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THE
conversation about boxing when the year began centered
mostly on the sport’s demise.
Mixed
martial arts (MMA) was stealing young fight fans by the
thousands, major promoters weren’t negotiating with each
other, big-time bouts were too few and far between, and
rising stars were obscured on undercards.
Now, as
the boxing year nears its close with a December 8 Floyd
Mayweather Jr.-Ricky Hatton welterweight title fight in
Las Vegas
that sold out in 30 minutes, the sport has been
reinvigorated by a barrage of major events, unique
promotions and dramatic action.
THE
Oscar de la Hoya-Floyd Mayweather Jr. fight last May
underscores the point that it’s all about match-making
and luring the fans and Manny Pacquiao happens to be one
of those lures.
“As
they’ve said about Broadway for many years: It’s a
marvelous invalid,” veteran HBO Sports boxing
commentator Larry Merchant said.
Southland boxing promoter Dan Goossen said the year’s
success resulted from a significant change in thinking
among promoters, who too often had cautiously attempted
to protect their high-profile fighters from losses.
“We got
very comfortable in maximizing profits with the least
amount of risk,” Goossen said. “Those days are gone.
“I don’t
know if it was all about the pressure we were under from
mixed martial arts for the consumers’ dollars, but we
realized from MMA that the fans are there for you if you
give them the fights they want to see; if you give them
their money’s worth.”
No fight
underscored that point more than the May 5 welterweight
title fight between Oscar de la Hoya, the sport’s most
powerful pay-per-view draw, and unbeaten Mayweather, the
man considered by most as the best pound-for-pound
fighter in the world.
De la
Hoya’s Golden Boy Promotions brought back the concept of
a national barnstorming publicity tour, visiting 13 US
cities, and HBO jumped on the popularity of reality
television by introducing a four-part reality series
hyping the fight called 24/7. The series followed the
final-season episodes of The Sopranos and became a
ratings hit.
The show
“lit a fuse, it scooped up average sports fans that had
wandered from boxing and lured them back in,” HBO Sports
president Ross Greenburg said. “A lot of women and young
people wanted to see de la Hoya-Mayweather after we gave
them a reason to come back to the sport. That series
accomplished much more than ratings, and as it proved
the lives of boxers preparing for a big fight is
entertaining TV, it gave people a reason to get
involved.”
When HBO
released its final pay-per-view numbers last month, de
la Hoya-Mayweather had produced a boxing record 2.4
million buys, generating more than $134 million from
living-room fans and $165 million including the
live-gate numbers.
As often
happens, the frenzied hype exceeded the fight’s subdued
reality, a split-decision win by Mayweather. De la Hoya
himself has criticized the lack of action in the bout.
“But my
fight did save boxing,” de la Hoya said. “The sport was
in the doldrums. Now, every fighter and promoter want to
save boxing and be involved in the biggest events.”
HBO
pay-per-view president Mark Taffet and Merchant said
that the “super Hollywood blockbuster” performance of
that bout has driven promoters, programmers,
pay-per-view executives, managers, trainers and boxers
to focus on, “How can we get close to that again?”
As an
executive in the boxing reality television series The
Contender, boxing legend Sugar Ray Leonard is among
those aspiring to play a role in future superfights with
his stable of “Contender” stars.
“It’s
all about matchmaking . . . of making an event that
people can’t afford to miss,” Leonard said.
One such
fight this year was Kelly Pavlik’s victory over
defending middleweight champion Jermain Taylor on
September 29.
That
bout, in which Pavlik came back from a first-round
knockdown to win by knockout in the seventh, marked part
of a new philosophy in boxing’s backroom negotiations,
Greenburg said.
“In many
cases, we expressed disinterest in fights that would not
have an impact on the industry,” Greenburg said.
“Instead of having Jermain Taylor taking an easy touch,
it was time for Kelly Pavlik.
“Instead
of sitting on the sidelines watching the demise of
boxing, it’s better to make huge fights where the risk
of losing is not considered as strongly as the potential
catapult to stardom that winning can have.”
Greenburg denied that minimizing losses was a lesson
learned after watching the Ultimate Fighting
Championship’s mixed martial arts fighters maintain
popularity after defeats. One of UFC’s major fights is
next month’s Chuck Liddell-Wanderlei Silva battle, and
both fighters have lost their last two fights.
Contender executive Jeff Wald said UFC “is a fad; I’d
see that [type of fighting] in my neighborhood in the
Bronx. . . . They
have no one on the level of Oscar or Ray.”
HBO’s
Taffet said the sports have different, not competitive,
audiences. He said an HBO survey of national cable
companies found that only 3 percent to 5 percent of
boxing’s pay-per-view customers had also purchased a
pay-per-view UFC fight.
Yet,
veteran promoter Bob Arum of Top Rank said: “One problem
with the long-term contracts HBO signed with [boxers] is
that they’ve never wanted to fight anybody, because a
loss ended their contract. The result was crummy fights,
and a general loss of interest. With the UFC on, the
networks were aware boxing would erode.”
Roy
Jones Jr. said his career was criticized for a dearth of
quality opponents because “the problem was the networks’
contracts, and the fact they didn’t build you up, like
they do now, or in MMA.
“If your
contract ends if you lose, why go and take a chance?”
Jones said. “It’d be dumb to do that. I gambled, I never
ducked and dodged megafights. But I knew if I did lose,
it’d be like, ‘Only one loss? Bye!’ “
HBO has
now abandoned the long-term deals in favor of “the big
play, short term with maximum revenue,” Greenburg said.
“Fighters can lose, and still remain charismatic,
important parts of the game. The public likes guys who
come back from adversity.”
UFC
president Dana White said boxing’s revival was “great
news.”
“I’m not
out to kick boxing. I love the sport,” he said.
“Somebody in that business needs to step up to the plate
and try to help secure the future of the sport.”
After
Top Rank’s Pavlik remained unbeaten with his victory, he
landed a rematch with Taylor in February.
“The
emergence of new stars [like Pavlik and lightweight Juan
Diaz] has been key to boxing this year, and Kelly Pavlik,
being a puncher with the appeal of a home-run hitter, is
one of the brightest,” boxing publicist Bill Caplan of
Top Rank said. “No one’s seen him in a bad fight. He
goes after guys, and has proven he can come from
behind.”
Boxing,
like soccer, also plays well globally, and proof was
seen last month when more than 50,000 fans in
Wales
attended Joe Calzaghe’s super-middleweight title
unification victory over Denmark’s Mikkel Kessler.
Top Rank
also stimulated the sport by ending its feud with de la
Hoya’s Golden Boy Promotions, a cold war that heightened
when de la Hoya tried to lure talented
super-featherweight Manny Pacquiao of the Philippines by
offering the boxer a suitcase full of signing-bonus
cash. The promoters sued each other this year and failed
to allow their fighters to be matched against the
other’s, but then a settlement allowing Pacquiao to
remain with Top Rank was reached.
The
reunion resulted in an entertaining November 10
welterweight title fight between Top Rank’s unbeaten
champion, Miguel Cotto, and Golden Boy’s former
three-division champion, Shane Mosley. Cotto won by
unanimous decision, setting up a possible battle against
Mayweather or de la Hoya in 2008.
The
welterweight division of Mayweather, Cotto, de la Hoya,
Mosley, Hatton, Antonio Margarito and Paul Williams is
clearly the sport’s best, but boxing still feels the
void of a popular heavyweight champion.
“It’d be
nice for someone to emerge from a seed bag in Iowa,”
Greenburg joked.
One of
the best hopes is
Riverside’s
Chris Arreola, the unbeaten, No. 7 heavyweight according
to the World Boxing Council, who is attempting to become
the first Mexican-American heavyweight champion and will
make his debut on HBO in February.
There
are also lingering concerns that no promoter beyond Arum
is properly developing young fighters.
Still,
with the first half of 2008 set to feature a veteran
fight of Jones versus Felix Trinidad, a Pavlik-Taylor
rematch, Pacquiao in a likely rematch against champion
Juan Manuel Marquez, de la Hoya and Mayweather in
separate fights and Calzaghe contemplating a date with
Bernard Hopkins, the sport finds itself healthier than a
year ago.
“Boxing
is strong again, but you can’t rest on your laurels,”
Arum said. “We have to keep making good, competitive
fights.” |
