing bout but truthfully, waiting a few years to make this fight really didn't have any discernable impact in terms of the pay-per-view tally.
Again, was this 'marinating' or just waiting?
It wasn't always this way. Case in point, the classic showdown between Sugar Ray Leonarda and Tommy Hearns in September of 1981. Much has been made of the fact that they met when they were basically 25 and 23 years old (something that would be unheard off in the modern business), but there were talks of them meeting in 1978 when both were still 10 round fighters. In George Kimball's excellently researched 'Four Kings' book, he stated that they nearly met in 1978 in Providence.
They payday for Leonard was slated to be $100,000, while Hearns was to receive $12,500. But it was Angelo Dundee (who did the early matchmaking for Leonard) that balked at the timing of this fight. At the 6:50 mark of this episode of HBO's 'Legendary Nights' he gave his explanation:
(29) HBO's Legendary Nights: The Tale of Ray Leonard vs Thomas Hearns 480p HQ - YouTube
By the time they fought in 1981 their respective guarantees were $8 million (Leonard) and $5.1 million (Hearns). (If you adjust for inflation, Leonard's take today would be around $36.3 million, and Hearns $19.6 million. So yeah, that was perfectly 'cooked' as Dundee would say.)
Out of curiosity I wanted to see just how active both guys were from the year that fight was first broached, leading into the year it took place. 1978 happened to be the year that both Leonard and Hearns became full-time 10 round fighters.
Sports Illustrated
Leonard, who came out with much hoopla out of the 1976 Olympics, engaged in 11 fights (which included the likes of Floyd Mayweather Sr., Ronnie Shields and Armando Muniz) in 1978. The following year he had 9 bouts versus guys like Pete Ranzany and Andy Price, before he won his first title against Wilfredo Benitez that November. 1980 saw Leonard face Dave Green and then his two memorable contests versus Roberto Duran.
So that stretch from 1978 to 1980 saw Leonard engage in 23 bouts,
Meanwhile, 'the Hit Man' who grew a huge following in Detroit, started 1978 as a six-round boxer, but was quickly elevated into 10's. He had a total of 10 contests that year. In 1979 Hearns had 10 another bouts with names like Bruce Curry and Harold Weston on his ledger. In 1980, Hearns won his first world title by blasting out Pipino Cuevas, in what was one of six fights for the year.
That adds up to 26 bouts in that three year period.
In total, the two participated in 49 bouts. And keep this in mind, many of them were televised nationally on the terrestrial networks, some even in prime time. To go even further, in 1981, Leonard had three fights, while Hearns had four. The two co-headlined a summer show at the Astrodome in Houston as a prelude to their September class. By the time they met, Leonard became a transcendent figure in America, while Hearns was at the very least a superstar in his home region and the sports world.
This was the biggest sporting event in America when it took place.
PBC
To put this into perspective, in the prior three years to Terence Crawford and Errol Spence finally squaring off in 2023 they combined for five. Yeah, you could argue that the pandemic curbed their activity, and they auto accident that Spence was involved in back in 2019 curtailed this number, but truthfully, it really didn't alter their usual activity rate all that much. The fight ended up being a one-side affair that saw Crawford stop Spence in nine innings. Some complained that this bout had taken too long for Spence to be at his best. The irony.
But again, what exactly is being truly marinated nowadays?
And is it even worth marinating anything at this point?
