The right decision

By Paul Upham: On Wednesday afternoon here in New York, the undisputed middleweight world title clash between WBC/IBF champion Bernard Hopkins and WBA title-holder Felix Trinidad, scheduled for Saturday night at Madison Square Garden, was officially postponed by promoter Don King.
There are many reasons why this was the right decision. The city of New York is still on a state of alert. Air force fighter planes rocket over the top of the city on patrol. The main landmarks of the city, including the Empire State Building and Madison Square Garden, are still locked down and under police and military guard.

With so many people involved in the tragedy and rescue, it is difficult to contact people in the city, which is suffering from telephone outages. The country’s airports are still closed and the planes grounded, making it impossible for people to get to New York.

There are security issues to be considered. Would fans want to be in a sold-out stadium so close to the tragedy in distance and time?

Even if people could get to the city, there are many officials, media and fans who may not wish to travel by plane or come to New York. With the horrific picture of two planes crashing into the twin towers frozen in my mind, I myself am in no great rush to get on a plane again.

Boxing is so insignificant to what has happened here in New York and my heart goes out to the innocent people on the those planes that crashed, the people in the buildings and those heroic rescuers, many of whom gave their lives on Tuesday morning.

President Bush and Mayor Giuliani today tried to encourage people to go about their normal lives. But for sport, it is a question of what is a meaningful display of mourning and respect for the victims and their families.

There is an intense debate now underway on what should happen with the national sports such as baseball, the NFL, college football and golf.

Major League Baseball has cancelled all games for the remainder of the week, while the NFL has promised a decision by midday on Thursday for Sunday and Monday’s games. With the New York Giants scheduled to play at the Meadowlands in New York on Sunday, speculation is that there will be a cancellation of all NFL games this weekend.

Many people are saying that sport is part of the healing process and life must go on. But for those people directly affected by the tragedy, it is a completely different scenario when they have lost family and friends close to them. When your family has been devastated by a tragedy such as this, sport is so inconsequential.

There is to be a national day of mourning on Friday and the search for victims continues around the clock. Walking around the city today and talking to New Yorkers still shocked by the events of Tuesday, people are not thinking of sports or boxing. Their thoughts are on missing family and friends and those injured in hospital.

With the bout being a sell-out and the tragic loss of life here in New York, there would more than likely have been many empty seats at The Garden had the fight gone ahead. No one wants to see that. The city is in no state to have a boxing card both physically, mentally and emotionally. You cannot hold world title fights, baseball games and NFL games in New York with the backdrop of the World Trade Centwe tragedy still so very real.

In the official announcement today, Don King indicated that September 29 was a working date for the fight to be re-scheduled. With the baseball playoffs being pushed back to the second week of October, that may also open up another date for a boxing event such as this.

Bernard Hopkins and Felix Trinidad are two professional boxers who will remain in training and reschedule their preparation to peek for the new fight day. Fans have been advised to hang on to their tickets awaiting an official confirmation of the new date.

Promoter Don King is to be acknowledged for making the correct decision to postpone this bout. There will be many boxing fans around the world who will be very disappointed about this weekend’s postponement. However, it is the right decision. There will be a time for Trinidad-Hopkins in New York at Madison Square Garden, but not right now.


Paul Upham
Contributing Editor