Too often, segments of boxing fandom and boxing journalism force things into binary categories: “HBO needs to feature exciting fights, not important ones.” “HBO needs to focus on fights, not fighters.”
The results of a Twitter poll and part I of this two-part series, where I asked people about what fights they wanted that they’re not getting, suggest that — in actuality — there’s little interest in a monoculture. We’ll review the results in a moment, but the conclusion I draw is this: Fans want to see exciting fights AND important ones. They want to see certain fights AND certain fighters. It’s HOW they get those things that matter.
The survey was admittedly a smaller sample than polling scientists would consider reliable. And there could be some selection bias, but I don’t think so. Yes, the people who responded might be a specific kind of boxing fan or writer, namely the ones who know me or visit this blog.
But let’s take the whole important vs. exciting debate for starters: Last year, my rough estimate was that the five fights everyone wanted most in boxing were Floyd Mayweather-Manny Pacquiao, Wladimir Klitschko-David Haye, Timothy Bradley-Devon Alexander, Sergio Martinez-Paul Williams II and Yuriorkis Gamboa-Juan Manuel Lopez. Of those, I doubt many expect Mayweather-Pacquiao would be a Fight of the Year candidate. I think people were well aware Klitschko-Haye and Bradley-Alexander had at least a strong chance to suck. Martinez-Williams II and Gamboa-Lopez were/are the only two sure-fire brawls. We got Klitschko-Haye, Bradley-Alexander and Martinez-Williams II, and all three of those fights did tip-top ratings for HBO, with “importance” one of the reasons for the first two and important/exciting both present for Martinez-Williams II. Gamboa-Lopez might have been diminished by Lopez losing before the fight could be made (more on that later), but Mayweather-Pacquiao would break pay-per-view records despite a potential chess match between the pair.
On the “fights, not fighters” debate, it struck me how many people responded with specific fighters they wanted to see, more than a set list of specific fights. On a certain level, this also makes intuitive sense: No matter how poorly matched they have been at times, no matter how dissatisfying their fights have been at times, Mayweather and Pacquiao continue to be the biggest PPV attractions in the sport by a very wide margin.
