By Robert Elmore: I can sit all day and night and talk about how boxing is dying and promoters are ruining the sport. But I won’t. I still watch boxing to this day and try to check out the new prospects when I get a chance. There are two major reasons why some have lost interest in boxing. One, half of the champions are not Americans; which I will touch more on in part two. And two and this is a big one to me; the fighters don’t know how to market themselves to get big fights and pay days.
Jack Johnson was a very flamboyant man whose lifestyle, cockiness, and dating white women made him a marked man. He lived in an era where black men were not allowed to fight for the title and he longed for a shot. So what did he do? He put together a two year campaign to fight with champion Tommy Burns. For two years, Johnson chased Burns and taunted him until finally the Canadian gave in. The end result: The fight drew 20,000 spectators, and Johnson won by T.K.O. Now Johnson had a fire blazing. He didn’t have to market himself anymore. He got the public to do it for him. After this fight, promoters began looking for the great white hope to take Johnson down. It would take seven years before that great white hope ended a seven year reign. What probably threw more logs on the fire was the fact that Johnson refused to face other black fighters. He didn’t want them stealing his glory. Each bout drew fans wanting to see him lose. Some wanted to see him lose because of his lifestyle outside the ring and other half wanted to see him lose because of his skill inside the ring. Either way, his fights sold.
Mike Tyson was another one who was marketed by Bill Cayton and Jim Jacobs. The strategy was to line up tomato cans that he could knockout, build up his record, and get him a shot a title shot. People were so fascinated by Tyson’s knockout ability that they began to pile into arenas EXPECTING a knockout. Even if a particular fight did not end in a knockout, it still drew the people in. People probably didn’t want to take that chance of missing a fight. Usually the fight that a person missed was the one Tyson displayed fire works. So it kept everyone on their heels. But after a while, some of the media began to call for Tyson’s head as he rose threw the ranks. He silenced those people by knocking out Trevor Berbick, he waltzed with James “Bonecrusher” Smith; beat down Pinklon Thomas. He out boxed Tucker (becoming the youngest undisputed champ) and then dismantled Tyrell Biggs who many said would beat Tyson. Add this, even after a six year completing a six year jail sentence and fought Peter McNeely, it did 1.5 on PPV. His fights against Holyfield and Lewis did even better even though Tyson was past his prime. Tyson was offered 35 million to fight Holyfield in a third match. He declined. How is it that a man past his prime can still make 35 million? I’ll let the reader answer this.
Today, Mayweather and Pacquiao are the biggest stars in boxing with out question. Their marketing ability is great whether we believe it’s negative or positive. You will never see either of these two fighters chasing other fighters. They are only chasing each other. Or one could say trying to out do one another. Proof? You have fighters like Tim Bradley, Alexander, Martinez, Khan, Berto, Marquez calling out May and Pac. They know two things can come from fighting these two; bigger names and/or bigger paydays.
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