By Alexz Yzerman
It seems everyone has an opinion on what the problem with boxing is. There are even those who suggest there is no problem at all. One thing almost everyone agrees on, however, is that money is the dominant force driving the sport.
When I say that greed and selfishness are damaging the sport, I am often countered with the defense that all sports are centered on money. Everything they do is designed to make as much money as possible, making millionaires into billionaires. And while that may be true, there is one significant difference that affects the product of boxing much differently than it would in say, football.
Football is undoubtedly the most popular sport at least here in the United States. And while there is no doubt that greedy owners control the league as well as individual teams, there is one thing the owners MUST do if they want to continue to line their pockets with gold. They must improve the league. While ticket prices and contracts skyrocket, there is little doubt that the action we get on the field is the best that the owners believe they can provide. In order to get more money from fans, they know the product must be entertaining or fans will begin to look towards other avenues for their enjoyment. The NFL is one giant unified front aimed at getting as much cash as they can from the consumers. And as long as we feel we are being given the best the NFL can provide, we are happy to continue to pay up to enjoy the product.
Boxing, on the other hand, is completely different. Instead of a league unified to provide fans the best, it is severely fractured. Greedy promoters and organizations do everything they can to hoard money for themselves, making sure others don’t get a piece of the pie. Rather than giving the fans what they want to see, these groups or individuals give us what THEY want to see in hopes of ultimately landing that one big fight in which they can really cash in. More often than not the plan backfires, screwing the promoters and the fans alike.
Bob Arum is an easy target and prime example of what can happen when a promoter is more worried about his own pockets than elevating the sport. Not too long ago he was building up Juanma Lopez and Yuriorkis Gamboa to what he hoped would be a huge pay per view that would generate millions in revenue. So rather than take risks and have his guys fight qualified challengers such as Celestino Caballero, he played it safe and padded their resumes with low risk fights. After all, a loss to Caballero would kill the big fight as well as alloew a title belt go to someone that Arum had no control of. Control is not something he could afford to lose.
So Caballero and any other fighters deemed as threats were dismissed. Unfortunately for Top Rank, a funny thing happened along the way. Juanma was exposed, losing two times and the epic pay per view possibilities with Gamboa disappeared. Not only did fans lose out on that big fight, but also the chances of seeing the heated rivalry between Caballero and Juanma settled in the ring. Now it is unlikely any combination of the three will ever square off, costing the fans some exciting fights for sure. And all this was in an effort for Arum to control the money and the belts.
Arum is of course not the only one guilty of this. Most other promoters are guilty of the same thing. It’s a sport completely ruled by politics and not by fair and quality competition. There has always been ducking in the sport, but not at this level. As a youngster I was lucky to see Hagler, Hearns, Leonard, and Duran square off against each other numerous times, most times while in their prime. Today, as the two biggest figures in the sport enter the tail end of their careers, we are left wondering if Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao will even square off once.
I was always taught that if you don’t have a solution to a problem, don’t complain about it. But I honestly don’t have one here. Because boxing is a worldwide sport and not ruled by one central governing body, it’s unlikely anything can be done to keep individual greed out of the game. Perhaps all we can do is hope that as time goes on, honest promoters who love the sport as much as they love money will come to take control. However, as society gets more greedy as time goes on, I only fear that things will just get worse for the fans. Hopefully I am wrong.
