By Niall Doran
BOXING, that sport we all love and have grown up watching since we were kids, is perhaps in more unparalleled times as a sport than it ever has been – and that’s saying something, too.
Many have come and gone from boxing over the years, whether promoters, broadcasters, streaming companies, or others, but there’s something different about 2024 than before.
In a good way.
Boxing has seen huge new investment from Saudi Arabia, but it hasn’t been just pumping money in blindly and uneducatedly, like in times gone by.
There’s a real genuine want to see the best fight the best again, and much of it is driven not just by them [Saudi], but by promoters, managers, broadcasters and streaming companies, for the first time ever it seems, actually working together, to make this a reality.
It is happening all the time—certainly more than at any other time in boxing over the last 30 years, it seems.
Many have entered boxing, lost a fortune, or adopted the old “throw money at the wall and see what sticks” mentality, which never works in reality.
Now, those in boxing seem to understand that it’s about the fights (which, of course, it always has been).
Putting fighters in against one another when they are young, in their prime, or not far removed from their primes at least, works.
Ratings have been quite good when it’s done right. Look at Gervonta Davis and Ryan Garcia last year. There were 1.2 million pay-per-view buys just in America.
Oleksandr Usyk vs. Tyson Fury hit 1.5 million buys just this year, making it the biggest heavyweight fight since the turn of the century.
Granted, the fight is thought to have lost $100 million in revenue due to illegal online streaming, but that’s another story.
Tyson Fury and Oleksandr Usyk at Kingdom Arena on May 18, 2024 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. (Photo by Richard Pelham/Getty Images)
It shows, however, the renewed interest in boxing as a mainstream sport, with the caveat of when the best fight the best when fans want to see them fight.
Padded records and unbeaten 0’s in boxing are not the be-all and end-all anymore, which is a good thing. Boxing learned that from the UFC, and now many MMA and UFC fighters, plus other stars, continue to flood into boxing to compete as professional boxers.
This may have come about by a number of outside boxing factors in recent years, bringing new fans to the sport.
The recent Nate Diaz vs. Jorge Masvidal fight would have brought MMA fans as well as new boxing fans to the sweet science. It was a quality fight.
KSI, Jake Paul, Logan Paul, Mayweather exhibitions, and Roy Jones vs. Mike Tyson’s exhibition in recent years have all brought in some new fans to boxing.
This is all complimented by more digital-driven streaming companies like DAZN, ESPN Plus, UFC Fight Pass and others, attracting new sports fans to boxing, as fans.
And that’s just in the West…
Catch Part 2 tomorrow.