STEVE’S SOAPBOX AND THEN THERE WERE NONE By Steve Kim
Let’s make this clear: Boxing has always been flawed. But there was a time when it was much more mainstream. Heavyweight championship bouts involving Muhammad Ali were shown to tens of millions on free TV. And later on, major events that were shown at closed-circuit locations (a precursor to pay-per-view) were replayed by those three-letter behemoths. However, as premium/subscriber cable – HBO, and later Showtime – became prominent in the 1980s, the shift began as they routinely outbid the networks for certain fights that otherwise would have been shown on ABC, CBS or NBC. It seemed beneficial to everyone involved in the boxing business – the fighters, managers and promoters, who got larger paydays while the nascent pay-cable entities enticed potential subscribers. For HBO, its boxing division was a key piece of its ascension in the 1980s as it became the home for Mike Tyson. They say that there is a price for everything in life. And the reality is that while certain boxers were earning career-high paydays for performing on HBO or Showtime, they were also doing so in front of a much smaller audience. It was at this time that the slow erosion began. Eventually, the premium cable networks not only bought fights but started to in essence become promoters themselves by entering into exclusive multi-fight agreements with individual boxers. Now certain stars – from Roy Jones to Floyd Mayweather Jr. – were locked into networks with lucrative guarantees. And a certain cat-and- mouse game as to who would be their opponents began with the broadcasters and the boxers’ management. While the network sought – at least in theory – acceptable opposition, managers would usually try to get the softest and safest touch approved by the paymasters. Unfortunately, what the fans wanted in these matters was largely ignored. Oftentimes, these network contracts meant that boxers who had become established with the public with their consistent activity suddenly became
long gone. We’ve been in the Netflix era for many years as far as movies and episodic shows are concerned, but now the line between traditional live TV and what started as a place to rent DVDs
twice-a-year performers, as any extra fights would not be in the yearly programming budget. So, not only were boxers now fighting on smaller platforms, they were also doing it less often. On top of that, the fights that fans really wanted to see were becoming more difficult to make. If a boxer was ensconced in the rival network, then you had “sides of the street” that were used as a crutch to avoid certain matchups. Certain fights weren’t going to come to fruition unless they were part of a joint pay-per-view between rival promoters and networks, which took years to broker. This happened periodically with Lennox Lewis-Mike Tyson (HBO/Showtime), Mayweather- Manny Pacquiao (HBO/Showtime) and Tyson Fury-Deontay Wilder II and III (Fox Sports/ESPN+). However, these occasions were rare. Throughout the past few decades, too many fights – including the much-anticipated heavyweight showdown between then- titleholders Anthony Joshua (DAZN) and Deontay Wilder (Fox/Showtime) – were left un-fought due to the various cold wars that took place in boxing. Eventually, HBO and Showtime would not only sign individual fighters, but entire promotional stables. Don King was exclusive to Showtime during the 1990s, as was Golden Boy for a spell in the 2010s. Matchroom had an exclusive deal with DAZN, and Top Rank (which has had various unions throughout the years) landed at ESPN. While in theory having various networks involved with the sport is a good thing, the problem is that as more and more of these entities gave exclusive output deals to promoters, you had separate universes of boxing. It actually created more division within the sport. The truth of the matter is, you can only make a certain amount of bouts with your own roster of boxers. What we were seeing was basically a series of house fights, not truly the best matchups possible, for the most part. The days of networks having knowledgeable executives such as Alex Wallau (ABC),
Mort Sharnik (CBS) and Lou DiBella (HBO) acting as program quality watchdogs are long gone. Ten years ago, Premier Boxing Champions (PBC) launched under the guidance of Al Haymon, who tried a scorched-earth approach to the U.S. boxing landscape by engaging in a series of time-buys on seemingly every network short of C-SPAN. Part of the PBC’s time-buy deals with networks that already had boxing programs was that they had to part ways with those promoters. This effort to freeze out everyone else in the sport and monopolize the business failed, and now the PBC is down to a few broadcasts on Amazon Prime, most of which are pay- per-view shows. So here we are. Boxing will continue, but much like the newspaper business, it finds itself with an uncertain future and having to find a new business model that is sustainable over the long term. Could Netflix, which has 300 million subscribers worldwide, be a lifeline to a new broadcast era? It’s certainly a brand in the U.S. and the closest thing to a traditional network in terms of its audience and reach. However, so far, the king of streaming entertainment services only seems interested in big, unique events with crossover appeal – Jake Paul vs. Mike Tyson, the July 11 all-female card topped by Katie Taylor-Amanda Serrano III, and Canelo vs. Crawford – not standard boxing cards like Zayas- Garcia. Without major broadcast entities like ESPN bringing the sport to the masses, boxing, like print news, will still exist but will continue to diminish in importance. These two industries also share something else in common: The downfall was gradual – and then it was sudden. Do you agree with Steve’s take on the state of boxing broadcasts in America? Share your thoughts about the current boxing scene in the U.S. or your home country via comeoutwriting@gmail.com.
has also begun to blur. The highly anticipated September showdown between Canelo Alvarez and Terence Crawford will be part of the regular Netflix subscription, not pay- per-view. Given the recent track record of the streaming service, the viewing audience should be significant. But keep this in mind: While the NFL has now entered into a partnership to air a few games on Netflix, most of their games are still shown on ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox and ESPN. All those networks – along with HBO and Showtime – at one time in the past included boxing as part of their sports programming, whether it was part of a weekend anthology series or prime time broadcasts that featured major championship fights. There were also basic cable series, such as Top Rank Boxing
X ander Zayas outpointed Jorge Garcia to capture the vacant WBO junior middleweight title on July 26 in New York. As far as world title bouts go, there was nothing particularly special about this affair, which took place at The Theater at Madison Square Garden and followed fights that featured featherweight contender Bruce Carrington and junior welterweight prospect Emiliano Vargas. It was a decent night of boxing. But it has to be asked: Will it be the last time this type of boxing card is featured on a non-pay-per-view major platform in the United States? The July 26 broadcast ended ESPN’s partnership with Top Rank, which began in 2017. During this time period,
Top Rank Boxing on ESPN enjoyed an eight-year run.
on ESPN and Tuesday Night Fights on USA, that played to a national audience while various regional cable outlets and over-the-air networks catered to their local viewers. On the West Coast, L.A.’s KCAL-TV (channel 9) and Prime Ticket aired Fight Night at The Forum cards for years during the 1990s. Now they are remnants of the past. So, how did we get to this point? While it’s easy to state one particular reason, the answer is much more complicated. It’s really a little bit of everything. There was a time when boxing was among the most popular sports in America, right alongside baseball and horse racing. Now, it’s largely a niche sport that’s only part of the general sports news cycle once or twice a year.
mainstay broadcasters in the U.S., including HBO, Fox and Showtime, shuttered their boxing programs. So, for the first time since the mid-1940s – when the Gillette Cavalcade of Sports on NBC began – boxing will not have a regular series featured on a U.S. terrestrial network or a cable outlet. As of now, most major boxing shows are on DAZN or pay-per-view. Now, this isn’t solely an indictment on the sport or industry of boxing. Streaming outlets are now prevalent. Cord-cutting isn’t a trend anymore; it’s a reality, and the days of almost every household having traditional cable are
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