Fans and media fall in love with the bomb-throwing slugger who walks face-first into battle. The online Universo Pugilistico swoons over these "beasts" and "killers" who go to war and seem not to care one single bit about style, defense, and the business behind the ass-beatings.
We're told over and over again how THIS is what the public wants and THIS is what puts asses in seats and eyeballs in front of screens.
These other pansies and cowards-the ones who deal in craft and timing and subtle shifts in positioning-are "boring." Nobody pays to see that garbage. Nobody's interested in a blood sport athlete whose objective is NOT to bleed. BoooooooÂ… Take that crap to ballet class!
Fans are told this over and over again in the boxing media and throughout social media.
However, like a lot of what we're told to believe in boxing, reality is a bit different from what passes through the lips (and keyboards) of media and prejudiced fandom.
The biggest draw of this modern era and greatest money-earner of all-time is Floyd Mayweather, one of the most adept defensive fighters of all-time. In a sea of "he's boring" and "he's ruining boxing" laments, Mayweather proved himself to be a draw, the only American crossover draw boxing has produced in decades. Sure, some of that drawing power comes from people wanting to see him get beat and the rest of it probably comes from his ability to market his image to the public. But, still, at the heart of things is a fighter whose entire ring presence is devoted to shutting down raging opposition, slowing down the action, and carefully picking apart foes.
Andre Ward gets the same bum rap as Mayweather. He's not a draw because he's "boring" and off-putting to fans who want to see blood and guts. He's a "spoiler" aimed at frustrating more than dominating. Blah, blah, blah.
But, when cold, hard fact meets media and internet bluster, reality is revealed.
In terms of TV ratings, Ward does as well as (if not better than) any American boxer these days (not named Mayweather) and the numbers are competitive with anyone's in boxing at the moment.
To put his numbers into perspective, Ward's average of 1,076,500 viewers over four appearances on HBO puts him only slightly behind Gennady Golovkin's average of 1,207, 250 viewers over a four-fight stretch within a similar period of time. That's just about a ten percent difference in viewership-in the face of the impression cultivated by some in the media that Golovkin is this massive fan favorite superstar while Ward is nothing but crickets and tumbleweeds. And let's not even compare PPV buy rates, where both Ward and Golovkin have come up short.
The case of Guillermo Rigondeaux may be even more of an awful injustice because, at the very least, the bias laid out against Mayweather and Ward hasn't really affected their respective legacies or ability to make a living.
The Cuban stylist with the flawless defensive style has been marginalized and kept at least an arms-length away from anyone who can bring him a major payday and a legacy-defining win. Opponents and rival promoters will flat-out admit that they're avoiding him, shamelessly pointing at internet talking points that reinforce the story of him being too little of a draw for too big of a risk.
The reality, though, is that Rigondeaux is relatively untested in the world of TV ratings but, on the two occasions that he HAS been tested, he's produced similar numbers to other small fighters on the national stage.
In his two fights on "regular" HBO, Rigondeaux has averaged 825,000 viewers. Meanwhile, Vasyl Lomachenko, who is washed over in praise as a fan favorite of the lower weight classes, has averaged 726,000 viewers in his last three HBO fights. Mind you, the sample size for Rigondeaux is extremely small here and one of his HBO fights WAS with the ratings-friendly Nonito Donaire, but the truth seems to be that nobody under 140 lbs.-not Rigo, not Lomachenko, not anyone-is drawing major numbers.
The banishment of Rigondeaux began with his beating of Donaire, who was pegged by promoter Bob Arum as the possible heir apparent to the lucrative Manny Pacquiao Filipino fan base. After the one-side decision victory, Arum, who was also promoting Rigondeaux at the time, filled the media with anti-Rigondeaux propaganda, casting his fighter as a boring, hard-to-sell boxer who made networks "throw up" at the mere thought of having to broadcast his fights.
The Arum lambasting stuck in the minds of the boxing world, especially since it coincided with every manager's and promoter's heartfelt desire to never have to send their fighter up against the Cuban.
And now Rigondeaux is relegated to mid-card status on PPV events and to being an undercard attraction on overseas cards. Any big names willing to sign on against him will come at a higher weight, where Rigondeaux will have to give up a huge size advantage against some hotshot, in-his-prime champion. Eventually, he'll be beaten by a lesser fighter who will make him come far outside his comfort zone in search of a big-money fight.
All of this speaks to the fact that what fans are hearing as gospel by compromised media and their prejudiced sycophants is not what the facts tell us.
Boxing fans are not being chased away by skillful, crafty fighters. If anything, the numbers prove that boxing fans have a sophisticated appreciation for all different styles and temperaments and that, ultimately, what attracts boxing fans is BOXING.
While TV ratings are trending down when compared to years and decades ago, they are trending down across the board, for both war-minded brawlers and smooth stylists. This is an issue better addressed by going after the sport's powerbrokers and lapdog media, rather than creating artificial us vs. them dynamics among fans.