Let me make one thing very, very clear to all you prize fighters and aspiring champions today.
The entire world is experiencing an economic recession that will last for quite a while.
The general public has less and less liquidity in the current market and spending will gravitate towards the basic necessities such as food, water, shelter, and beer.
Everything else, especially boxing will be considered a luxury item.
Things such as HBO, Showtime, Pay-Per-View, Las Vegas, airplane flights, and expensive fight tickets won?t necessarily be a top priority when you lost your job, must pay rent, must feed the kids, must make the car payment on the Escalade you overpaid for, and absolutely without a doubt must buy that twelve pack of Tecate your body survives on.
Any fighter who thinks that they?re worth the same amount of money that they might have generated last year or the year before is as Lou DiBella would say? ?a fucking moron!?
That?s not to say that you aren?t worth anything.
It?s just the truth that your value as a boxer has dwindled just like? everything else today.
Housing prices have plummeted. Stocks have nose-dived. Car values have shrunken. Gas prices are fantastically low and that miserable store called ?Mervyn?s? no longer exists.
How is it that you? as a boxer feels as though your value hasn?t changed?
Let me ask you one question participant within my favorite sport. Who pays your purse?
You answer… The promoter.
Who pays the promoter?
The television networks, corporate sponsors, fight venues, and the fans.
If the budget for all of these entities has been cut in half, how is it economically feasible for a promoter to continue paying you your supposed ?worth? when it just doesn?t make any financial sense?
If you have an intellectual team that understands economics, finance, and more than just? ?where?s the dough?? they will inform you of all these situations.
In economic recessions most of the time luxury items are the first to go.
Somehow, someway, boxing has transitioned over the past several decades as an affordable form of sports entertainment into a full-fledged luxury item which is beyond my comprehension.
If HBO, Showtime, ESPN, or the Travel Channel offers you money to fight, you take it? now.
None of you are Oscar De la Hoya. You may think you are but even Oscar would feel and has felt the economic pinch in recent times and it?d be completely idiotic for any boxer today to not understand the situation that the world faces.
Boxing is highly subsidized by the various sources outlined above so it?s financial feasibility can cease at any moment once these contributors decide to pull the plug.
Do I hope it happens?
Of course not.
Can it happen.
Unfortunately yes.
While the UFC is generating more and more Pay-Per-View figures due to their highly effective and centralized marketing, boxing has no such thing.
So ?The Boxing Bookie?s? word of advice for all prize fighters today? take what you can get when you can get it.
It?s about to get ugly? real ugly.
