Howdy boxing followers and devoted haters. Right here’s one other week’s price of my bulbous sack, bulging with gooey, salty reality, in your face. Take pleasure in. This week, we’ve got feedback/questions relating to boxing’s future, Sebastian Fundora, Pitbull-Valenzuela, and the phrase on Osleys Iglesias.
Boxing’s (Shaky) Future
Suckers are born on a regular basis for positive. At this level within the sport, I’m starting to really feel like a sucker for nonetheless following boxing. It’s like asking in regards to the whereabouts of that ex girlfriend who cheated on you.
Let’s be sincere Paul, the top is close to and we’ve got nothing to point out for it. I typically discover it fascinating the way you give you shit to write down about. The reality is that there isn’t shit to write down about. The game has been operating on fumes for nearly a decade. Boxing has been working at a loss for fairly someday.
I guess if we employed a forensic accountant to have a look at the books of all boxing associated occasions from the previous decade, I’m positive they’ll be a destructive steadiness someplace within the extra of a billion {dollars}.
The demand for the massive fights merely isn’t there. As a lot as we wish to see Canelo v Benavidez, Crawford v Ennis, Tank v Loma. These fights aren’t crossover fights to fulfill the purses calls for of the fighters and generate income. Personally, I don’t suppose we’ll ever see a crossover battle in our lifetime.
How is that this sport going to outlive with out shopper calls for that extends past the hardcore followers?
– Na’-il Rahman
Hey Na’-il.
Every part you say is true. Boxing’s enterprise mannequin just isn’t sustainable and there’s no effort by any of the promoters to shift to a brand new mannequin.
There are quite a lot of onerous truths that no one needs to handle and that’s why issues gained’t get higher any time quickly. The fan base is shrinking (particularly within the US), there’s nearly no effort to develop the bottom, optimistic revenue margin is untenable, and the product is mostly weak.
Boxing is lucky to have discovered a number of cash marks during the last decade or so to create bubbles. PBC, DAZN, and now the Saudis have injected tons of cash into the game to attempt to flip boxing right into a for-profit-business. PBC and DAZN stored the game afloat with their investments, however they each have needed to cut back and be extra frugal with their cash. The Saudis simply received into the boxing enterprise, however they’ll discover out as effectively that boxing, as it really works proper now, is a cash pit. I don’t care how wealthy you might be, in some unspecified time in the future you get sick of working within the purple.
Saturday’s Saudi present in Los Angeles has reportedly been a little bit of an eye-opener for the Saudis as, even with a fairly sound card, an Eminem live performance, huge ticket reductions, and a luxurious care giveaway, they’re nonetheless having issues promoting tickets. In accordance with what I’ve heard, they’ve needed to resort to some chicanery in transferring tickets round to create the impression of demand. We might very effectively hear that BMO Stadium was bought out on August 3, however quite a lot of these tickets could have been purchased up by the occasion organizers, themselves.
Boxing exhibits can nonetheless succeed financially, however the success today is sort of all the time on account of issue past the standard of the particular fights. High quality fights are now not sufficient to promote a card as a result of, sadly, there simply aren’t sufficient followers to understand whether or not a matchup is nice or not. If anybody questions that, they only have to have a look at the Crawford-Spence battle final 12 months, which was universally interesting to hardcore boxing followers and had generated a “don’t pirate this present” buzz. The occasion nonetheless solely topped out at 650K buys. And, whereas 650k is taken into account superb today, the numbers weren’t so spectacular for a long-awaited showdown that many hardcore followers considered THE battle to make in all of boxing.
What this sport wants is an efficient financial collapse to facilitate a wholesome rebuild. Sadly, simply as we appear headed in that route, some new cash mark comes alongside to place some cash in pockets and briefly delay the inevitable.
As to your final query. Properly, they’re simply going to maintain doing what they’ve already been doing– cross the hat to the followers for just about the whole lot, aggressively milking the loyalists till they get sick of it and stroll away. Nice marketing strategy!
3 Questions
Hey Paul,
3 fast questions
1. Why does not Sebastian Fundora get extra credit score for his win over Tim Tszyu? He fought his ass off with a badly damaged nostril from early on of their battle and prevailed. That lower was unhealthy on Tszyu little question however Fundora needed to dig deep to get that win.
2. I believe Pitbull Cruz higher watch out in opposition to Jose Valenuela. That child is the scale of Rollo Romero however can battle. Pitbull appears a little bit undersized for that division.
3. What’s your tackle SMW Osleys Iglesias? I believe Benavidez and Morrell must take care of him down the street he appears to be that good.
– John
Hey John.
I’ll deal with these so as.
1. It’s simply a lot simpler to concentrate on Tszyu due to the blood and the truth that the gash was attributable to an unintentional foul, somewhat than Fundora’s damage, which was attributable to a punch. Plus, Tszyu has change into a fan favourite and a media darling. So, it’s by no means stunning to see him get the advantage of any doubt.
2. Agreed. I travel on Cruz. Generally, I really feel that he’s underrated and typically I see him as wildly overrated. In Valenzuela, he’s combating somebody who can field a little bit, in addition to punch. I see that Valenzuela is a few +330 betting underdog proper now. I’d leap at these odds as a result of I believe “Rayo” has a extremely good probability of pulling off the upset.
3. Iglesias is an actual expertise. He’s not as fluid or as technically gifted as Morrell, however he’s received very heavy palms and an actual warrior’s mindset. He’ll be harmful for positive.
Acquired a query (or hate mail) for Magno’s Bulging Mail Sack? One of the best of the perfect will get included within the weekly mailbag phase proper right here at FightHype. Ship your stuff right here: paulmagno@theboxingtribune.com.
