The USA Network, which has been out of the boxing business for nine years now, is now cashing in on the nostalgia market, having licensed another 12-disc boxed-set entitled “Tuesday Night Fights Knockouts II,” just out from CSI Sports. Some of the material is undeniably spectacular, and from an historical perspective it is often fascinating. Culled from the archives of the cable network’s late, lamented Tuesday Night Fight series, the compilation showcases rare footage of Hall of Famers on the way up (Oscar De La Hoya Bernard Hopkins), on the way down (Larry Holmes), and on the way back up again (George Foreman).

For a mere $89.95 you can also see knockouts by fighters who rarely knocked out anybody (Chris Byrd), along with knockouts of fighters who rarely got knocked out (Emanuel Augustus, nee Burton). You can see future pound-for-pound kings in their still-incubating stages (Floyd Mayweather Jr., Marco Antonio Barrera), and, as you might have suspected, you can see an awful lot of mismatches, too.

There’s even footage of a documented fix, or a fix gone awry, anyway -- Tim (Doc) Anderson’s first fight against Mark Gastineau.

The series features the original calls of the old USA team of Al Albert and Sean O’Grady, with voice-over narration supplied by Larry Michael.

Although I found myself watching with undeniable fascination, there’s something about the entire concept I find troubling. There is a serious question that boxing is well-served by a video collection distilled down to showcase over a hundred concussions of varying severity.

In this regard the presentation is more at fault than the footage itself. Each of the 12 discs includes the same introduction: Grainy, black-and-white footage of some of the most brutal and savage knockouts you’ve ever seen, played out over cymbal-and-timpani-crashing background music evoking a gladiatorial theme. The intro creates the impression of fights to the death. You probably wouldn’t want your children to watch this – or your family doctor, either, for that matter.

The anti-boxing zealots within the American Medical Association could get a lot of mileage out of this stuff by showing it to legislators as proof positive that boxing is a barbaric sport beyond redemption.

And if every fight ended the way some of those in the introduction do, they might be right.

Put it this way: A boxing neophyte for whom this series represented an introduction to the sport would come away wondering why anyone ever described boxing as “the sweet science.” There’s not much nuance on display here.

CSI describes its product as “dedicated to the most exciting moment in boxing – the KNOCKOUT. We cut right to the action. It’s over before they knew what hit ‘em.”

Watching a video of wall-to-wall knockouts is not only a bit mind-numbing, it’s not unlike watching a porn flick consisting entirely of orgasms, sans foreplay. It sort of panders to the lowest common denominator.

Is “Knockouts” a valuable addition to the library of the serious boxing collector? Absolutely. It’s the casual viewer I’m more worried about.

BoxingTalk publisher Greg Leon is hopeful that the issuance of the boxed set creates new boxing fans. I wish I were that confident. It seems more likely to create knockout fans.

There’s also the danger that, like any highlight film, it will create unrealistic expectations: When and if those who have been introduced to the sport by these DVDs show at a real fight card expecting more of the same, they’re going to be terribly disappointed.

M

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