Terence Crawford-Julius Indongo bout a crucial test for boxing on ESPN
Top Rank’s series on ESPN has been an unqualified success thus far. Both the Manny Pacquiao-Jeff Horn bout last month and the Vasyl Lomachenko-Miguel Marriaga bout earlier this month did well ratings-wise, particularly among the younger male demographic long believed to have abandoned boxing.
Things, though, will get significantly tougher on Saturday, even though the main event between Terence Crawford and Julius Indongo for the undisputed super lightweight title is the most meaningful main event of the three shows.
That starts with the co-main event, a complete mismatch between Oleksandr Gvozdyk and Craig Baker. Gvozdyk won a bronze medal at the 2012 London Olympics and is 13-0 with 11 KOs. He’s one of the game’s most promising prospects in a crowded light heavyweight division and has already scored several solid wins.
Baker simply is nowhere near that level. The odds, which average 50-1 in favor of Gvozdyk, reflect the kind of fight it should be.
These are the types of mismatches that are dangerous and which don’t belong on a major television network. The lure of Top Rank’s ESPN series is that there are going to be high-quality fights, the type that appear in main and co-main events on HBO and Showtime.
I’m down with that, and love the idea that the fights are available to a wider audience than on premium cable, but Gvozdyk-Baker is a one-sided mismatch that doesn’t come close to fulfilling that promise.
Most people tune in for the main event, though, and the main event is excellent. Crawford is in that small group of contenders for top pound-for-pound fighter in the world along with Andre Ward and Lomachenko, and is a special athlete.
He can do things in the ring that few can, and is 31-0 with 22 knockouts. While he’s excellent defensively, he’s outstanding offensively and breaks down his opponents with precision and style.
In his last outing, against the 19-1 Felix Diaz, a one-time Olympic gold medalist, Crawford whitewashed him, battering Diaz around the ring before stopping him in the 10th.
Crawford, though, is a difficult guy to promote. He’s done much good work for charity, as his trips to Africa where he literally gave the shirt off his back, would attest.
But he shuns the spotlight, answers questions with a question if you’re lucky and often gives one-word or uninspiring answers.
His primary job is in the ring, but as Floyd Mayweather, Conor McGregor, Mike Tyson, Ronda Rousey and others have repeatedly shown, a boxer needs to do more than just fight well. Look at the plight of Guillermo Rigondeaux, an outstanding unbeaten boxer who virtually no one outside of the hardest of the hard-core fan base cares a whit about.
A few hours before Lomachenko-Marriaga, Crawford sat down with a dozen reporters. Queries about Indongo were met with, “We’ll see on the 19th.” Questions about his status on the pound-for-pound list were turned into questions about the reporters. When he was asked about the Floyd Mayweather-Conor McGregor fight, he sneered.
He’s better than that, and can be engaging when he wants to be, but clearly didn’t want to be where he was and let it be known.
He’s fighting on a difficult date. HUT levels – Households Using Television – are typically low during the dead of August, so the potential audience is less.
There is nothing either ESPN or Top Rank can really do about that last point. If they’re going to make boxing a centerpiece and feature it year-round, then there are going to be times when it’s more conducive to have fights on TV than others.
Top Rank’s plan is to have boxing treated like a big-league sport, and have shoulder programming on ESPN during the week of the fight that will bring awareness to it and then pre- and post-fight shows on fight night.
That’s worked out well so far, though not without hiccups.
Stephen A. Smith is one of ESPN’s most popular on-air personalities and is a centerpiece of the boxing broadcast. But boxing isn’t his area of expertise, though he has insisted upon acting like an expert. He failed to make any cogent points during the aftermath of Horn’s victory over Pacquiao in July, other than to scream about the decision and mention Mayweather – Floyd “Money” Mayweather, as he said about 1,000 times during the show.
When Smith interviewed Indongo on the Lomachenko broadcast, he said he wasn’t familiar with him. What? It’s his job to be familiar with him and teach the fans about him. There is plenty out there about Indongo and it wouldn’t have taken Smith long to see and learn enough to at least be conversational.
ESPN should consider pairing Smith with a boxing expert, such as an ex-fighter or a retired trainer. Former super welterweight champion Sergio Mora and ex-heavyweight champion Chris Byrd both have done television and would work well in such roles, taking some of the pressure off Smith to be the expert.
This will be the time that we’ll see how this Top Rank series is working on ESPN. Crawford is a great fighter but not a household name. If the bout draws big numbers, particularly in the 18-34 and 18-49 male demographic, it would be huge news for the sport, because this is when a dip seems likely.
The show needs help, but we’ll see whether Crawford can deliver it over the next few days.
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