I was appalled recently to read on the Playboy Magazine?s Advisor section, that one reader called boxing dead! The reader argues that MMA and UFC and other types of combat sports are stealing the spotlight from boxing, and he has a point. However, his view was from a typical sports fan who does not see behind the smoke screens that Mike Tyson and Evander Holyfield, maybe even Oscar De La Hoya, their great careers notwithstanding, really are. It is a shame, but the mainstream public is basically missing out on a great era for boxing that, if done right, could bring the sport back to the international masses. We are lucky to witness the era of such modern greats as Ricky Hatton, David Haye, the Klitschko brothers, Juan Manuel Lopez, Edwin Valero, Jorge Arce, Sugar Shane Mosley, etc. And an example of how to do things right for boxing exists in the Philippines, where Manny Pacquiao is more known and advertised than all other Filipino celebrities. If one were to suffer from amnesia and wake up in Manila, one would think that boxing is the world?s most popular sport!
I have nothing against all other fighting sports, although boxing is by far my favorite sport. Without getting into politics, however, I compare it to the Independence movement in Puerto Rico: Like Puerto Rico?s independence fervor, it is staying within a certain type of people, the older ones who saw Muhammad Ali down to Rocky Marciano and Carmen Basilio fight, and I?m afraid that the sport?s interest among fans 35 and younger, a very important age group at anything, is dying down. On New Year?s eve, just after the 12 midnight clock ran, me and my sister were having a talk at her car as we drove down the street, in which we both agreed in that boxing has turned itself into a one group of persons sport, and that is basically men, most of which are in their 30?s and up.
But like former Guantes Magazine Editor, ?Chu? Romero likes to say: ?Boxing can be helped! Ideas have to be brought for that to happen.?
And I think I have a few of them.
1. Get the fights off Pay Per View and into the free channels, or at least the regular programming of cable channels! Pay Per View has proven detrimental to boxing in the long run, because fighters don?t get seen as often by the mainstream public and because smaller division fighters as well as women fighters who need and deserve more internet and other media attention, often are put on these cards that most are not buying anyways, leaving them with little choice but to fight in front of ever scarcer Pay Per View payers, or not fighting at all-and not getting paid for it.
And while HBO Boxing and Showtime have long been supporting horses to the carriage of the sport, other television outlets like Univision, Telemundo, ABC, CBS, NBC and USA to name but a few, are closing doors to the fighters. If you fight on Pay Per View too much, not too many will see you. If not too many see you, not too many will know you. And why would a television network waste their money and viewership opportunities putting a fight between a couple of unknowns if they could show a television series with famous actors and actresses instead? Up and coming promoters like Oscar De la Hoya and Lou DiBella should take note of this: stop thinking abut immediate satisfaction and think about building your own empire, and money account, on the long run instead.
2. Advertise! When you lose the Pay Per View revenue money you?ll get after fighting there, you will start fighting on regular HBO or Showtime, or on free television. And then, McDonald?s will come. Gillette will come. If you live in France, Geant Supermarkets will come. After you. To pay you money so you can advertise their products. I can certainly picture Joe Calzaghe telling us he shops at Sears? men?s clothing department, or Chris Arreola laughing as he persuades us to ?enjoy Budweiser in the front porch with your buddies.? Long gone are the days when Joe Frazier and Sonny Liston advertised Philippine Airlines and TWA respectively, when Roberto Duran and Sugar Ray Leonard (and their kids) enjoyed 7-UP together, and when Leonard and Larry Holmes told us Ford pick up trucks were the strongest and most convenient. We need those days back. Heck, you can even put Nicolay Valuev in kitchen attire selling us Palmolive! It would be effective, it would be funny, and it would bring him to an audience that?s probably never heard of him: young women.
3. Make boxers seen! This one kind of goes along with #2. When I visit Walmart or Target, all I see are figures of WWE wrestlers, and that has been a huge part of the key of that sport?s success among sports fans. Once again, there was a time I used to go to K Mart in Puerto Rico and I was at least guaranteed to see Sugar Ray Leonard there, at the sports section when he had a large contract with Franklin sporting goods. I think if boxing were to do the same thing as the WWE and make toys, wristbands, t-shirts, posters, baseball hats and books of our favorite boxers in a way even kids could afford to buy them, it would help perpetrate the sport?s popularity in the future a huge deal. Not only that, but the boxers themselves would get huge commissions from each item sold with their likeliness on them. And, the moment I see a boxing ring and Ricky Hatton and Marco Antonio Barrera action figures-or even Laila Ali and Marcela Acuna for that matter-to play with for sale at a Walgreen?s, I?d be the first one to buy them! And kids and young people would probably buy them too!
4. Make boxers look friendly! Boxers often are, by my own experience, the friendliest and most sociable people you can ever meet. The problem is, most people around the world don?t know this. Promoters came up with the idea that if fighters portray hate at each other, the fight will generate money. To some degree, they are right. The ?layman,? as many people call those who don?t know much about cheeses and wine, goes to a bout, buys his beer and many times starts shouting bleeping words, in the end, making the promoter?s pockets deeper. Over the last years, someone came up with the idea that brawls before fights also help sell the bouts, and of course, there is the ever present country rivalries angle to many of the super fights. All of that eliminates most people from being potential boxing fans. As boring as many of us find Opera concerts, those are not dead. Religious acts have never suffered from waning popularity.
If instead of having fighters push each other and talk trash during fight conferences we had them talk with respect about each other and their countries, and act friendly towards each other, then not only the ?laymen? as people rightly or wrongly call them, would be interested in seeing the fights either in person or television, but also the Opera and church going crowds. Turn boxing fights into more of a family outing event, and you have the key to getting not just gambler?s and ?laymen?s money, but also the grandfathers, grandmothers, fathers, mothers and kids of this world would fill the arenas at every fight imaginable, giving boxing almost unrivaled for a fighting sport exposure, and boxers and organizers, once again, more than the money they?d generate for a Pay Per View show. Bringing famous boxers to talk shows and to free autograph signing sessions would also help in making the public understand they are not angry humans and see them as real people too.
5. Bring lights and gala to the fights! As much as many hated Naseem Hamed?s pre-fight shows (HBO made him curtail his acts to only half of it), I loved them and admired Hamed for bringing boxing a touch of show business. People love pizzazz, we love pyrotechnics and we love to have huge posters of entertainers come down from the roof ala Ivan Drago in Rocky IV, or to have our favorite music group?s name lighted during a concert.
We don?t need to be reminded of their names, we know who the performers are, but the lights and the pomp always add up to an excellent evening of entertainment. Once again, where are the days when world boxing Champions were introduced en masse before a WBA Junior Middleweight title bout or singers like Diana Ross and Vicente Fernandez fought for the right to sing their country?s national anthems before Championship fights? If we want the general public to look at boxing again and be frenzied by it, we need to bring them entertainment, we need to bring them something other than the fight itself that will make them want to come back for more.
Look, the Micky Ward-Arturo Gatti trilogy was one I?ll never forget and it was great for boxing, but we missed out on an opportunity to bring general Irish public to the sport by not having U2 perform before one of their fights. And with all those fireworks, both before and during their fights, put together, we?d make boxing lovers out of all U2 fans forever, and that goes for all the rest of boxing fights.
6. Always look for a way to make the sport safer! A while ago, it occurred to me that maybe boxers should have their blood pressure checked at least twice during a fight. Make the between rest periods longer, so that the doctor can come in and do it. While blood pressure changes constantly from day to day, a sudden change in it can indicate brain injury. I?m not a doctor, but that is a fact I?ve learned from reading books and the internet. I was chastised at the old boxing site I used to visit for bringing this idea up. While it may not be the best idea to make the sport safer, (and I admit I am clueless when it comes down to medical knowledge) doctors can keep constantly figuring out ways in which to prevent injury more and more often. Less injuries mean more viewer ship, more mothers not minding their children wanting to box, and, the bottom line here, more popularity among the mainstream to the sport we so much love and respect, the sport of boxing.
These are just but a ?layman?s idea of how to improve the popularity of boxing. There probably are a hundred more ways to do so, even also more intelligent ways. But our warriors and Champions deserve it. So that way, no one without a clue like that Playboy reader can again say ?boxing is dead?. Because it isn?t. And it will never be. But, like with everything else in life, there is always room for improvement!
