I’ll never forget watching it. It was the most infamous moment in a sport that once rivaled baseball as America’s pastime. It was also the moment where a sport became a circus and where a sport started to die. It was June 28, 1997, and it was the rematch between Mike Tyson and Evander Holyfield. I was 8 years old and my parents let me stay up to watch the fight. I grew up only knowing of Mike Tyson, and I was mesmerized by his story; I couldn’t help but to be intrigued by his background and his story. He was my favorite boxer, and to this day still is. As I watched my favorite boxer get manhandled by Holyfield, I was discouraged, and then the unthinkable happened. Tyson bit Holyfield’s ear. By the time he did it the second time, and then spit out the remains, the sport of boxing fell into a free fall that it is struggling to get out of. Now, on the verge of the comeback of Floyd Mayweather, the most talented yet polarizing figure in the sport, the sport that should be celebrating his comeback is an after thought to the emergence of MMA and the fiasco that followed the Tyson-Holyfield fight.
 There was a time where the names of Ali, Frazier, Lewis, Robinson, Leonard, and Marciano would dominate the conversation between sports fans all over the United States. When Tyson first arrived, there was no boxer more dominate than Iron Mike. However, what happened on that June night is simple. It made boxing not about the athleticism, the grace, the strategy of the sport, but it turned boxing into a circus. After Tyson, few athletes that came could match the excitement he brought to the ring, and all the fans could think about is the ear incident. If you fast-forward to today, boxing is in a state of disarray. It’s biggest stars are on the way out (De La Hoya and Roy Jones), there are more belts in each division than priests at a little league game and promoters refuse to put their boxers in tough matches. When Mayweather retired, it lost its most talented boxer and its biggest draw. Mayweather has never been beaten, and has dominated everybody from De La Hoya, to the late Arturo Gatti to Ricky Hatton. If it wasn’t for the emergence of Manny Paquiao, who is now the only boxer Sportcenter will acknowledge, the sport maybe dead. However, Mayweather has decided to return. It comes at the point where boxing is making its last strides to become relevant again.
 MMA has become the sport of the new generation. When Tyson bit Holyfield’s ear, he also took a chunk out of the fan base. Parents wouldn’t let their kids watch boxing anymore, and purists lost hope in the sport that they once loved. MMA has now slipped into the void boxing has left. Younger kids love the violence that boxing apparently doesn’t have. They have popular figures that the age groups of 18-35 are drawn to. Brock Lesnar and his WWE background has made him the most recognizable figure in this genre of sport. His fight against Frank Mir was covered more extensively than the last big fight in boxing between Paquiao and Hatton. Lesnar was everywhere, from ESPN to ABC. The reason is simple; MMA is more violent and easier to understand than boxing. MMA has a definite champion, while in boxing there are at least 4 different champions in 17 different divisions. Boxers duck tough competition, which is why an underrated fighter such as Paul Williams can’t find one fight. Williams is the best young fighter in boxing, yet I bet more than 80 percent of the people who reads this has no clue who he is.
 Boxing has one last hope for a revival, and the end of the year will decide if boxing will ever come back to prominence. The top 4 fighters in the world are all fighting each other. Mayweather fights the underrated Juan Manuel Marquez on Sep. 19 and Manny Paquiao will fight Miguel Cotto on Nov. 14. Money Mayweather, also know as Mr. Pay Per View and the self proclaimed creator of HBO’s popular series 24-7, and Paquiao, the most likable figure in the sport and the best pound for pound fighter in the sport, are the only two fighters who people will pay to watch. If they are both able to win their matches and put aside their managerial differences, they could match up in a fight that will be the biggest in the sport since that infamous June fight. The two most talented fighters to step foot in the ring in the past decade could finally bring a sport that is on life support back into the nations eye. It can generate a new group of fans that are missing a sport where the skill and beauty of a good match can blow away the violence of MMA. They are boxings last hope; they have the weight of the sport on their shoulders. I know who I am rooting for in the upcoming months, because I will always remember my parents telling me stories about how Ali and Frazier changed the landscape of sports. I can only pray that I am as lucky to see something like that.
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