TalkingBoxing Articles
A Million Dollar Bust
SAT July 23, ROGER GORDILLO - Anyone who’s familiar with the rivalry between Christy Martin and Lucia Rijker should have known it was too good to be true. With the two having, a rivalry that makes Ali and Frazier look like a lover’s quarrel.
For years, the two have taken jabs at each other both verbally and literally. From a brawl to questioning another’s gender, the women have been at it for more than half a decade. With rumored fight after fight never materializing and each fighter blaming the other fighter for the match not taking place, one thing was sure; boxing fans were finally glad to see the women get this over with.
The fight seems to be a tad anticlimactic when it should have taken place six years ago as both women are no longer in their prime and both have not been very active in the last couple of years.
Bob Arum in an attempt to capitalize on the success of the academy award winning picture 'Million Dollar Baby', announced the launch of his July 30th Million Dollar Lady Pay-per view. The card which pits the two fighters, The Coal Miner’s Daughter Christy Martin against one of the movies stars The “Dutch Destroyer” Lucia Rijker.
The movie was a huge success with the public especially those of the female persuasion. Arum hoped to bank on the movies appeal especially with one of the movies stars participating in the match. With the recent success of "The Contender", which crossed over in to prime time television capturing the interest of non boxing fans. Hopeful to attract new boxing fans, Arum is trying to strike while the iron is hot.
When the card was announced a decent undercard seemed to be coming together but as fights fell through, Top Rank still decided to go forward with the card. Hoping that the average Joe or in this case maybe Joanna would still be tuning into the fight because of new found interest in the 'Million Dollar Baby' movie or 'The Contender' reality series. While astute boxing fans tend to shy away from a card for lack of substance, it’s hard to believe that the fight would have generated good PPV numbers for a fight that’s too little, too late and an irrelevant undercard for most constant PPV purchasers.
This very well could have been a blessing in disguise for Arum and Top Rank when Lucia Rijker had to pull out of the fight with a torn Achilles tendon. With Rijker out of the fight, there was nothing meaningful left to salvage so Arum had no choice, but to scrap the whole card.
Arum may never know it but he might have just dodged a bullet that could have had him seeing red.
Forum
