I’ve been an avid boxing fan since I was in diapers. I used to tag along with my dad when him and a few buddies would convene around the old school giant box tv’s, before there were flatscreens, in one of their respective living rooms. It seemed like every Thursday or Saturday night I’d be with my dad and his friends watching 2 of the top boxers in the sport going toe to toe. Tyson-Holyfield 1 and 2, Lewis-Holyfield, Lewis-Rahman 1 and 2, Prince Naseem Hamed, Roy Jones Jr, Felix Trinidad, Oscar De La Hoya, Shane Mosely. All of these guys and many more were fighting all of the time and when they were fighting, they were fighting another top guy in their weight class. At this point in time, Boxing was booming. That is not the case anymore. The big fights that the fans want to see either arent happening or by the time they happen they don’t live up to the hype. I’m going to talk about why that is, why Youtubers settling their beefs is the main attraction these days, and how there seems to be no hope to save the sport from its impending doom.
Boxing has been dying out slowly for quite some time now. Mostly due to the dominant and rapid rise of the UFC, Boxings top fights these days don’t hold a candle to the headline matchups of the UFC. A great example of this is the night Masvidal fought Nate Diaz. The same night, Canelo was set to take on Sergey Kovalev. DAZN and the promoters decided to make these guys wait almost 2 hours while the Diaz and Masvidal went to war. They even showed the UFC fight on the big screen above the ring! What a joke!Don’t get me wrong, there are still top fighters and fights that as a fight fan, I’d love to see. Promoters like Eddie Hearn and Bob Arum and Frank Warren are way too into lining their pockets and their own egos to give the fans That product though. Other than GGG-Canelo and Wilder vs Fury, the mega fights that true boxing fans want to see just seem out of reach or they will be made 5 years down the road when the fans don’t really want to see them anymore. Give us Teofimo Lopez vs Vasyl Lomachenko, give us Anthony Joshua Vs Wilder or Fury. For the love of god, please give us Terrance Crawford vs Errol Spence!!! That’s what a true boxing fan wants to sit down and watch. Instead of catering to what the boxing fans have been clamoring for, Boxing is going in a new direction and catering to what the younger generations want to see. They’ve decided to have YouTubers like the Paul brothers and KSI settle there beef inside the ring, mostly being the main attraction.
Props to any of these YouTube guys stepping in the ring. It is not an easy thing to jump into a boxing ring with someone standing across from you wanting to kill you. Props to boxing too because these guys have sold out shows in the Staples Center and in Miami on Super Bowl weekend. A lot of fans will say that its hard to watch because they don’t know what they are doing. I actually see some potential in Logan Paul’s fight game. If he went with full training camps and stuck with it, there’s definitely a potential future for bigger fights. Yes, I said it, out of every YouTube fight that’s happened, Logan Paul has the best technically sound style and potential to actually make a career out of it. In his own words though, he has to get out of his own way and find that killer instinct to be able to finish a fight. My biggest fear for the sport though is that these YouTube guys bring in so much money, that they become the main event rather than an undercard fight. It would not surprise me. Boxing has been known to money grab at every twist and turn. It has ruined the sport. I have a solution.
Why not combine what the old heads and new generation want? Let’s see a card of Logan Paul vs. Antonio Brown and the main event could be Spence-Crawford. Why not Jake Paul vs KSI under the likes of Joshua Vs Wilder? This way, both old and new alike get what they want. The stars would be out in full force. The pay per view buys would be historic! It seems unlikely to happen though because promoters and managers these days are all about spreading out their income. Thanks Don King. I’m a student of the sport. I’ve boxed over half my life and I’ve coached the same. The beauty of boxing is gone. The sweet science of it has been put on the backburner for a money grabbing sideshow. Again that is not a shot at the fighters themselves but rather the ones booking the fights and promoting them.
So where is boxing headed? Well they seem to be onto something going into business with DAZN and YouTube, but how long can that really last? How much longer will the younger generations want to see these guys fight? The top names in the sport aren’t getting any younger and the window of opportunity to do something to get the fans excited is closing. Make the aforementioned fights happen! Take a page out of UFC’s book. They have taken over your audience and put out a product that every fight fan is on the edge of their seat for. Oh and another thing, stop with the damn crossover fights. I don’t want to see McGregor in a boxing ring and I definitely don’t want to see Mayweather in an octagon. I’d actually rather watch a UFC fight night in Kazakhstan at 3 am than either of those. Stop money grabbing and get back to what made you successful in the golden years. Instead of Gatti-Ward, we’ve gotten Ruiz-Joshua. Instead of Leonard-Duran, we get Paul vs KSI. Not exactly equivalent.
To The Rack With Mac 