Boxing Viewpoint: Down But Not Out

Saturday was a great night for Michigan in sports. The Red Wings won, the Tigers won, the Pistons won and Floyd won. But with that being said, boxing was the only sport of the four that was out of the casual sports fan’s mind come Monday morning.

The city of Detroit was once known as a mecca for boxing. With champions like Tommy Hearns, James Toney and Joe Louis, the city spent many years being synonymous with the sport. But if you were to ask many visitors or even residents what the iron fist on Jefferson signified, (dedicated by Sports Illustrated in tribute to Joe Louis) they would be hard-pressed to answer.

HBO’s 24/7 and other advertising tactics were supposed to change that sort of awareness. As a hardcore boxing fan, I knew about the Mayweather-De La Hoya match-up soon after the ink of the W on Pretty Boy Floyd’s record had dried after the Baldomir fight.

But a few days ago I asked my wife, who despises boxing, if she had any awareness of the impending superfight. She skirted answering by reminding me of some household chore I hadn’t finished but Saturday night, no less, she referred to the fight as “De La Hoya-Mayfield”.

Maybe Rob Parker of the Detroit News had it right: the inaccessibility of boxing to the casual fan by premium channels and even more so by ever-increasing pay-per-view prices is boxing’s way of killing the gloved goose laying the golden egg.

Sure, I’m excited enough to stay tuned to ESPN for just the lower right-hand corner to read Dan Rafael’s round-by-round tally, but what about people who might actually have something to do on a Saturday night?

Antonio Tarver was supposed to fight June 9 on ABC, which was a first for the network since the 1980’s, I think, but now the bout has been picked up by Showtime.

More than ever, boxing needs an ambassador to the casual fan, the person who would watch, but is discouraged by heavyweight-sized dollar signs.

Boxing needs baby-steps, a gateway to get viewers hooked and then more apt to tune-in for the more expensive stuff.

I can catch a Pistons game on channel 20, which isn’t even run by any of the big four networks. The Tigers have been on the local NBC network since before they won the World Series in ’84. And it’s just as easy to catch a Wings game.

But not boxing. With competition tight on its heels from networks showing mixed martial arts, you’d think they’d reach out to the common person somehow.

The superfight was an aberration in boxing. The biggest fight ever will not happen every week. Maybe the advertising campaign met with some success, a great deal even, but true success will have residual fans, people who will have seen the fight and want to see the next one and the next one.

Sure, it may have the biggest pay-per-view ever but what kinds of numbers will HBO have next week for the replay and broadcast of a live fight? Does the general public know about that? Will any one other than fans like me bother tuning in when we already know the result?

Boxing’s problems are definitely no easy fix. But each piece that’s wrong, by itself should be within reach.

Bring back ABC’s World of Sports and have a fight or two on Saturday. Even if they’re terrible fighters, someone will pay attention.

And if you package it right with advertising, maybe they tune in for a fight on a premium channel and maybe, just maybe, a few more people buy a PPV.

But you can’t expect people to buy a “superior” product if they have no desire, no awareness or no money to get that “superior” product.