It’s an inconvenient truth that life’s most important crossroads have no signs, the magnitude or otherwise of a given moment often only apparent after the fact.
Sport elicits its fair share of sliding doors in that regard, swathes of history shaped by singular moments in time.
Indeed, so regular is the trend that temptation can be to call some shots before the fact. Modern media has served only to exacerbate matters in that regard, broadcasters billing every share of their wares as some sequel to the Lord Mayor’s show.
Last year’s maniacal promotion of ‘Red Monday’ still rankles for many, a game between English football’s fourth and sixth best teams afforded significance akin to the Battle of Bunker Hill.
Liverpool and United gave us something only slightly less gruesome, their supposedly groundbreaking clash causing barely a wrinkle.
It was but the latest in a long line of faux-promotion, but increasing competition on the dollar means saturation will get worse before it gets better.
The onus, as such, falls on consumers to discern the diamonds from the rough, a burden borne by boxing fans more than most.
The sport’s ceaseless slew of pay-per-view offerings has sparked an equally constant cycle of opportunity cost. ITV are among the latest to hop aboard the Box Office bandwagon, the commercial giant hitching its britches to Chris Eubank Jr.
It was he who laid the first brick in their paywall, his February 2017 bout against little-known Renald Quinlan drawing ire rather than buys.
Theirs was hardly the first misstep in the PPV arena though, Sky’s string of faux-pas too frequent to mention.
Anthony Joshua, at least, has gone same way too ensuring bang for the buck, his athletic endeavours erring evermore toward appointment viewing.
Alas, such is the transcendence of his appeal that even a fight with the chauffeur would bring big business, his opponent an afterthought for those in a mainstream demographic.
Few of his contemporaries can boast equivalent crossover appeal, however, AJ’s one man show very much the only one in town. Boxing’s regression to the outer reaches of sporting discourse ensures only the most elite cards are framed front and centre.
Saturday night represents one such instance, column inches aplenty already devoted to boxing’s first “can’t miss” contest of 2018. Indeed, if the ITV/Eubank marriage began as one of inconvenience for fans, things appear altogether rosier now.
It’s a change owed in no small part to the addition of George Groves, a man whose pay-per-view pedigree predates Eubank’s debut.
Some seven years have passed since his pulsating tussle with James DeGale, a period which has seen exponential growth in the Londoner’s public profile. Another domestic dust-up with Carl Froch expedited that process further still, 2014’s Wembley sell-out securing his spot in British boxing lore.
That hometown loss seemed set to derail Groves’ prospects in the more immediate term, however, the threat that Froch could pen his career epitaph a distinct possibility.
It would be almost three years to the day until he would right that wrong, last May’s defeat of Fedor Chudinov allowing the 29-year-old to close the book on his world title pursuit.
QUALITY VS QUANTITY
The switch from hunter to hunted began in earnest thereafter, the newly-crowned champion now the one warding off would-be contenders left and right.
Eubank Jr is the next man-up, the 20,000-strong Manchester Arena a fitting venue.
It was there that Groves first threatened to arrest Froch’s development, the assurance of his pre-fight declarations matched only by his performance in the ring.
That itself was the very definition of a crossroads clash, a sprightly challenger against a wintering champion; this weekend’s battle has assumed the same narrative, albeit with Groves in the opposite corner.
Given that just 18 months separate their birth certs matters little in the grander scheme, the chasm of experience between their in-ring résumés telling a wholly fuller story.
Already an esteemed operator prior to his pro bow, Saturday marks Groves' sixth world title bout. Excluding the lesser-loved IBO Championship, his opponent has yet to compete at elite level.
His lofty parental lineage aside, Eubank’s pedigree pales somewhat in comparison too, 26 amateur bouts hardly a comprehensive body of work.
And yet, his air of inevitability seems undeniable. Eubank was a professional fighter long before he cashed his first cheque, after all, an eagerness to follow his father’s footsteps meaning his style has long since lent itself to the paid ranks.
Peerless in-ring intensity and workrate have always set him apart, his relentless combination punching sure to be key as he bids to target Groves’ susceptible chin and engine.
It is likely those factors which make Eubank a razor thin favourite with the bookmakers, yet the more lithe technical skills and superior power of Groves leave the line at nigh-on pick’em territory.
That the outcome seems certain to divide opinion through to opening bell speaks for the calibre of the contest. In an era where perception too often trumps reality, we can’t ask for fairer than that.
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