Tweet
These YouTuber Fights Are Great For The Sport
FightCamp 360 and HBO 24/7(RIP) existed to get people to care about these fights for the exact reasons that these YouTubers are being successful.
Combat sports become interesting to people when there is a reason to care about them. Watching a fight where you don't know either guy can be fun, but that's not why people watch sports. Any sport.
In these matchups you've got important themes like anger, revenge, redemption, legacy etc. that are a hallmark of big-time events. The fight is the internalization of everything about these guys and what's that's built up between them, which is why these YouTubers are successful: the viewers are in tune to these guys, know all about them, have their reasons to love or hate them. And that's perfect, because the guys in the ring being loved (DLH, Pacquiao) or hated (Mayweather, Broner) can both lead to a lot of success. While people not knowing who the guy is or have a reason to care about him make him almost certain to fail to become a star (Andrade).
Hardened boxing fans may not care about these fights because the level of competition is too low. That's cool, don't watch. But this is great for the growth of the sport.
Remember those Manny Pacquiao fans who flooded into NSB after watching 24/7 in 2008-2009? It was clear most of them didn't know or care about boxing, they cared about Manny's story. And many of them left after Manny's prime ended, but most of the ones still here became the exact hardened boxing fans that aren't interested in watching low-skilled matchups like KSI-Logan Paul.
This is what it's all about guys; new eyes on a faded sport. Think KSI-Logan Paul was bad for boxing? It wasn't half as bad as Mayweather-Pacquiao was for the sport. How many people that watched KSI-Logan Paul went home disappointed in the quality of the fight vs people that went home disappointed in the quality Mayweather-Pacquiao?
Think about that before crying about how insulting these fights are to you as a fan.
Combat sports become interesting to people when there is a reason to care about them. Watching a fight where you don't know either guy can be fun, but that's not why people watch sports. Any sport.
In these matchups you've got important themes like anger, revenge, redemption, legacy etc. that are a hallmark of big-time events. The fight is the internalization of everything about these guys and what's that's built up between them, which is why these YouTubers are successful: the viewers are in tune to these guys, know all about them, have their reasons to love or hate them. And that's perfect, because the guys in the ring being loved (DLH, Pacquiao) or hated (Mayweather, Broner) can both lead to a lot of success. While people not knowing who the guy is or have a reason to care about him make him almost certain to fail to become a star (Andrade).
Hardened boxing fans may not care about these fights because the level of competition is too low. That's cool, don't watch. But this is great for the growth of the sport.
Remember those Manny Pacquiao fans who flooded into NSB after watching 24/7 in 2008-2009? It was clear most of them didn't know or care about boxing, they cared about Manny's story. And many of them left after Manny's prime ended, but most of the ones still here became the exact hardened boxing fans that aren't interested in watching low-skilled matchups like KSI-Logan Paul.
This is what it's all about guys; new eyes on a faded sport. Think KSI-Logan Paul was bad for boxing? It wasn't half as bad as Mayweather-Pacquiao was for the sport. How many people that watched KSI-Logan Paul went home disappointed in the quality of the fight vs people that went home disappointed in the quality Mayweather-Pacquiao?
Think about that before crying about how insulting these fights are to you as a fan.
Comment