Professional boxing needs educational standards
If collegiate boxing is too dangerous and barbaric to return to the NCAA, then the NCAA, professional boxing leagues and gyms need to find a way to hold aspiring boxers to the same educational standards as other collegiate athletes.
Professional boxing is hard-hitting and entertaining. It displays an artistry that may be unparalleled to any other sport. Top stars generate hundreds of millions of dollars throughout their careers, but unlike all other professional sports in America, one standard has been perpetually ignored when it comes to boxing: education, and it throws the hardest punch of them all.
The ALS Ice Bucket Challenge has gone viral all over social media, and for a good cause. But the challenge became personal when rapper 50 Cent, born Curtis Jackson, issued a challenge to his former friend and business partner Floyd Mayweather via Instagram. If Mayweather could read a page out of a Harry Potter book without messing up, he would donate $750,000 to a charity of Mayweather’s choosing.
Mayweather didn’t accept the challenge, which raised suspicion. Surely, someone as wealthy and charitable as Mayweather could read at least one page of a Harry Potter book on national television for a charitable cause, right? That’s what we all thought.
50 Cent was on to something.
He knew something we didn’t. Well, that was until The Breakfast Club, a popular urban radio show in New York, aired audio of Mayweather reading. Mayweather was supposed to read a 10-second drop, but he struggled terribly, as he spent nearly 10 minutes fumbling over words and restarting. Superman became Clark Kent, except Clark Kent could read.
Now, most people may have laughed right alongside 50 Cent — I’m guilty of this — but the overlooked problem comes when Mayweather responds to the embarrassing audio by tweeting out a picture of two checks, captioned “Read this $72,276,000.00, God Bless.”
You’re rich, Floyd. We get it.
But do you, and everybody else, understand that there has been a multitude of boxers worth millions while they were active, but later were broke, because they lacked the foundation of an adequate education.
Consider the following boxers:
Wilfred Benitez, the youngest world champion in boxing history at 17 years of age, earned an estimated amount of $3 to $6 million throughout his career. Never finished high school. Didn’t attend college. Guess what? He’s broke.
At one point, Tommy Hearns held eight world titles in six different divisions. Hearns earned an estimated $40 million throughout his career, as he became the first boxer to hold five titles in five different divisions. Hearns turned pro at the age of 19 with no real educational background. In 2012, Hearns was forced to auction off the majority of his possessions in order to pay tax debts of $250,000.
Mike Tyson is the highest earning boxer of all-time next to Mayweather, according to Forbes. At the age of 20, Tyson became the youngest heavyweight champion when he defeated Trevor Berbick in 1986. In 1991, Tyson was second on Forbes’ top earning athletes list — beating out Michael Jordan — with an estimated $31.5 million.
Tyson had it all, major endorsement deals with companies like Pepsi, his own video game, and he brought in unprecedented purses from his championship bouts. In many interviews, Tyson admitted to being broke and said he is incapable attaining that kind of wealth again.
Like the previous two boxers, Tyson had no educational background. Neither does Mayweather. And I’m not saying those athletes went broke because they lacked proper education, but I can assure it played a pivotal role in their decision-making.
So who’s going to be held accountable?
Boxing hasn’t been an official collegiate sport since 1960 when Charlie Mohr from the University of Wisconsin-Madison died after suffering a brain hemorrhage in the NCAA Championships. Mohr was in a coma for eight days before he was pronounced dead.
Ever since the death of Mohr, the idea of collegiate boxing resurfacing is being viewed as inappropriate and somewhat barbaric. Even though back then, college boxers wore headgear, padded gloves and fought only three, two-minute rounds.
The idea of collegiate boxing returning is out of the question, so my only suggestion is that the NCAA, professional boxing leagues and gyms come together and create an educational standard for aspiring boxers. For instance, kids under age 19 should not be able to train in a professional boxing gym or go pro without a high school degree or GED equivalent.
Just like any other sport, everybody has dreams of making it big, but few do. They need a backup plan.
Someone needs to advise aspiring boxers that there are more important priorities in life than training and winning golden gloves.
They should understand the importance of literacy and being able to balance a checkbook.
What good is being able to generate hundreds of millions of dollars if you can’t read a contract?
Meaning, you have to pay someone to do that — money you could be using for something else. Besides, can the person being paid to read the contract be trusted? Refer to the Mike Tyson, Don King situation.
The point is that literacy is declining among athletes, especially athletes of minority. Just because boxing is no longer an NCAA sport, the educational needs of the athletes should not be neglected.