There is life in boxing, beyond the multimillionaire worlds of Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao.
Forget, for a minute, all the fights not being made.
Forget, for a minute, bouts delayed by one boxer’s injury.
The good news for boxing in North America (including Canada, often referred to as America’s Hat) is that there is obviously a pent up hunger for live, local fight shows.
I sat in a ringside pew at the gleaming Prudential Center in the heart of downtown Newark Saturday to watch “Power Pole” tomasz Adamek get past long in the tooth Michael Grant.
For that seat, a friend paid $254. I didn’t see any empty seats at ringside and the house was said to be slightly above 10,000.
The previous Saturday, there were 8,122 lively aficionados at Bell Centre (they spell funny Up There) to cheer on local lad Jean Pascal as he upset listless Sadwick, I mean Chadwick Dawson.
The Saturday before that, Don King and his minions spent a week on the ground hyping hometown hero Devon Alexander’s title defense against Andriy Kotelnik. Many sports fans in “The Lou” probably figured the Russian to be yet another NHL player trying to put “the biscuit in the basket.”
OK, I think that’s enough Canadian lingo, eh? Have you ever had Tim Horton’s delicious coffee or those sugary “Timbits?”
But I digress.
King’s card, with a heavy area emphasis adding Cory Spinks and Ryan Coyne to the supporting bill, brought in 10,000 cash or credit card in hand customers.
Geez, I thought boxing was dead.
It’s turning into such a lively Irish wake, like the night they “waked” Det. Jimmy McNulty, on the best TV series ever, “The Wire.”
Det. Bunk Moreland and the rest did not call him “McNutty” for nothing, you know.
If you recall, a totally alive but pretty inebriated McNulty (Dominic West) was able to lay back in his casket while the booze and the words flowed and flowed.
What’s the mercantile message here?
Simple, really, if promoters put out a good pugilistic product, get in the trenches and work it hard, the people will come out.
So props to Yvon Michel and his crew in La Belle Provence, Quebec.
Ditto for King and his small band based in Deerfield Beach, Fl.
And applause, please, for Kathy Duva’s skeleton force at Main Events who team up with Ziggy Promotions to promote crowdpleaser Adamek.
I’m greatly encouraged by these crowds.
It wasn’t that long ago, only back to Match 13, when Top Rank dug its boots in and got 51,000 people to come out to Cowboys Stadium to watch Manny Pacquiao trying to entice Joshua Clottey to fight.
Now how about the promoters–Golden Boy, Lou DiBella and Big Gary Shaw–who just pick off cable TV dates and then peddle their event to a casino, skipping the required promotional ground game?
They’re on notice. Michel, King and Duva did not rewrite the playbook. But they did follow a tried and true formula.
Boxing’s real enemy is not MMA.
It’s worst enemy is promoters who don’t have a ground game.
Let’s hope the other competent promoters get back to the grassroots and stop depending on being what Flash Gordon accruately labeled “TV packagers.”
It’s promoters who let Andre Berto, Dawson and Paul Williams rise to the top in their respective weight classes without developing a home base, a place where they can and do sell tickets, put posteriors in the seats.
There is more to building a fighter than HBO and Showtime dates, beyond creating a Twitter buzz or some Facebook frenzy.
Finally, please note that neither Alexander, Pascal nor Adamek is headed for the Hall Of Fame. Berto, Dawson and Williams are supposed to be the creme de la creme once you get past superstars Mayweather and Pacquiao.
But they are scrappers who respond to the battle cry of their loyal fans.
The boxing at the ballparks gimmick is played out. Indoor boxing thrives when local fighters are put into competitive matches at popular prices.
Montreal, St. Louis, Newark…who’s going to join the party next? The Bay Area is a one fighter town, the attraction being Andre Ward, but hey, that’s a good start.
The patient was thought by some to be dead.
But that’s not rigor mortis, I see, it’s genuine live, local excitement.
