The Sweet Science has Soured

I know I am on the verge of being a curmudgeon, what with my complaints about the Canadian Football League, but being on the eve of the bout between Oscar De La Hoya and Manny Pacquiao. The Dream Match, I feel I need to address boxing's downward spiral.

As Yahoo! Sports' Kevin Iole points out in his article "Boxing needs best-of-the-best bouts", there is definitely something wrong with the sport of boxing:

"The [Mayweather Jr. v. De La Hoya] match sold nearly 20 percent more on pay-per-view than the previous record and generated more than $170 million in gross revenue, or a ballpark amount the Yankees are willing to pay CC Sabathia to pitch for them over the next few years.

Ticket revenue alone counted for $18.4 million, with an average ticket sold at $1,078.53."

Despite the marquee match-up, and the huge bank the fight did, boxing is still in a serious state of decline. In Iole's words: "If anything, U.S. boxing in 2008 is in worse shape than it was in 2007. There’s less television, there are more empty seats and even relatively big fights are going unnoticed."

Iole offers a few ideas as to why the sport is suffering. As the title of his article implies, he sees the lack of big cards as the biggest problem. He wants big names on big cards to draw more attention to the sport. One of the promoters he interviews, Bob Arum, points out that it's because there's not enough boxing on free television.

I think they are, in part, both right. As Cheapseats reader Maria pointed out in her comment on my CFL article: "My big complaint is that the Grey Cup is broadcast on TSN, not on one of your basic cable channels. I only pay for basic cable. I was not able to watch the Grey Cup." Maria is right. Making events available to a wider audience is crucial to the success of the sport. Pay-per-view cards doesn't just limit your audience, it alienates them. I've never heard of Manny Pacquiao before, because he's rarely, if ever, mentioned on television.

Why are boxers not well known? I think it's because there's no major league of boxing. The best football players in the world play in the National Football League. The best hockey players (except Jaromir Jagr) play in the National Hockey League. In boxing? I have no idea which league is the "major" league. Do you? Likely not.

Instead, the talent is spread around and thinned out. Iole can't get his "big name, big card" because there is not a single boxing federation that has all the top stars. A fan trying to familiarize themselves with the sport can't follow just one promotion - - they need to follow three or four.

This disorder spills over to television as well. No major network wants to pick up boxing events because none of them can truly lay claim to being the best. All of the heavyweight championships that are floating around have lost their value because there are three others like them.

For boxing to get back up on its feet, to beat the count out decision, they need to start unifying events, promotions, and most importantly, the belts. Only then will fans be able to figure out whether or not a match is actually a competitive contest, and then boxing will be able to make it on to prime time network television. Without unification, boxing will continue to decay.