IT’S the curse of boxing’s basement divisions.
And, to a degree, it’s been a curse of Birmingham boxing royalty, the Yafais.
Away from the close-knit fight community, the game’s armchair viewers love heavyweights, to a lesser degree middleweights.
They will watch, in considerable numbers, big men who have already been found wanting at the very top level, such as Derek Chisora, Dillian Whyte, even Frazer Clarke and Dave Allen.
That is because you can hype heavyweight who always have a puncher’s chance to upset the odds.
It is much harder to hype light-flyweights, flyweights and super-flyweights. They need investment to be steered to a super fight. Even then, money on the table will be a fraction of a heavyweight super-fight.
As one respected fight figure told me: “The public aren’t really interested in boxers who weigh less than senior schoolboys.”
It is unfair – in southpaw Galal Yafai, who has won nine on the spin, this country has a truly outstanding boxer – but an undeniable truth.
But that is the problem facing Yafai, Birmingham’s only Olympic gold medallist, who steps through the ropes on Saturday night at the BP Pulse Live arena, Resorts World.
The 32-year-old defends his WBC interim flyweight title against Mexican Francisco Rodriguez Jnr.
It was the problem faced by older brother – and fellow Olympian – Kal Yafai who defended his WBA super-flyweight crown five times. The opponents names meant nothing to me until Kal faced legendary Roman “Chocolatito” Gonzalez and was stopped. That was the only one on his world title CV that I knew.
In all honesty, the British public’s real passion for flyweights peaked in the late 1930s with Benny Lynch and Peter Kane.
Rekindling that love story takes money and influences, something both promoters Matchroom and DAZN have in abundance.
Their mission is to make Yafai – already at an advanced age for flyweights – a name known to wider sports fans, as Joshua, Fury and Dubois are.
Kal didn’t get the “crossover” acclaim, hopefully Galal will – but there is limited time to nail that marketing exercise.
He should take a stride towards the goal on Saturday night. Rodriguez is also 32 but has considerably more miles on the clock.
The Mexican has lost six of 47 (one draw) and has been found wanting at the highest level.
He has failed in bids to take the WBO light-flyweight, WBC Latino super-fly and WBO super-fly belts. He’s also much the smaller man, having enjoyed his greatest success in the fight game’s lowest “minimum” division.
Yafai told ESPN: “I’m motivated to win titles and I want to fight for a full world title, but you never know in this game what is going to happen next. I would like to think that if I beat Rodriguez I will fight for the WBC world title next, but I’m not the one making the decisions.
“I have no idea how long I will go on for, because you just don’t know with boxing. I try not to set long term goals. I would be lucky to get another 10 fights over five years I’d say.”
Of Saturday’s showdown, Galal told this week’s press conference: “He comes forward, I come forward, should make a good fight for the fans — not so much for me and him.”
Rodriguez responded: “Galal Yafai throws a lot of shots, but I equally throw the same. He’s never seen someone like me who throws the shots with power.”
