After a successful day of binge watching college football, playoff baseball, and the UFC, I decided to cap off my evening by tuning in to the Lomachenko vs Lopez Boxing Fight that ESPN had been hyping all week. To be honest, it was awesome.
I turned it on with 3 fights remaining, and all three had some classic awe-striking moments that reminded me why boxing is still one of the best sports to watch. The first fight starred an up and comer from NY named Edgar Berlanga who was 14-0 with 14 straight 1st round knockouts (spoiler alert: it’s now 15 straight). After that came Barboza vs Saucedo, which definitely did not disappoint. The fight featured both fighters trading power punches that continued to grow in frequency and intensity as the fight progressed , eventually leading to a Barboza win. Honestly, not sure I’ve seen a fight with more brutality and I’ve been watching boxing since Holyfield vs Foreman in ’91. The night concluded with the main event which was expected to be the fight of the year: Lomachenko vs Lopez. I’ve gotta say, this lived up to the hype, an to make things sweeter, even made me some money as I bet on Lopez who was a significant underdog at +325.
As I was watching these three great fights, a thought crossed my mind: why does nobody else care? Most if not all of my friends are sports fans, yet this fight was on nobody’s radar even though it was on the flagship ESPN channel (and it was free). It’s not like this was on ESPN+, ESPN2, or some other random channel – this was on the big dog, and still… it went relatively unnoticed.
So back to the main question: why isn’t anyone watching boxing?
The main reason I came up with is because nobody can actually name the champions. Understanding the pecking order is an important part of being emotionally invested in what you’re about to see, and boxing seems to be all over the place. Immediately before Lomachenko vs. Lopez I was watching the UFC Fight Night (on ESPN +) which always does a great job of clearly defining the rankings before each match so you understand where every fighter falls within the weight class. Even more importantly, they have a clear champion in each weight class – just one. In a stark contrast, when I switched over to Lomachenko vs. Lopez I learned this was a unification fight for four belts….that’s right four. How the hell are there even four belts in the same weight class? WWE is less confusing and Vince McMahon decided to create a 24/7 champion which is always on the line – and was once held by former Patriots TE Rob Gronkowski.
The second reason it seems that nobody is invested in boxing is that there is no “face” of the sport. Say what you will about the UFC, but at any given moment, there’s a consistent face to the UFC brand and that face belongs to Dana White. When things go well he’s there to take credit, and when things go poorly he’s there to take blame. No matter what happens, he’s there. Aside from Dana himself, the past decade has also spewed out superstars such as Conor McGregor, Ronda Rousey, Jon Jones (who arguably makes news for the wrong reasons, but hey he’s a celebrity fighter nonetheless), and Brock Lesnar. Now compare this to boxing for a moment – can you really name anyone who represents the sport? Yes, there’s GGG (you can google his full name) but can you really name anyone else? Other than the fighters I watched tonight, I’m not sure I know who else is considered a contender. It’s poor marketing and it’s actually disappointing considering how much fun the fights can be.
The last hurdle Boxing still has to overcome is the negative stigma that it is considered to be a corrupt sport – and I’m not sure I can blame people for that thought or do much to defend it. Rather than allowing the best to organically rise to the top, the powers that be seem to do everything in their power to “create” a champion. How else do you explain a fighter who is 15-0, with 15 first round knockouts…..you can’t actually think they are placing strong competition in his path??
Here’s hoping things change and Boxing does a better job of defining their champions, puts some marketing dollars behind their big guys, and puts forth more even matches that allows their athletes to be judged on their skills alone. I’m truly looking forward to the day that the stars of boxing are allowed to showcase themselves and have a clear stack ranking. I don’t see that happening anytime soon however, so until then I’ll keep paying for the UFC PPV’s and occasionally switching over to watch the “Big” boxing fights assuming they are free and nothing else is on.