Boxing needs best-of-the-best bouts
LAS VEGAS – No less an authority than Sports Illustrated proclaimed that the super welterweight title bout last year between Oscar De La Hoya and Floyd Mayweather Jr. was the fight to save boxing.
The match sold nearly 20 percent more on pay-per-view than the previous record and generated more than $170 million in gross revenue, or a ballpark amount the Yankees are willing to pay CC Sabathia to pitch for them over the next few years.
Ticket revenue alone counted for $18.4 million, with an average ticket sold at $1,078.53.
Clearly, the fight was a hit with an American public that all too often turns its back on boxing.
But on Saturday, when De La Hoya climbs back into the ring 19 months after losing that epic fight to Mayweather to face Manny Pacquiao, Mayweather's successor as boxing's pound-for-pound kingpin, it will seem like little has changed since that financial windfall.
If anything, U.S. boxing in 2008 is in worse shape than it was in 2007. There's less television, there are more empty seats and even relatively big fights are going unnoticed.
It's not a problem shared by the rest of the world, where boxing is not only surviving, but also thriving. Boxing does spectacularly well throughout Asia and in places like Germany and Mexico, and fares far better in the United Kingdom than it does in the U.S.
But the fight to save boxing didn't appear to do much of anything other than to line the pockets of the participants.
Promoter Bob Arum wasn't a part of the 2008 show, though he had an indirect hand in it because he had promoted both De La Hoya and Mayweather for the majority of their careers and built each into superstars. He is a co-promoter of Saturday's card and scoffed at the notion that any fight could save the sport.
"That's ludicrous," Arum said of the contention that the De La Hoya-Mayweather bout would somehow rescue the sport. "What saves the sport is a series of fights that are shown to the biggest possible audience, which is not pay-per-view and not the premium channels. If you want to talk about a fight and an event that did monstrous things for the sport, go back to 1978, when ABC did the [Muhammad] Ali-[Leon] Spinks rematch on free home TV, accompanied by two other great world championship fights.
"That piqued interest in the sport and it carried through the '80s. When we have a big fight now and it's on pay-per-view, it's good and it gets attention, but it doesn't save or overly help a sport because you're not exposing it to the biggest possible audience. If the Super Bowl were not on free home TV, it would not have the great effect it does on the popularity of professional football."
Boxing isn't going to become a staple on network television any time soon. Golden Boy Promotions had talks with NBC about airing a De La Hoya fight on the network and Top Rank had exploratory talks with CBS, but nothing came of either.
And though it wouldn't be a shock if one of the networks bought a fight every once in a while, every once in a while isn't going to be enough to positively impact the sport. So boxing needs to look for its salvation elsewhere.
The De La Hoya-Mayweather fight illuminated the notion that the public will pay attention when elite fighters in a class square off.
In that sense, if the top fighters in each division met more frequently, interest among U.S. fans would rise exponentially.
"One of the things we have to do in our sport is to put on the best fights we can all the time," De La Hoya said. "Boxing needs big events, but you can't have those unless you have the best fighting the best."
Boxing is in a similar position to golf. When Tiger Woods plays, interest is enormous and television ratings skyrockets. When he doesn't, a video of grandma doing her knitting would draw as many viewers as most golf tournaments.
And in boxing, the interest seems focused squarely on De La Hoya, who at 35 isn't going to be around much longer. There likely isn't anyone who will succeed De La Hoya as an almost sure thing at the box office, but that can be overcome by making the right fights. If Pacquiao beats De La Hoya, the public would be drooling to see him in fights against guys like Ricky Hatton and Juan Manuel Marquez.
But too often, guys like Brian Vera get inexplicably thrown onto the biggest stage. HBO's World Championship Boxing franchise showcases the game's brightest young talent in their toughest bouts that aren't on pay-per-view. Yet, Vera, a journeyman who was best known for appearing on a reality series and scoring a fluke upset of a top young prospect, landed a spot on HBO's flagship series in a Nov. 22 bout against James Kirkland that served as the opener for the main event later that night between Hatton and Paulie Malignaggi.
That bothered former Kirkland promoter Gary Shaw.
"Where are the standards any more if we're putting a Brian Vera on World Championship Boxing?" Shaw said. "That's the kind of thing that typifies what is wrong with this sport right now."
There is, perhaps, good news for 2009, though. HBO's boxing budget is the same as it was in 2008 which, given the economic downturn, is significant news. Already, a quality match between two big names, Shane Mosley and Antonio Margarito, has been signed for Jan. 24.
Another outstanding match, pitting super flyweights Vic Darchinyan and Jorge Arce, is set for Feb. 7 on Showtime.
Those are the kinds of fights that, if shown consistently, will help generate interest in boxing again.
If the legacy of the De La Hoya-Mayweather bout is to convince other fighters of the wisdom of consistently facing the finest opposition, then perhaps it did do its part to save the sport and not just serve as a vehicle to make a couple of rich men richer.
