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NOTES FROM THE BOXING UNDERGROUND: A SUCKER'S BORN EVERY...

By Paul Magno | July 29, 2024
NOTES FROM THE BOXING UNDERGROUND: A SUCKER'S BORN EVERY...

Hello Suckers.

What a hurtful, hateful, disrespectful thing to say, right?

Well, that’s what the boxing business thinks of you. You’re suckers, marks, water heads whose feelings and beliefs can be twisted around by some very basic public relations. You’re so dumb that they can even get you to buy something you totally didn’t want-- and then walk away feeling good about being duped.

Case in point, Saul “Canelo” Alvarez vs. Edgar “Can” Berlanga.

This is a fight that nobody but Berlanga, his family, and Canelo want. It’s a fight that will not be competitive, featuring a B-side who’s fought nobody of real note and whose only chance of dropping Canelo involves a sniper being planted in the balcony of T-Mobile Arena.

Yet, here we are. Canelo vs. Berlanga on September 14. There’ll be a pay-per-view price tag on it, too-- probably well above 80 bucks. 

And the event organizers just know it’ll sell, because when the Mexican cash cow, Alvarez, tells you what to buy, you’re gonna buy it. And when he tells you that David Benavidez didn’t deserve a title shot because he hadn’t fought anybody, but that Berlanga DID deserve one, you better not chuckle. Just nod your head and agree...and BUY. 

Saudi Arabian wannabe boxing dictator Turki Alalshikh knows all about playing fans for suckers, too. I mean, the guy has had several cards full of fights nobody asked for, and the narrative always seems to be: “He’s giving us the fights we’ve been wanting to see.”

This coming Saturday, he’s giving American fight fans a card on US soil, full of sub-HBO-level fights topped by Terence Crawford meeting a guy in Israil Madrimov who is probably no. 17 on the “I want to see him fight Crawford” list. And it’s pay-per-view. And you’re gonna be happy and grateful to “His Excellency.” 

Because you’re a sucker.

If you ever want to find some perspective on these kinds of things by going to the media, well, good luck with that. Your sources for education and information are the boxing site owned by the promoter who’s in a partnership with the Saudis or the boxing site owned by that other boxing company, which has some dubious hiring/firing/keeping-your-job practices. Or maybe you can go to some other select individual reporters who are deeply compromised and/or experts at bartering favors for access. 

But they all expect you to trust that what they say is true. And, for the most part, you actually do.

No wonder the UFC feels it can walk right into Las Vegas and claim Mexican Independence Day weekend by stealing boxing fandom away from boxing. They see you guys as chimps, easily distracted by shiny things (like, The Sphere...Ooohhhh, look at the lights…). 

That can be the only explanation for making a Noche UFC card on September 14 in Vegas, opposite Canelo-Berlanga, as a “tribute to the Mexican people for their extraordinary contributions to combat sports” with a main event pitting an Irish-American against a Georgian, fighting under the sponsorship of Saudi Arabia. Dana White and the UFC think if they put Mexican artwork on some posters, it’ll be enough to lure in Mexican boxing fans...because...boxing fans are suckers.

No other industry is as consistently disrespectful and dismissive of its customers as boxing. 

Imagine going to Burger King, Home of the Whopper, with a craving for a Whopper and, when you get there, they want to give you a microwave Fast Bites dollar store burger instead-- at the price of a Whopper. And while you’re wondering what the fuck is going on, they stand there, legitimately feeling that you should be happy about being screwed around.

I’m not privy to a lot on the business side of things in this sport. But I’m not so eager anymore to be understanding about why fans are being disrespected while being asked to pay more and more for the privilege of being a fan. I don’t care anymore about the “whys,” I just want to focus on the “hell nos.”

If you’re a boxing company and you can’t afford to stay in business, maybe you should not be in the boxing business. Or maybe you should tighten your budget and scale back your efforts. I know when these writing gigs of mine start drying up, I eat a hell of a lot more peanut butter than when things are going well.

Whatever. Just stop dicking the fans around. 

There’s some evidence that fans are smartening up, though. The further embracing of piracy is a logical, if maybe misguided, response to boxing constantly gouging its fans with pay-per-views and subscription fees. 

Canelo’s buys, for instance, have declined substantially with every bad matchup he tries to peddle. Maybe the same number of people are watching him, but fewer are actually paying. It’s not a healthy way to battle shitty boxing business. It’s a little like stealing the Fast Bites burgers from Burger King in the example I used above. Yeah, you get the burger free now, but it’s still a shitty burger. Ideally, we’d all like the Whopper and would be willing to pay a fair price for it.

Boxing needs to look at the way the music industry battled piracy back in the early days of the internet and file sharing. The solution was to make the legal music product more convenient and more economical. Fans responded, for the most part, by going back to getting their music the legal route. 

The boxing business, however, isn’t even trying to make any changes to how they do things-- unless you count charging more for poorer content as an actual business strategy. 

And, why aren’t they trying?

Because they still think you’re a sucker.

Got something for Magno? Send it here: paulmagno@theboxingtribune.com

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