Boxing is the most alive! No UFC will strangle classic sports
Alexander Frolov September 19, 2024, 19:45 Moscow time Audio version: Your browser does not support the audio element.
Boxing’s popularity will always be at a high level.
In recent years, professional boxing has come under serious criticism. The confusion with the large number of champions and organizations, the lack of fights between the best against the best, the outdated organization of tournaments and many other problems have completely tired boxing fans. In addition, in the last 20 years, a competitor with monstrous teeth has emerged – UFC, which has shown how great modern fights and everything connected with them can be. The head of this promotion, Dana White, claims that professional boxing is practically dead.
Dana Blanco
Photo: Chris Unger/Zuffa LLC
But, to put it mildly, it is too early to bury the classic English martial arts. Of course, all the above-mentioned disadvantages of professional boxing do exist. And yes, the incredible UFC professionals are really far ahead of the vast majority of boxing promotions. Nevertheless, boxing, despite all its modern shortcomings, remains the favorite sport of millions of fans around the planet. And these are not only conservatives who have not accepted MMA, but also a new, young audience.
The most recent example is Saul Alvarez. A few days ago, the gradually aging Canelo fought Edgar Berlanga, a strong, but, to put it mildly, not a star opponent of the Mexican. The fight took place in Las Vegas, where exactly at the same time the big UFC Night tournament was taking place, and even in the exclusive Sphere Arena. It seemed that boxing in general and Canelo in particular had no chance – the guys from UFC really held the main event of the year, wonderful from all points of view.
A story about a great tournament:
UFC 306 is the best tournament of the year. Dana White, keep going!
However, the fight with Alvarez, despite all sorts of obstacles, showed truly excellent commercial results. For the tournament with Canelo’s participation, all 20 thousand tickets were sold for a total of about 17 million dollars. And the indicators of paid broadcasts completely exceeded all expectations: according to preliminary information, PPV was bought about 650 thousand times. Let us recall that this was far from being Saul’s brightest fight according to the poster, and even at the same time as a competitor he showed his maximum. Is professional boxing really dead?
And this week there will be a boxing tournament in London. Most of the names of the participants on the card will mean nothing to the outside viewer, but the main fight will be between Anthony Joshua and Daniel Dubois – spectacular heavyweights, but with only one championship belt between them. And nothing – the initial 90,000 tickets for Wembley, where the tournament will be held, were sold out in just a few days. The promoters even had to slightly expand the capacity, but still many people were left without the coveted ticket. What can we say about the popularity of Tyson Fury, Oleksandr Usik or Terence Crawford? These guys will gather 200 thousand spectators – it is enough to build a suitable arena.
The fight between Fury and Joshua is a dream:
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Boxers, pundits and journalists can talk all they want about the death of professional boxing. In some ways they will even be right, because boxing has really seen better days. But the main person who evaluates the popularity of a particular sport is the spectator. And he votes with his dollar/pound for boxing and will continue to do so. Professional boxing is the most alive of all living things, there is total order with money and popularity, and the new Arab players will help to correct some of the shortcomings. Don’t bury boxing, it will live forever.
