Boxing is a Business. For years now, unmarketable fighters and their delusional fans have been crying about influencer boxing. It is an entertaining product which has its own stars, like “The Problem Child” Jake Paul, Current WWE Intercontinental Champion Logan “The Maverick” Paul and Nathaniel “Salt Papi” Bustamante. This is what is known as “Sour Grapes” from individuals that wish that they could do the same. To borrow a word from hip hop, this Haterism is spreading far and wide by ignorant people who pretend not to know that boxing is a business.
Boxing has always been a business. If it was just a contest to see who the toughest S.O.B. is, then these fights would happen for free in a warehouse without a crowd. Boxing has always been about marketability first and foremost. Skills is a distant second, something many people pretend not to know. For an adequate scale, rate marketability on a scale of 1 to 20 and skills on a scale of 1 to 5. Add those numbers up, and whichever boxer ends up with the highest sum is naturally going to make more money, regardless of how skilled a boxer is. It is why fighters like Derek Chisora would make considerably more money than someone like Wanheng Menayothin, that many of you will have to google. Wanheng Menayothin not only equaled Floyd Mayweather’s 50-0 record, he was able to add 4 more wins before he suffered his first lost to other future hall of famers Thammanoon Niyomtrong and Panya Pradabsri. All three of them combined will never make the money Logan Paul or Conor McGregor made in just one fight. They have the skills; they just aren’t marketable. Boxing is a business.
The business side of boxing is why your PPV prices are going up and will continue to go up. It is why boxing tickets are going up and will continue to go up. There is a lot of money to be made in boxing, it is why there are cut men, managers, promoters, trainers, sparring partners, ring girls, advertisers, because boxing is a business. Some fighters are more marketable and bring a lot of money to each and every fight. Many fighters with great skills and poor marketability try to entice these marketable fighters to face them. They go on about only wanting to fight the best or fight the biggest fights. Fighters like Gennady Golovkin who stayed away from dangerous and unmarketable fighters like Andre Ward. Stayed away from dangerous and semi-marketable fighters like Carl Froch, and instead wanted to face the then-undersized Saul Alvarez. Golovkin even wanted to face Floyd Mayweather, who was two divisions underneath him and wound up facing Kell Brook, who was also two weight classes underneath him. He did this because Brook was marketable and not as dangerous as someone like Ward or Froch. Yet, Golovkin was able to convince people that he was about fighting the best. Another man on the same train is Terence Crawford.
The Paul Brothers know how to sell a fight and have people who are seemingly smart, say dumb things. People want Logan Paul to prove himself by fighting some skilled, powerful and experienced boxer. It is easy to look up Floyd “TBE” Mayweather’s boxing record. When he came into boxing in 1996, that would be the equivalent of asking him to fight then-Champion Oscar De La Hoya or current pound-for-pound champ Terence “Bud” Crawford to fight Mayweather in his first few fights or be labeled a ducker. With the exception of Claressa “GWOAT” Shields or Vasyl “Loma” Lomachencko, you would be hard-pressed to find any fighter that jumped off into the deep end to start their career. It just doesn’t happen. Fighters who are marketable have that type of heat. There are three things that make a fighter marketable.
Charisma. Fighters with charisma like Mayweather, the Pauls, Gervonta “Tank” Davis, Ryan “Kingry” Garcia, and Conor McGregor are always going to make the dough. They are always going to have people calling them out because that is where the money is. It is the reason that someone like #1 WBC Ryan Rozicki (Who you have never heard of) would rather face Jake Paul instead of Noel “Gevor” Mikaelian (who is the champion by the way.) Next on the list is the belt.
Casual fans, delusional fans and fans who just want to troll will bring up the good ole days. They will have the argument that having multiple belts somehow sullies boxing, that insert fighter name here from decades or even a century ago was a real fighter and the best there ever was, or that boxers back in the day were only about facing the toughest challenges they could regardless of money. That these boxers only cared about legacy. There was only one belt, and that was the toughest in any era. This is ludicrous, as we progress at a people, we get faster and we get bigger. To switch sports, Jesse Owens is widely celebrated as a stellar sprinter. He won the 100m sprint in a time of 10.30 at the Olympics. He would come in dead last if he were to run today. Find any quantifiable record that doesn’t have moving variables of yesteryear and compare them to today. Weightlifting, sprinting, and running have all drastically improved. So has boxing, it is likely your love for Rocky Maricano couldn’t help him against towering brute Tyson “The Gypsy King” Fury. The belt matters, they are even more important today than they were decades ago. The last thing to determine marketability is the record. The 0 in the loss column makes people want to come to see you. Of course, boxers want to protect their 0, they want the money. Lesser boxers understand marketability and attempt to draw more marketable boxers out.
David Benavidez has been after Saul Alvarez. He doesn’t care about the best fighting the best or any other garbage. He could face David Morrell Jr. today if he wanted. He could face Jai Opetaia today. Artur Beterbiev is another name he could fight. They don’t pay, that is why you will never see those fights. If Canelo gave up every title he held right now, Benavidez would still want to fight him instead of collecting belts. Jaron Ennis could fight Virgil Ortiz instead of Terence Crawford. Teofimo Lopez and Devin Haney could fight each other instead of Ryan Garcia. They will not because boxing is a business. Promoters with unmarketable fighters will cry about the best fighting the best. Promoters like De La Hoya would cry about it. Why haven’t we seen Ryan Garcia face down Boot Ennis? Boxing is a business, and influencers recognize this.
Logan Paul made more money in one fight than many champions make in their entire career. Jaron “Boots” Ennis is worth less than a million dollars, compare that to Jake Paul. Influencer boxing is here to stay. It is an interesting product. I would rather watch a bunch of guys throw haymakers at each other and then get tired than I would Devin Haney and Regis Prograis fight again. The majority of the world agrees with me. 1.2 million people saw personalities KSI and Tommy Fury fight on PPV. 50K saw Haney and Prograis, and that was before anyone knew that it would be a snoozefest. It is only a vocal few, poor fans, past their prime broke boxers and unmarketable boxers who think otherwise. The Pauls are here to stay. KSI and Misfits boxing is here to stay.