Spence fight more proof that boxing “is not dead”
Boxing has been “dead” for decades when all I see are more fights, more pay per view bouts, and more boxing.
The sport will never be what it was in the ‘60s, ‘70s and ‘80s. The same can be said for nearly every other sport.
So don’t buy that boxing is “dead.” A sport is dead when there are no TV cameras. Or bettors. Boxing has both.
When HBO famously announced it was done with boxing in September of 2018, thus ending a 45-year run, it did not score a knockout but it was a (big) punch to a sport that typically beats up itself like no other.
“When they announced they were giving up boxing I had a moment of reflection that we were not going to see Jim Lampley calling a fight,” middleweight boxer Shawn Porter said in a phone interview. “That I could not believe.”
Fox Sports came through, and has basically picked up where HBO left it.
Fox Sports will carry the Errol Spence Jr. vs. Danny Garcia middleweight title fight from AT&T Stadium on Saturday Dec. 5, on PPV.
Spence won the fight in a unanimous decision.
“It’s been that fragmented type of a sport really in the modern times,” said Fox Sports executive Mike Davies, who was with HBO and worked with boxing for 11 years. “I constantly see entities trying to come in and say, ‘We’re going to plant our flag in boxing,’ only to get back to the basics and then we can get an audience.
“Having boxing on free TV and cable helps get that out. I think there are enough people interested in the sport, but constant disagreement about the direction so it will be fragmented.”
Infighting is as much a part of boxing as controversial decisions.
Every sport has suffered since the COVID Closure of 2020. Some more than others. Boxing maybe the most.
According to the sports business publication Sportico, since boxing has slowly come back during this pandemic, the ratings on ESPN and Fox have dropped.
The reasons are varied, and no one can say exactly why they have fallen.
Here is one reason: To watch the Spence v. Garcia fight is $74.99. A subscription to Netflix is about $10 per month, depending the plan. Disney+ is 6.99 a month. Amazon Prime is $119 for the year.
Guys like Davies and others have the same challenges as before: There is only so much you can do with the sport. You need about six cameras, and good access, and that’s it.
People like it, or they don’t.
“The exception is the super fight. That brings everyone together,” Davies said. “Like the [Tyson Fury/Deontay Wilder heavyweight fight last February]. It takes those personalities to bring the sport together.”
The Mike Tyson/Roy Jones Jr. exhibition fight last week as a glorified show, but it registered well with viewers, and ratings. That fight, however, was also largely driven by curiosity and nostalgia.
It was not driven by regular fans.
But one of the bigger challenges the sport has still remains, as long time analyst Al Bernstein told me, “We need people to cover it.”
Another challenge: People like me in my industry who constantly compare the sport to the NFL or NBA. Or compare boxing to the ‘70s when there were fewer platforms, or entertainment options.
“It’s a different world today,” Fox Sports executive Bill Wanger said in a phone interview. “You don’t have the best of the best on just three networks. We’re very happy with what we’ve done with boxing. We are seeing exponential growth in our broadcasts. We will do 2.5 million viewers for certain fights, and that compares favorably with baseball or college football.”
Fox Sports has invested in the sport with a contract with Premier Boxing Champions through 2022.
For decades pro-boxing fans have whined that the sport suffers because it puts its premier fights strictly on pay-per-view, thus cutting out potential advertisers and the audience.
That the fights available on free, or cable TV, are not top tier.
The PPV model is good for a tiny number, because it makes them rich. It does not help the sport.
“300,000 buys might be a positive for the fighters and promoters who are making multi-millions off of the event, but it takes the [best fights] and narrows them to a very fringe audience,” former HBO Sports President Ross Greenburg said in report on Sportico in September of 2020.
“PPV has been failing the sport for 35 years.”
He says that now. Slightly convenient, considering HBO basically built the PPV model.
However valid the argument is, and it is, boxing is not changing. Too many people are invested in the current model to deviate.
“The guys coming up, they fought long and hard to get that point to reap the benefits [of pay per view] like all of the other fighters before them,” Porter said.
Fox Sports, Showtime, ESPN and streaming carrier DAZN (pronounced da-zone) have tried new tricks to attract viewers. Now that gambling’s relationship with sports in the U.S. is out of the closet, all of the networks integrate betting.
Fox offers a couple of apps - Fox Bet, which is available only in Colorado, Penn. N.J., and its Fox Super 6 app, which functions more as a game than a traditional betting site.
The fighters still fight, and the networks still televise their bouts.
You don’t have to believe boxing is thriving, but just don’t believe that it’s dead.
This story was originally published December 4, 2020 at 5:23 PM.
