With Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao approaching their final chapters of their phenomenal boxing careers, the time is now for the rise of new faces to surface and emerge as the next mega stars of the sport. But who exactly has what it takes to become the next face of the sport? One needs to have that commercial crossover appeal, have the kind of connection to fans that will attract them enough to keep them there, and obviously one that can fight, I mean really fight.
Hype machines entering this microwave era of instant gratification are good only in part to bring drive by fans in. But having a warm personality, Colgate smile, charm, and at the same time have a gladiator type of attitude to give the fans someone that they can really rally behind is where the loyalty of the real fan truly lies. Kind of sounds like a presidential election doesn?t? Well, for the most part it is like an election process. The politics of the sport mixed with the promotional power battles between network rivals, HBO and Showtime, make it out to be that they have the final say so on who they will select as the next pay per view attraction. It may not be the way to go, but from a investment perspective, they must see for themselves if the orange is worth the squeeze.
So why can?t boxing still be able to thrive like the UFC can without having a true face that brings that general household recognition? This is where so many like to throw the race card around. They will tell you that the days of Boxing and Baseball being the top 2 most followed sports are long gone. They go on to add that since here on American soil, boxing is viewed as a sport that mainly caters to Latino and African American fans, then it can never be viewed as a mainstream sport ever again. And in the UFC, they have a lot more white males so that is incentive enough to attract premium channels to assist them to promote fights and increase their PPV numbers, which is also why you see them on a higher platform getting major sports coverage on ESPN and fight highlights are seen a lot more on SportsCenter than the little air time that boxing gets.
All good points and I hear them loud and clear, but I feel that the problem lies in marketing, or the lack of. Too much finger pointing going on and not enough thinking outside the box. Thank God for social media networks like Twitter and Instagram, because through the new world order that now seems to be our #1 marketing tool. It allows the athlete to keep them behind the stirring wheel and drive their very own stock up or down, being accessible to your fans is a must. But just as long as you play by the rules, because being too extra can also cost your stock to decline.
I feel that we as a whole are more than fine, and the proof is in our numbers. And last time I checked, numbers never lie. But at the same time there is a disconnect and changes must be made to keep our sport healthy. So I ask you all today, who do you feel are the next mega stars of the sport? What do the fighters and powers in control need to do to market the sport and themselves better? Will the next mega star be Canelo Alvarez, Adrien Broner, Andre Ward, Terence Crawford, Mikey Garcia, Gennady Golovkin, Danny Garcia, Felix Verdejo, Jose Benavidez Jr., Oscar Valdez, Julian Williams, Vasyl Lomachenko, or Diego De La Hoya? And let?s also not forget that the ladies need their stage as well. Rousey and Tate are doing quite well in UFC, there is no reason why our female boxers shouldn?t also get their just due. They also sacrifice and put it all on the line just like their male combatants.
