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Has anyone else noticed this trend? I find it to be really disturbing.
The narrative used to be “boxing fans are fed up with boxing politics.” Now it seems like fans cheer on a promoter when they fully engage in it.
PBC seems to be the biggest offender of this. Top Rank doesn’t seem to have a problem sending fighters over to DAZN at all while PBC seems to have a huge problem with it. Top Rank also has been willing to negotiate with PBC on certain fights but PBC won’t negotiate at all.
Examples:
None of the PBC fighters at 122 or 126 ever unified or looked for unification fights.
DAZN offered Gervonta Davis a career high payday to fight Tevin Farmer. He turned it down to fight a 40 year old on another subscription platform. Now it looks like he’s going to fight a featherweight on a $75 PPV card. People cheered that Davis didn’t need the Farmer fight instead of hoping for what would be the most competitive fight of Davis’ career.
Top Rank pushed for Lomachenko-Garcia and Golden Boy pushed for Linares-Garcia. Garcia said no to both by insisting both fights needed to be on showtime and fought lesser names at and around his weight. He eventually moved up to 147 and got blown out on a $75 PPV card. This was cheered on instead of fans hoping for the best fights at Garcia’s division.
Top Rank has been trying to make Spence-Crawford happen. Instead Spence fought a lightweight and a guy who had already lost to the best champions at 147. It looks like Spence is being lined up to fight another guy who lost to multiple welterweights who are better than him. This is cheered on instead of fans hoping for the two best at the division and two top 10 p4p fighters facing each other.
Jermall Charlo was offered $7 million, a career high payday, to unify against Demtrius Andrade at 160. Charlo has been fighting nobodies. He’s being lined up to fight Eubank, who clearly isn’t an elite fighter. Fans are already excusing him for not fighting Andrade in anticipation that it won’t happen instead of cheering for a unification.
None of the 168 pounderS on PBC are seeking unifications, while the ones on DAZN are looking to unify against each other or fight Canelo. No one cares.
Adonis Stevenson held the 175 pound lineal title and wbc title hostage for years. Kovalev, the guy who managed to win the other three titles, was blamed by PBC fans. When Stevenson finally lost, his title was immediately unified.
PBC fans cheered when Deontay Wilder turned down insane money that would have resulted in an eventually undisputed title shot.
The common narrative here: we don’t need them and they need us! Wtf, don’t they all need each other to make the best fights? Isn’t that what we should want?
The narrative used to be “boxing fans are fed up with boxing politics.” Now it seems like fans cheer on a promoter when they fully engage in it.
PBC seems to be the biggest offender of this. Top Rank doesn’t seem to have a problem sending fighters over to DAZN at all while PBC seems to have a huge problem with it. Top Rank also has been willing to negotiate with PBC on certain fights but PBC won’t negotiate at all.
Examples:
None of the PBC fighters at 122 or 126 ever unified or looked for unification fights.
DAZN offered Gervonta Davis a career high payday to fight Tevin Farmer. He turned it down to fight a 40 year old on another subscription platform. Now it looks like he’s going to fight a featherweight on a $75 PPV card. People cheered that Davis didn’t need the Farmer fight instead of hoping for what would be the most competitive fight of Davis’ career.
Top Rank pushed for Lomachenko-Garcia and Golden Boy pushed for Linares-Garcia. Garcia said no to both by insisting both fights needed to be on showtime and fought lesser names at and around his weight. He eventually moved up to 147 and got blown out on a $75 PPV card. This was cheered on instead of fans hoping for the best fights at Garcia’s division.
Top Rank has been trying to make Spence-Crawford happen. Instead Spence fought a lightweight and a guy who had already lost to the best champions at 147. It looks like Spence is being lined up to fight another guy who lost to multiple welterweights who are better than him. This is cheered on instead of fans hoping for the two best at the division and two top 10 p4p fighters facing each other.
Jermall Charlo was offered $7 million, a career high payday, to unify against Demtrius Andrade at 160. Charlo has been fighting nobodies. He’s being lined up to fight Eubank, who clearly isn’t an elite fighter. Fans are already excusing him for not fighting Andrade in anticipation that it won’t happen instead of cheering for a unification.
None of the 168 pounderS on PBC are seeking unifications, while the ones on DAZN are looking to unify against each other or fight Canelo. No one cares.
Adonis Stevenson held the 175 pound lineal title and wbc title hostage for years. Kovalev, the guy who managed to win the other three titles, was blamed by PBC fans. When Stevenson finally lost, his title was immediately unified.
PBC fans cheered when Deontay Wilder turned down insane money that would have resulted in an eventually undisputed title shot.
The common narrative here: we don’t need them and they need us! Wtf, don’t they all need each other to make the best fights? Isn’t that what we should want?
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