If you want to see the Antonio Tarver-Roy Jones and Diego Corrales-Jose Luis Castillo rematches on successive weekends in October and then Vitali Klitschko’s long awaited November showdown with Hasim Rahman followed by the return bout between Jermain Taylor and Bernard Hopkins to finish off the year, it’ll cost you around $220.
That’s in addition to ten other major pay-per-view shows that have already taken place in 2005. If you average out those shows at $45 a clip, that means you would’ve had to have forked out around 450 bones to have seen all those shows live.
So you think the price of gas is high? Being a boxing fan is more expensive than driving an SUV.
And like the NBA or Major League Baseball (or really any other professional league that has expanded recently) boxing pay-per-views have been watered down. Watered down to a point where almost anything will now be considered for pay-per-view.
There used to be a time where only the premiere, marquee match-ups that involved names like Sugar Ray Leonard, Marvin Hagler, Thomas Hearns, Mike Tyson and Julio Cesar Chavez were put on this level.
This year we’ve seen the good (Manny Pacquiao-Erik Morales I, Felix Trinidad-Winky Wright, Bernard Hopkins-Jermain Taylor), the bad (Mike Tyson-Kevin McBride) and the ugly (Marco Antonio Barrera-Mzonke Fana, Hasim Rahman-Monte Barrett) on pay-per-view.
In today’s marketplace — which is without network participation, along with shrinking budgets and disappearing dates at the premium cable networks —† pay-per-view now is seemingly a dumping ground for fights the networks don’t want or don’t have room for on their dockets.
It’s no longer about the biggest and best events.
Fights that were once HBO Championship Boxing-quality (like Barrera-Robbie Peden) now cost in upwards of $45. Shows that featured Don King’s heavyweights in August are put on it seems for the sole purpose of not breaching the fighters contracts. And telecasts like the one that had Julio Cesar Chavez Sr.’s supposed ‘Adios’ to Los Angeles is geared towards a niche audience.
This ain’t your older brother’s pay-per-view.
Of course those in the industry when asked about this will spout the usual babble about ‘market value’ or ‘maximizing revenue’ or whatever corporate mantra they’ve been told to repeat over and over again, but the question has to be asked: at what cost is this to the overall health and future of the sport?
Other industries biggest events are actually shown on the biggest mediums and cultivate an audience. In boxing it’s just the opposite. And beyond that, it could be fracturing an already shrinking fan base.
Who can actually afford to be a boxing fan?
In the past I’ve read other writers talk about the growing popularity of UFC and have shrugged it off. I’ll never be a fan of it and I think it’s got limited growth potential. It could be the kickboxing of the 21st century (anyone else remember the PKA on ESPN with ‘Bad’ Brad Hefton in the ‘80s?). It’ll have a nice little run and then go away like soccer and the metric system in the consciousness of the American public.
Or it might not.
I can’t help but notice that networks like Spike TV (which caters to a demographic that the advertisers seek) and Fox Sports Net are featuring more and more ultimate fighting. Whether we like it or not, it’s reach is growing. And it’s bound to eat up a bit of the marketplace that boxing has dominated in the past.
The hard-core boxing fan is almost like a crack Addict – but in a good way – hear me out. Many fans know that most shows should not be purchased (not only are they not worth it, many will be replayed the next week for free) but as the Saturday sundown comes, many just can’t help themselves.
They’re like Chris Rock’s character ‘Pookie’ in New Jack City. (Please, oh, please, oh, please, just gimme one more hit.)
They just can’t help themselves. They feel horrible about it afterwards and swear they will go into a boxing Betty Ford Clinic the next day. Then the very next week they’re forking out another 30 bucks to see Shannon Briggs take out Ray Mercer.
Now, that’s a boxing fan.
And there’s still plenty of them left, but the generations coming up do not have fights on free network TV that will leave an indelible mark on them. I still remember the first fight I ever saw on the tube, it was the rematch between the great Salvador Sanchez and Danny ‘Lil Red’ Lopez on ABC. I can still see Lopez landing a hellacious right hand on the head of Sanchez with sweat spraying off his Mexi-fro, the crowd going nuts, yet Sanchez doesn’t even seem to smirk as he continued his systematic dismantling of Lopez.
I’m 33 and I consider myself part of the last generation of boxing fan that got to see boxing on Saturday and Sunday afternoons for free.
But what could really drive away fans is just the overall cost of following the game on a regular basis. Yeah, boxing may not have ‘personal seat licenses’ where teams basically extort their season ticket fan base for more money, just for the right to buy their tickets again, but fans in any other sport can basically follow their teams and sports with nothing more than basic cable. You need at least that (if you don’t, you still probably have an eight-track in your car and use BETA tapes).
But to follow boxing, you need both HBO and Showtime, so if you get the premium package it’ll cost you somewhere around $75. My bill is around $110 because I get all the sports packages on digital cable. And forget the quality of shows, but ESPN2 and FSN both have a regular diet of fights. Other smaller cable outlets show fights also. Then you have ESPN Classic, which has vintage bouts of the past.
So yeah, you need cable.
And with my monthly estimate, that’s $900 a year. Plus if you get all the pay-per-view shows, that’s another $600-700 on top of that.
(Oh, and don’t forget the $5 monthly fee for a MaxBoxing membership. I mean, every boxing fan needs that).
Pretty depressing huh? Well, anyway, I gotta go and fill up my gas tank.
(Do I have enough money for half a tank?)
PPV 2005
Just for the record, the major pay-per-view shows this year…
March 19th- Morales-Pacquiao
April 9th- Barrera-Fana
April 23rd- ESPN/Main Events
May 14th- Trinidad-Wright
May 28th- ‘Adios’
June 11th- Tyson-McBride
June 25th- Mayweather-Gatti
July 16th- Hopkins-Taylor
August 13th- Rahman-Barrett
September 17th- Barrera-Peden
I didn’t include ‘the Heavyweight Heat’ card that had Briggs-Mercer because I don’t consider that a major card. But for the record, that show was actually better top-to-bottom than several of the shows listed above.
NEW SERIES ON HBO?
I’ve been told that HBO’s new series which will debut sometime next year will have the quality of fights somewhere in between ‘Boxing After Dark’ and ESPN2.
I hear Max Kellerman could be a part of that announcing crew. Lets hope Ed Lover is not brought back.
I’m told it will go ten times a year.
CINTURON DE ORO
I don’t know if any of you have seen this series on Fox Sports Espanol, but I think this series has some of the best four and six round bouts I’ve ever seen- and I’m not just saying that because I’m doing the English voice-overs for them.
These fights feature young, fledgling hopefuls from Mexico, who have no more than two or three bouts under their belts and these guys flat out go after it. I’ve seen some action packed fights and some prospects I think are worth keeping an eye on.
I don’t know when this series actually comes on, but check your local listings.
See, I told you that cable was a must.
BONUS
Ten points to anyone that can point out the Public Enemy reference that I made up above.
