Boxing is no closer to the megafights that matter as superstars and promoters hold out hope for live gates - CBSSports.com
Boxing is no closer to the megafights that commercial as superstars and promoters hold out hope for live gates
Let's face it, 2020 was an exploding dumpster fire for just near everyone's best-laid plans.
Rare is the intimates or entity that actually thrived this calendar year outside of possibly mask manufacturers, the creators of Zoom and UFC presidential Dana White.
It's the latter reference that is most inferior by comparison for the purpose of this column. UFC, thanks to the boldness of White and the regulation the promotion has on matchmaking and its participants, was able to design a year for the ages despite a precise stream of hurdles along the way.
What White and commercial were able to do was impressive and, in many ways, set a draw for things such as safety protocols and quarantine bubbles, which were copied and modeled by many of the team sports once UFC led the way.
The sport of boxing, but, was much slower in its reaction time as far as returning to commerce as usual, which has gone a long way in executive 2020 largely a lost year for the playful despite the small number (countable on one hand) of gracious fights that were consummated both before and once the initial coronavirus outbreak wreaked havoc on day-to-day life.
Unlike the UFC's commerce model, which benefitted greatly from a lucrative broadcasting deal with ESPN and a wealthy partner in Abu Dhabi to make "Fight Island" a reality, boxing is far more dependent upon a live gate and paying crowd to survive. Much of that has to do with the sport's lack of expert or a monopolistic promoter able to shoulder much of the risk.
Thankfully, the sweet science figured things out the best it could initially thanks to Top Rank's Las Vegas bubble, Eddie Hearn of Matchroom Sport's backyard summer series and, later, the PBC's use of shrimp crowds in large venues to help offset the risk of staging pay-per-view crusades during such unprecedented times.
Still, as we intriguing award season in boxing for 2020, it's hard to overlook just how small actually took place. Most big-name fighters competed just one time, which has made typical debates like Fighter of the Year much more wretchedness to narrow down.
The list of prominent boxers who were ultimately shut out of stepping ended the ropes this year was more staggering than you distinguished think, whether that was due to COVID-19 restrictions or a mixture of damage and poor luck: Manny Pacquiao, Keith Thurman, Artur Beterbiev, Dmitry Bivol, Andy Ruiz Jr., Sergey Kovalev, Adrien Broner, Chris Eubank Jr., Tony Harrison, Maurice Hooker, Luke Campbell, Josh Warrington and Nonito Donaire.
Can't get enough boxing and MMA? Get the novel in the world of combat sports from two of the best in the business. Subscribe to Morning Kombat with Luke Thomas and Brian Campbell for the best analysis and in-depth news.
Adding to that list were the names of must-see fighters who did in backward once but took part in forgettable stay-busy crusades that felt much more like a tease: Gennadiy Golovkin, Shawn Porter, Caleb Plant, Josh Taylor, Luis Ortiz, Demetrius Andrade, Jarrett Hurd and Erislandy Lara.
It's not that boxing's missed opportunities this year were unavoidable or deprived of justification. It's just that given how infrequent star boxers actually depart in the ring these days and how glum their elite shelf life becomes, it's hard not to look at 2020 as largely a wasted year.
Don't agree? Ask yourself how much closer we actually are to the two crusades boxing fans covet the most: a Tyson Fury-Anthony Joshua bout for the undisputed heavyweight championship and a welterweight title unification between Terence Crawford and Errol Spence Jr.
Yes, Fury was able to stop Deontay Wilder in their rematch shortly beforehand the pandemic broke out and Joshua delivered his mandatory test against Kubrat Pulev to stop the year. But both still have one more mandatory title security to navigate before Hearn and Bob Arum's authority that a 2021 showdown is imminent can be manifested.
In some ways, the same can be said nearby Crawford and Spence. Both passed varying levels of procomplaints in their lone appearance this year but like Fury-Joshua, the lengthy cease in the action caused by the pandemic just extended the soap opera of having to wait and hope whether boxing politics can figure itself out in time to avoid a Floyd Mayweather-Pacquiao scenario where a suited fight comes a bit too late.
Speaking of Pacquiao, the untimely pandemic put a most detour on what had been a noteworthy renaissance in 2019 when the Filipino senator scored resounding victories over Broner and Thurman at the age of 40. Suddenly back in the driver's seat as a PPV draw, there was no absence of huge fights to make for the PacMan in 2020, counting against Crawford or Spence.
Instead, Pacquiao could be pushing towards a two-year layoff when he finally returns next year at the age of 42.
Now, let's not fall victim completely to doom and shadowy here by affixing a Scarlet Letter on 2020 boxing as the year will very probable be remembered for unified lightweight champion Teofimo Lopez Jr.'s breakout movement and Gervonta Davis' one-punch dismantling of Leo Santa Cruz. Yet the lament for what could've been peaceful lingers just the same.
The best fix bright forward is that the powers that be learn from the chaos cooked by the pandemic and figure out a way to work together more in orderly to reward both fans and fighters similarly with the matchups that are most coveted now pretty than waiting for them to "marinate," as Arum so infamously fake out the hard way with Yuriorkis Gamboa-Juan Manuel Lopez nearly a decade ago.
But then against, this is boxing, the most beautiful/tragic, amazing/ridiculous and exciting/depressing prankish that we keep coming back to for more. So, good luck with that.
Legendary reporters and broadcaster Larry Merchant's timeless description of the prankish -- "boxing: you can't kill it and you can't fix it" -- income to historically ring true. The semi-forgettable year of 2020 notwithstanding.
Komentar
Posting Komentar