By Allan Fox: Teofimo Lopez says the YouTuber boxing is ruining the sport, and it must be stopped. Undisputed lightweight champion Teofimo didn’t mention any names specifically when talking about YouTuber boxing, but it’s obvious he’s referring to Jake and Logan Paul
With boxing still in the wild west stage with promoters willing to put the YouTubers on their cards, it arguably makes a mockery of the sport by allowing them to share the spotlight with professionals.
If anyone is to blame for the YouTubers being given the chance to play an amateur hour on boxing cards, it’s the promoters and the networks that agree to televise the fights.
“Stop this YouTuber Boxing. Stop diminishing the sport that we’ve worked so hard for! S*** not sweet,” said Teofimo Lopez on Twitter.
Those two have become famous on Youtube for their social media channels, but they’ve recently turned to boxing to make money and gain attention to themselves.
Logan Paul, who is arguably the far less talented of the Paul brothers, lost his pro debut to fellow YouTuber KSI [AKA Olajide William Olatunji] in November 2019 on the undercard of Billy Joe Saunders vs. Marcelo Esteban Coceres in Los Angeles.
Logan recently signed to fight an exhibition match against FLoyd Mayweather Jr, but the match has been postponed.
There’s an argument that can be made that the YouTubers are helping boxing become more mainstream by using their platform to promote the sport with their YouTuber fights.
Unfortunately, that’s not likely to be the case. The fans that tune in to watch YouTubers Jake & Logan Paul aren’t boxing fans. They’re fans of those two personalities, and they’re not likely to start watching the sport when those two aren’t involved.
The low-quality product that those casual fans see when the Paul brothers fight likely is a repellant, making them even less likely to become dedicated fans.
What makes the Paul brothers compelling to watch is the same showmanship that we saw from UFC star Conor McGregor when he fought Floyd Mayweather Jr in 2017. Those guys are mediocre boxers, but they’re excellent at creating hype for their fights by trash-talking and using theatrics to build interest.
There are a small number of professional boxers like Teofimo, Adrien Broner, and Ryan Garcia that can rival what the Paul brothers do outside of the ring to hype their fights, but there’s not enough. Most boxers lack the showmanship needed to catch the attention of the casual and non-boxing fans to get them to start watching the sport.
The promoters and the fighters in boxing hurt the sport by failing to take the risky fights that would attract more interest. For example, we still haven’t seen a fight between welterweight champions Errol Spence Jr and Terence Crawford.
That’s just one of many examples of top fighters failing to face each other for whatever reason. In the UFC, the best are forced to fight each other because there’s one controller in charge of the organization.
That’s the UFC has gained a quick following because the best is fighting the best. In boxing that doesn’t happen, and it hasn’t since the 1970s. Too many fighters are focused on picking up paper titles, and then using the belts to pick and choose weak opposition.
You get guys like Canelo Alvarez choosing a weak division at super middleweight to try ad become the undisputed champion rather than facing the best, which are contenders in the division.
Alvarez would get more attention by fighting non-champions like David Benavidez and Edgar Berlanga than he would by fighting the mediocre belt-holders Caleb Plant and Billy Joe Saunders.