There are many boxing trends we’d probably all prefer be left behind in 2019: Major sanctioning bodies adding more world titles, networks’ inability to cooperate with one another and those wacky tennis-ball-on-a-cable shadowboxing contraptions can all be left in the last decade along with flossing and JUUL pods.
But one thing we can agree upon is that the trend of mainstream boxing events taking place in new, enthusiastic markets is both a good sign and a solid strategy for the future.
According to BoxRec’s Grey Johnson, there were 602 pro boxing events in the United States in 2019, a slight increase from 2018. What’s more interesting is where those events took place. The traditional powerhouse regions for boxing were only a small factor in the overall number of events. New York hosted 29 events and Nevada held 24. Most shockingly, New Jersey saw just six pro boxing shows in the state in 2019, most likely due to the unfortunate deterioration of Atlantic City as a tourism and entertainment destination.
While more boxing shows everywhere, particularly in major markets such as the aforementioned three, is the ultimate goal, in recent years it felt like promoters were getting a little ahead of themselves with regards to their scheduling. For big time boxing events, fans absolutely will travel to New York City or Las Vegas. But if the event isn’t big enough, or promoted well enough, it can easily suffer the fate of simply being overshadowed by the abundance of competing live event options in major entertainment hubs such as those. Moreover, by only ever placing meaningful fights in the same handful of places, one never cultivates new fans with a thirst for live boxing, ones who may also want to travel to fights as well—so everyone loses.
This year however, there was definitely a trend of entering underserved or new markets, and targeting hometowns and pockets of support of notable fighters, rather than hoping those fans will hop on a plane to go see their heroes elsewhere.
This past weekend’s lightweight title bout between Gervonta Davis and Yuriorkis Gamboa took place in Atlanta, the first title bout in the ATL since Evander Holyfield-Vaughn Bean in 1998.
“I can recall when we first talked about bringing this fight to Atlanta, there was only one name that was synonymous with tapping into a market that hasn’t had a big fight in 20 years,” said Leonard Ellerbe on a recent Showtime media conference call. “We knew that this entire community would be involved. We knew that this would be the most talked about event and create a buzz that we haven’t seen in many years.”
Atlanta has become known as a cultural tastemaker of a city, driving the trends of hip hop music, fashion and art. Davis, thanks in part to his affiliation with Floyd Mayweather, has developed a noticeable cultural cache within the hip hop community of which Atlanta is a vital part. As Showtime’s Stephen Espinoza explained on the PBC Podcast on December 26, bringing Davis to Atlanta was a calculated risk.
“The ingredients are all there in Atlanta. It's no secret that the boxing audience on television over-indexes African American and Latino, and you obviously have a large, flourishing African American base demographic in Atlanta, and I think there's an unrecognized, underappreciated Latino demographic as well. And, it's a sports town,” he said. “Look, there's some degree of risk when you're going back into a market that hasn't been active in the sport in 20 years. That's essentially an entire generation that has passed without championship level fights being there.”
A little more than a week prior, chaos ensued in Phoenix, Arizona when fans showered the ring with cups of beer and fought one another when Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. decided he no longer could against Daniel Jacobs. Nonetheless, that kind of passion could only come from a dedicated and educated fanbase that was starving for a big boxing event (and was ultimately let down). With more than 10,000 people packing the Talking Stick Resort Arena—and getting to their seats plenty early, not just for the main event—Phoenix proved itself a fruitful destination for any promotion.
Other markets showed themselves to be boxing rabid in 2019 as well. Demetrius Andrade’s victory over Maciej Sulecki in his hometown of Providence was at the time Matchroom USA’s highest grossing event other than Anthony Joshua-Andy Ruiz I. On the Canadian side of the border, the rematch between heavyweights Simon Kean and Dillon Carman sold out an arena in Shawinigan, Quebec, outside of the typical major markets of Montreal and Quebec City, and drew a TV audience of 745,000 on TVA. And going way outside the box—and the ring—Valor Bare Knuckle sold out the arena at the 4 Bears Casino and Resort in New Town, North Dakota, and sold out of every single piece of merchandise available the night of the event.
It’s understandable why promoters want to have every event at Madison Square Garden or the MGM Grand. The cache of holding an event there alone lends credence to the fights they’re promoting, but more importantly, the audiences who attend events there are used to higher price points, therefore the ceiling for potential profit is much higher than it’s likely to be elsewhere. But the cost of running those cities and venues can be much higher too, and it’s not likely to be offset by a site fee either. Meanwhile, there are audiences all around the continent waiting for the chance to see high quality fights live, and will pay money to do so. Maybe they only do it once as a novelty, but maybe they are indeed long-term invested fans. In any event, new eyeballs are reached, and the “traditional” markets get a breather.
Boxing has always been a sport driven by identity—local pride, national pride, etc.—and the only way to keep that enthusiasm alive is by bringing the heroes to their people. This sport might continue to be a circus, but it should at least be a travelling one.
