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The state of boxing in 2012, part one
By Kevin Iole, Yahoo! Sports
Dec 23, 3:40 pm EST
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Editor’s note: This is the first of a two-part feature. Read Part 2 here.
Todd duBoef likes to refer to himself as “a boxing evangelist,” an odd choice of words for a low-key man who prefers to shun the spotlight. He’s an impeccably dressed 44-year-old who looks as if he’s stepped out of a Wall Street board room. He comes from a prominent Las Vegas family and could work in virtually any business he chose. He’s not promoting boxing because he needs to do something to pay the bills.
He’s willing to stake his future, though, on the health of a business that is often shunned by the media and derided by its customers.
More From Kevin Iole
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As long as Floyd Mayweather is drawing nine figures when he fights, you can't truthfully say boxing is in trouble.
(Getty Images)
He is evangelizing a sport that many say is dead, which one rival promoter terms “deathly ill” and which hasn’t been regarded as a top-tier sport for years.
Yet, the normally low-key Top Rank president displays a messianic zeal for the fight game and scoffs at a suggestion from fellow promoter Lou DiBella that boxing “is deathly ill and getting sicker by the day.”
From a global perspective, duBoef said, it has been a long time since the boxing business has been as robust. In Mexico, boxing does a booming business and the highest-rated network television program in 2011 thus far is the Manny Pacquiao-Juan Manuel Marquez fight from Nov. 12. That match did a 30.2 rating and attracted almost 40 million viewers on the free over-the-air network TV Azteca.
“It was the highest-rated program of everything for the year: The Academy Awards, the World Cup, everything,” duBoef said.
By Kevin Iole, Yahoo! Sports
Dec 23, 3:40 pm EST
tweet44
Editor’s note: This is the first of a two-part feature. Read Part 2 here.
Todd duBoef likes to refer to himself as “a boxing evangelist,” an odd choice of words for a low-key man who prefers to shun the spotlight. He’s an impeccably dressed 44-year-old who looks as if he’s stepped out of a Wall Street board room. He comes from a prominent Las Vegas family and could work in virtually any business he chose. He’s not promoting boxing because he needs to do something to pay the bills.
He’s willing to stake his future, though, on the health of a business that is often shunned by the media and derided by its customers.
More From Kevin Iole
Rankings: Mayweather, Pacquiao are 1-2 yet again, but one young phenom is closing the gap Apr 20, 2012
Mailbag: Shane Mosley faces long odds against Saul Alvarez Apr 17, 2012
AdChoices
As long as Floyd Mayweather is drawing nine figures when he fights, you can't truthfully say boxing is in trouble.
(Getty Images)
He is evangelizing a sport that many say is dead, which one rival promoter terms “deathly ill” and which hasn’t been regarded as a top-tier sport for years.
Yet, the normally low-key Top Rank president displays a messianic zeal for the fight game and scoffs at a suggestion from fellow promoter Lou DiBella that boxing “is deathly ill and getting sicker by the day.”
From a global perspective, duBoef said, it has been a long time since the boxing business has been as robust. In Mexico, boxing does a booming business and the highest-rated network television program in 2011 thus far is the Manny Pacquiao-Juan Manuel Marquez fight from Nov. 12. That match did a 30.2 rating and attracted almost 40 million viewers on the free over-the-air network TV Azteca.
“It was the highest-rated program of everything for the year: The Academy Awards, the World Cup, everything,” duBoef said.
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