By Robert Elmore: The public has been screaming about crooked promoters, how there are too many belts floating around, and how pay per view view is killing boxing. Well, this may come as a shock to some, but nothing stays the same. Nonetheless, thousands of fans sit in front of their TV.’s if a fight is on Showtime or HBO. People still crank out money whenever a pay per view event occurs. Some fighters get more buys than others, but still the money is spent. People may ask why is boxing still going?

The answer is simple; The people who run the sport have adjusted to the times. Once you make the adjustments, then one can transcend and take the game to another level. So let’s dive right in. First, the laundry list of belts. There’s the NABF (also in lower case letters) WBO, the IBC, the WBU, and the IBO (there are more) may not mean much to establish fighters, but for up and coming fighters it can help. For one, The young fighter can win the NABF titled, be it upper or lower case. He says to himself “I’m a champion.”

That word becomes planted in his head. Then he goes after and wins the IBC. What is the result? More confidence. Two, before he knows it, he has gained notoriety and now he’s fighting for one of the big three. Fighters understand the stipulations, the financial cost, and the possibility of having to defend the belt against the number 1, 2, or 24th contenders . Apparently, they have been okay with it (because of the long list of champions boxing has had in the past) up until they felt like they didn’t need a belt anymore and use their popularity to get a big fight and make big money.

People can call promoters crooks all they want, but boxing would not be what it is today without them; as well as some of our beloved fighters. Bob Arum was instrumental for making fighters who they are today. One of them is Marvelous Marvin Hagler.

Marvin Hagler was the number ranked contender for the belt for years, but was denied a chance to fight for the middleweight title. In 1979, Arum stepped in and changed all that. Had Arum not stepped in, Hagler would have just been another journey man fighter with a stellar record. We would not have seen seven years of dominance; watch him stop Wilfrod Sycpion who had never been knocked out until he faced Hagler; watch him display great boxing skill against Duran; and I need not to give an explanation about the Hearns battle.

The Eastin Assassin Larry Holmes was another fighter who we might ever known had Don King not given him chance. In an interview with Mike Marley, Holmes had this to say about King: “People wouldn’t given have a dime to my boxing career. But you know what? One person did and his name is Don King. The man put me in a position to fight for the heavyweight championship of the world”.

Source: (Youtube-Larry Holmes interview (p1): Don King made me a lot of money. The interview was done by Mike Marley)

Finally, the Pay Per View. In 1991, The February issue of the Ring Magazine made a bold statement. Boxing on TV, Now You’ll Pay. Promoters and fighters alike saw this so what did they do? Ask De La Hoya who is currently number with 12.4 million buys and $610 million in total revenue; Holyfield, 12.6 million buys $543 million in revenue, and third Mike Tyson; 12.4 million buys $545 million in revenue). They groomed themselves and took advantage of their resources.
Source (Google: Type in Pay Per View)

Facetime: Did the music industry come to a complete stop when the musician filled studios that produced the smooth music of the 50’s 60′ and 70’s were replaced by beat machines, synthesizers? Did the NBA fold because Isiah, Magic, Jordan and Bird retired? Did big names like Oprah Winfrey, Jay-Z, Bill Gates, all complain and cry when the economic crises hit? The answer is a resounding NO. These people/organizations simply made a few adjustments to the times and began to utilize the resources around them. That’s all. I have come to find out that the people that do the complaining are those who are stuck in their ways and hate change. These people are often left behind. I still dabble into the archives from time to time and watch old fights like Chavez vs Camacho; Simon Brown vs Buddy McGirt, The Pistons vs Celtics, and even my good ol’ 70 music; EWF, Dramatics, The Time and so on. But doing these things will change the face of the environment. In fact, while I was writing this article things were changing. Hopefully, it was us.