Hello boxing fans and dedicated haters. Here’s another week’s worth of my bulbous sack, bulging with gooey, salty truth, in your face. Enjoy. This week, we have comments/questions regarding boxing’s future, Sebastian Fundora, Pitbull-Valenzuela, and the word on Osleys Iglesias.
Boxing’s (Shaky) Future
Suckers are born every day for sure. At this point in the game, I’m beginning to feel like a sucker for still following boxing. It’s like asking about the whereabouts of that ex-girlfriend who cheated on you.
Let’s be honest Paul, the end is near and we have nothing to show for it. I sometimes find it interesting how you come up with shit to write about. The truth is that there isn’t shit to write about. The sport has been running on fumes for almost a decade. Boxing has been operating at a loss for quite some time.
I bet if we hired a forensic accountant to look at the books of all boxing related events from the past decade, I’m sure they’ll be a negative balance somewhere in the excess of a billion dollars.
The demand for the big fights simply isn’t there. As much as we want to see Canelo v Benavidez, Crawford v Ennis, Tank v Loma. Those fights aren’t crossover fights to satisfy the purses demands of the fighters and generate revenue. Personally, I don’t think we’ll ever see a crossover fight in our lifetime.
How is this sport going to survive without consumer demands that extend beyond the hardcore followers?
– Na’-il Rahman
Hey Na’-il.
Everything you say is true. Boxing’s business model is not sustainable and there’s no effort by any of the promoters to shift to a new model.
There are a lot of hard truths that nobody wants to address and that’s why things won’t get better any time soon. The fan base is shrinking (especially in the US), there’s almost no effort to grow the base, positive profit margin is untenable, and the product is generally weak.
Boxing is fortunate to have found a few money marks over the last decade or so to create bubbles. PBC, DAZN, and now the Saudis have injected tons of money into the sport to try and turn boxing into a for-profit business. PBC and DAZN kept the sport afloat with their investments, but they both have had to scale back and be more frugal with their money. The Saudis just got into the boxing business, but they’ll find out as well that boxing, as it works right now, is a money pit. I don’t care how rich you are, at some point you get sick of operating in the red.
Saturday’s Saudi show in Los Angeles has reportedly been a bit of an eye-opener for the Saudis as, even with a pretty sound card, an Eminem concert, big ticket discounts, and a luxury car giveaway, they are still having problems selling tickets. According to what I’ve heard, they’ve had to resort to some chicanery in moving tickets around to create the impression of demand. We could very well hear that BMO Stadium was sold out on August 3, but a lot of those tickets may have been bought up by the event organizers, themselves.
Boxing shows can still succeed financially, but the success these days is almost always due to factors beyond the quality of the actual fights. Quality fights are no longer enough to sell a card because, unfortunately, there just aren’t enough fans to appreciate whether a matchup is good or not. The event still only topped out at 650K buys. And, while 650k is considered very good these days, the numbers weren’t so impressive for a long-awaited showdown that many hardcore fans regarded as THE fight to make in all of boxing.
What this sport needs is a good economic collapse to facilitate a healthy rebuild. Unfortunately, just as we seem headed in that direction, some new money mark comes along to put some money in pockets and temporarily delay the inevitable.
As for your last question. Well, they’re just going to keep doing what they’ve already been doing– pass the hat to the fans for pretty much everything, aggressively milking the loyalists until they get sick of it and walk away. Great business plan!
3 Questions
Hey Paul,
3 quick questions
1. Why doesn’t Sebastian Fundora get more credit for his win over Tim Tszyu? He fought his ass off with a badly broken nose from early on in their fight and prevailed. That cut was bad on Tszyu no doubt but Fundora had to dig deep to get that win.
2. I think Pitbull Cruz better be careful against Jose Valenuela. That kid is the size of Rollo Romero but can fight. Pitbull seems a little undersized for that division.
3. What is your take on SMW Osleys Iglesias? I think Benavidez and Morrell will have to deal with him down the road he seems to be that good.
– John
Hey John.
I’ll tackle these in order.
1. It’s just much easier to focus on Tszyu because of the blood and the fact that the gash was caused by an unintentional foul, rather than Fundora’s injury, which was caused by a punch. Plus, Tszyu has become a fan favorite and a media darling. So, it’s not at all shocking to see him get the benefit of any doubt.
2. Agreed. I go back and forth on Cruz. Sometimes, I feel that he’s underrated and sometimes I see him as wildly overrated. In Valenzuela, he’s fighting someone who can box a little, as well as punch. I see that Valenzuela is about a +330 betting underdog right now. I’d jump at those odds because I think “Rayo” has a really good chance of pulling off the upset.
3. Iglesias is a real talent. He’s not as fluid or as technically gifted as Morrell, but he’s got very heavy hands and a real warrior’s mindset. He’ll be dangerous for sure.
Got a question (or hate mail) for Magno’s Bulging Mail Sack? The best of the best gets included in the weekly mailbag segment right here at FightHype. Send your stuff here: paulmagno@theboxingtribune.com.
