I?m only half-joking when I ask whether more people saw Vasiliy Lomachenko beat Luke Campbell live at O2 Arena in London or live on ESPN+.
When ESPN jumped back into the boxing business, they tossed a lot of money into the pot and signed some quality talent to exclusive contracts (with the aid of boxing promoter/Nosferatu, Bob Arum).
It was hard not to be optimistic about the attention suddenly being shown to boxing by the mainstream sports powerhouse. American boxing was the ugly girl in school now being courted by the star quarterback. It was long felt that if boxing could somehow convince the generally boxing-disinterested ESPN into lending real support, the sport could recapture the attention of the mainstream sports fan in America. Then, suddenly, ESPN showed up at boxing?s door with a bouquet of flowers and an invite to the prom.
But things haven?t gone all that well for the ugly girl in the arms of the popular boy. ESPN has shown regular boxing events on its main channel, but the biggest and the best (at least in terms of marketable names) have been pushed off to its subscription-only ESPN+ app or, in the case of Terence Crawford, an ill-advised pay-per-view broadcast.
As I wrote over at FightHype:
?Blessed with, arguably, the two best pound-for-pound fighters in the world (Vasiliy Lomachenko and Terence Crawford) and one of the most engaging characters in the game (Tyson Fury), ESPN has chosen to only air one of their combined six bouts, dating back to June of last year, on the ESPN main stage. With nearly a hundred million sports fans reachable on the basic cable home base, ?The Worldwide Leader? repeatedly chooses to shove their biggest boxing assets on an app with 2.4 million subscribers.
This doesn?t sound like a friend of boxing. It sounds like someone trying to take advantage of the fact that boxing fans have been conditioned to empty out their wallets for the privilege of being fans.?
Now, looking back at all of the attention shown and money invested, it?s become clear that ESPN?s pursuit of boxing wasn?t about building a niche sport into a mainstream commodity at all. This was only about acquiring exclusive ?content? and building the subscription base for their app at the expense of a fan base already accustomed to being shaken down for every bit of loose change in their pockets.
And Arum, who was presented with opportunity number 1,431 to be boxing?s goodwill ambassador for growth, opted (once again) to empty out the register when given the keys to the shop.
The aged Hall of Fame promoter has not tried all that hard to stick his guys where people could see them and where they have a chance at bringing in new fans. Instead, he?s hustling the sports nerds at ESPN into helping him build his Top Rank promotional stable with their bulging bank book.
Since Arum became the head promoter for ESPN?s boxing program, he?s used deep network pockets to retain the services of Terence Crawford and sign Tyson Fury, Carl Frampton, Sergey Kovalev, Artur Beterbiev, and Eleider Alvarez (among others) to Top Rank promotional deals. He?s not even trying to hide the fact that if a fighter wants those sweet ESPN paychecks, they must sign at least a co-promotional deal with him.
And what about Lomachenko?
The man?s a generational talent and a master of his craft. Not being able to find a suitable challenge is not necessarily the fault of Arum or ESPN?the business is the business and of the two or three names who could possibly push him to a next-level performance, none are on his business side of the fence. But it?s certainly Arum?s and ESPN?s fault that one of the greatest fighters of this era is not being showcased to anyone but the already-sold die hard boxing base.
Lomachenko was spectacular, again, on Saturday?but it?s not like all that many Americans were able to see him be spectacular.
