For years many in and outside the sports world have been calling for the demise of boxing. It is not secret the sport has lost a lot of its luster at least in the United States. Before the advent of television and even after, boxing was always one to rival the national pastime, with heroes like Joe Louis, Muhammad Ali, “Sugar” Ray Leonard, Mike Tyson and Oscar De La Hoya among others keeping boxing firmly kept in the country’s imagination.
It is not secret boxing is nowhere near its popularity of yesteryear.
In the last couple of decades slowly but surely the many different layers of coverage the sport used to have. At one point there were two different boxing nights on ESPN a week. Now their multi-year agreement with Top Rank is coming to an end this summer with no plans of broadcasting the sport on the network in the foreseeable future.
In recent years the two most influential networks in the sport, HBO and Showtime, ended their decades long support.
With no major network backing, boxing has ended up in the world streaming apps with DAZN leading the way with Amazon Prime for the time being cutting an ever so slight piece of the pie.
Cue Jake Paul, entering stage left.
In less than a year the 28-year-old YouTuber turned professional boxer might have begun to turn the tide for the sport. Last year Paul faced nearly senior citizen but still the ‘baddest man on the planet” Mike Tyson in a mega-event seen throughout the world on the biggest streaming platform available, Netflix. It is reported a little over 108 million souls tuned in to see if “Iron” Mike Tyson still had it.
He didn’t.
Who did have it that fateful night back in November of last year was the current undisputed super lightweight champion Katie Taylor and current unified world featherweight champion Amanda Serrano. That was the second meeting of the two and just like the first time, it was an all-out war with a record for most punches landed in a female 10-round fight with a total of 324 by Serrano.
As reported in the last column, the third and final installment of the Taylor vs Serrano saga was held this past Friday night at the Madison Square Garden in New York City. The scheduled ten-round bout headlined a world title packed night of all female boxing with 17 belts on the line throughout the night.
Unfortunately, as far as action, the fight did not live up to the first two but in hype it did with over 6 million viewers worldwide and 4.2 million in the United States alone. Both Taylor and Serrano decided to fight more cautiously looking to out box the other. Taylor came up on top with a unanimous decision.
Jake Paul’s company MPV Promotions, reportedly has signed 32 professional female boxers and only 6 make so far. Many of the females signed by Paul are some of the biggest names of the sport. Is he ready to turn boxing on its head and use the niche segment of a niche sport to help revolutionize it?
Hope he does and can’t wait to see it.
“Pacman” is Back!
A true living legend comes back to the ring this Saturday night when Manny “Pacman” Pacquiao comes back from retirement and a recent International Hall of Fame induction to take on current WBC welterweight world champion Mario Barrios in the mecca of boxing, Las Vegas, NV.
Pacquiao has not seen the inside of a ring since the summer of 2021 when he suffered a unanimous decision loss to then champion Yordenis Ugas. Despite the loss and the four years of inactivity, he goes straight to a world title shot.
He is Manny Pacquiao but, really??
Chalk it up to another non-self serving decision by the WBC.
Will the 46-year-old Pacquiao be able to turn back the clock? Is it worth the $79.99 Pay-Per-View price tag to find out? That is the decision of each fight fan’s wallet.
Other Musings
- Another somewhat significant fight card took place in New York this past weekend, in the main event Shakur Stevenson handed all-out Mexican brawler William “Camaron” Zepeda his first loss with a unanimous decision to defend the WBC lightweight world title. Stevenson is quickly becoming the type of fighter we tune in to watch him lose and not win a la Floyd Mayweather Jr but he keeps disappointing us. More to see from this guy….
- On the same card, Edgar Berlanga, who was vying for a rematch against Saul “Canelo” Alvarez or a big match up against Jaime Munguia, was ceremoniously knocked out by virtual unknown Hamzah Sheeraz. Berlanga was knocked down twice in the fifth en route to a TKO loss.
- In a recent interview with ESPN Deportes, Eddy Reynoso, best known as the manager and trainer of the above-mentioned Alvarez, has stated he will tighten up the ship after a seventh fighter tied to him, either as trainer or manager, has come up dirty for performance enhancing past. According to Reynoso in the past he had only worried about his work inside the ring leaving the strength and conditioning, nutrition and diet to the particular fighter’s team, now he said if a fighter would like to work with him, Reynoso will need to over see everything.
