By Cliff Rold
Boxing promoters and networks invested in the sport best serve the fans when they know they have to.
During the first decade of the 21st century, when HBO had the market cornered at various times on Oscar De La Hoya, Floyd Mayweather, and Manny Pacquiao, Showtime had to find a way to bring value to their consumers. During the decade, they gave fans an unofficial tournament at 140 lbs., a series of bouts between Diego Corrales, Acelino Freitas, Joel Casamayor, and Jose Luis Castillo, and three unbelievable fights between Rafael Marquez and Israel Vazquez.
Competition can be a good thing.
We’re entering a very interesting time for boxing in the United States. The stage is set for the sort of arms race that can really be good for the sport.
For years, there was a lament about not getting the sport to the biggest audiences possible. Network television all but vanished in the mid-1990s. In 2012, Main Events did an eye-popping number for the heavyweight rematch between Tomasz Adamek and Steve Cunningham. It wasn’t that the rating was off the charts for NBC; it was just enough to remind boxing what potential audience was out there with some reports placing placing peak viewership at around four million viewers.
It didn’t lead to an explosive return to network for the sweet science but it was the first kernel in a steadily growing popcorn bag this decade. The PBC experiment took a major dive into the market with fights on network in prime time and afternoon, opening up more possibilities.
Last weekend, on ESPN, the Jeff Horn-Manny Pacquiao battle not only entertained but also showed a peak number somewhere above four million viewers. It is the third fight to cross that threshold in the last year, the other two being Keith Thurman-Shawn Porter and Thurman-Danny Garcia. Thurman-Garcia won the ratings for the night on any station.
Only NASCAR, on free to air network television, had more viewers last Saturday than the fight at its peak number. If it had been on ABC, it’s hard to imagine Horn-Pacquiao not being in the hunt for Saturday’s ratings winner. ABC opted to air “Battle of the Network Stars.” One has to assume the temptation will be there to throw their hat in the ring sooner than later.
The potential of network television, and ESPN as the next best thing, has always been evident. We’re gradually seeing it realized if only a few fights at a time.
Boxing has credibility issues.
It has stigma issues.
If it can deliver viewers, and eventually consistent advertiser revenues, those can be offset. Errol Spence got the prime space after the Olympics last year and delivered some six million viewers almost by accident. All we can ask for to keep the momentum forward is more quality. Every fight doesn’t have to turn out to be good (Horn-Pacquiao was eons better than expected) but matches that look good on paper, that look genuinely competitive, cure many an ill.
After a turgid 2016, we’re seeing a lot of the good stuff this year.
While much of their best fare has been relegated to pay-per-view, HBO is delivering quality by way of Andre Ward-Sergey Kovalev II, Gennady Golovkin first against Daniel Jacobs and next against Saul Alvarez, and with a September 9th card in the Jr. bantamweight division as good as any episode of Boxing After Dark ever assembled.
Showtime has been lights out for most of the year, bringing the live Anthony Joshua-Wladimir Klitschko war, Errol Spence-Kell Brook, and the upcoming Mikey Garcia-Adrien Broner battle among others. They also worked with CBS to bring the aforementioned Thurman-Garcia.
Now ESPN is in the game and viewers saw what that meant. It was more than the Pacquiao show. ESPN had nearly two straight hours of post-fight coverage. It would have been better if that coverage hadn’t been about a debated decision loss for the Filipino legend. It still can’t be overlooked that boxing stepped beyond ruling the night while in the ring. It encompassed over five straight hours of television time along with numerous television spots on other shows throughout the week and a lot of time on talk shows in the days after.
Now, that’s for a Pacquiao fight. The real test will be for the next truly strong match on their air. Vasyl Lomachenko will go to scratch first in August but he’s in a fight most will expect him to walk away with. The one to keep an eye on is Terence Crawford-Julius Indongo. Their encounter will place all four major titles (barring a strip along the way) in the Jr. welterweight division on the line. It’s the two best in class, even if Crawford is a solid favorite.
Crawford-Indongo has real storytelling potential. Crawford is from Nebraska and turned Cornhusker country into a fight market. Indongo is a road warrior going for three straight title wins in his opponent’s back yard. If ESPN can sell that fight, the winner can see their life change. The difference between the potential of that fight, and the last time Crawford fought for unification, on pay-per-view last year, is monstrous.
With their CBS relationship, what Showtime can counter with before the year is out. Can they bring a Joshua-Klitschko rematch to the masses? Will HBO allow promoters to find a commercial outlet to at least replay their stars like they used to? There was a time when HBO live shows like Donald Curry-Mike McCallum were later seen on outlets like CBS.
No matter how many people purchase Golovkin-Alvarez, or watch the replay a week later, it’s still not as many as they could have with an additional replay platform.
The public seems ready to give boxing another chance. Is boxing going to keep giving fans a reason to tune in? Can it create a feeding frenzy where the quality of matches continues to ratchet up along the way on all sides?
The remainder of 2017 is going to be fascinating.
Cliff Rold is the Managing Editor of BoxingScene, a founding member of the Transnational Boxing Rankings Board, and a member of the Boxing Writers Association of America. He can be reached at roldboxing@hotmail.com