Hello boxing fans and dedicated haters. Here’s another week’s worth of my bulbous sack, bulging with gooey, salty truth, in your face. Enjoy. This week, we have comments/questions regarding DAZN fee fallout, the buzzed-about end of Showtime Boxing, GGG in the Hall of Fame, and the need for a reset in boxing.
Canceling DAZN, Ending Showtime Boxing, GGG in the HOF?
Hi. Magno!!
As always, wishing you and your family the best.
I had already canceled my DAZN annual subscription, but with the new price increase I will just pop in on good fights and pop out of the Munguia mismatches, unfamiliar British bouts, Chisora, etc. When the year is finished, I will probably be saving some money compared to my previous annual fee. I hope everyone goes this route.
Some people are suggesting Showtime boxing will be out of business due to the corporation’s new vision. I don't think so. Of course just like ESPN-Top Rank and DAZN-Matchroom and Golden Boy, the contracts have an expiration date and performance will be evaluated afterwards. It has to make sense for the big bosses.
Finally, do you think GGG is hall of fame worthy if he retires today? Have we ever seen a Hall of Famer that hasn't dominated at least one other Hall of Famer in their respective career? I don't agree with those that believe that he belongs in the Hall of Fame based only on the number of defenses.
-- Benjamín from Puerto Rico
Hey Benjamin.
As always, thanks for the well wishes.
Believe it or not, I was a DAZN subscriber, too. The price point here in Mexico was so low (99 pesos a month-- like about $5 USD) that it just made sense. Then, the price doubled a couple months ago and the boxing content got cut in half. Then, PPV was introduced. The contracts are different down here and many of the fights aired on DAZN in the US are broadcast on ESPN or Fox here. So, pretty much all that was left on DAZN were the Euro shows and the celebrity boxing matches. Nope. I canceled and probably won’t be coming back. Your purchase strategy makes sense. There are plenty who might also go the route of not paying for anything and finding a way to watch the fights illicitly. You can’t double your price, diminish your quality, and expect anything but negative energy from consumers. It’s just doesn’t make sense anymore to be a full-time DAZN subscriber, especially when they’ve now established the fact that anything deemed really good is probably going to cost you a pay-per-view fee on top of your subscription fee.
I don’t worry about Showtime Boxing. Whether it continues as part of the Paramount universe or not, the fighters will go on and fight somewhere. Somebody will come along and snatch up the PBC content. And, if not, that just means they’ll have to be smarter in getting their fights to the fans, which may be a positive in the long run. As a consumer, I look forward to change as a positive-- because the current business model sucks.
Don’t get me started on the Hall of Fame. There are a lot of fighters in the Hall of Fame who I don’t think belong there if the goal is only to honor the very best in the sport. But Hall of Fames are generally bullshit anyway. All business. Meh. They are the warehouses of dead greatness. But I digress…
GGG will definitely be voted in, but he shouldn’t be. The best win on the guy’s 16-year, 26-world championship fight career is a close decision over Danny Jacobs. How the fuck is that a Hall of Fame-worthy run? If anything, Golovkin’s career is a testament to how far someone can go without actually bothering to go far. But the Boxing Writers Association of America (BWAA), which votes on Hall of Fame entry, is a bunch of nonsense and will easily vote him in as soon as he’s eligible. Good for him. Whatever.
Boxing Reset?
Hi my friend!
Interesting last piece, there. I loved your rant about the state of boxing. I really did.
Let me add on it. I’ll try to keep it very short.
In most sports, there is a natural assumption that at the end of it all, you’ll get to see the last two squaring off each other for the ultimate bragging rights. Baseball, NFL, Soccer (even at club level competition you get an annual World Series!). You’ll get a winner. The one who won the whole enchilada, no questions asked. You don’t get that in boxing. In boxing you get contract posturing, social media feints, gorilla-like chest hitting on instagram and TikTok, and VERY few times, the best two boxers in a division in the same ring.
To make things worse, boxing has created an overrated value for losses. So boxers and promoters tend to dodge risky fights. Even we, fans, tend to overvalue losses. This is a trend started by Floyd Mayweather who, as tremendously gifted as he was, obsessed over his “0” and created a culture hugged by all of us over the importance of being undefeated. I think the industry kind of avoids risks. That makes thing a hell of a lot less interesting for everybody.
So yes, maybe it’s time for an industry reset. I agree.
– Carlos Navarro Sugich, from Hermosillo, Mexico.
Hey Carlos.
I think the obsession with sparkling clean records began long before Mayweather, although Mayweather did obsess on it and promote the value of an undefeated record more than anyone.
For promoters, especially these days, it makes ultimate business to avoid as much risk for their fighters as permitted by the marketplace. We’re not looking at a business model anymore where promoters can cash-out after three or four big fights and then count on the next superstar and the superstar after that. The boxing business has become a slow-grind business where marginal profits are had over the long haul...and to get through that long haul, you need to keep your guys as safe as possible.
There’s just a whole lot wrong with the business today and, honestly, I don’t see a lot of effort from anyone to try and fix any of it. We need to get the dinosaurs out of the game and bring in some new energy and modern thinking. We need cooperation from all the bossmen because, really, a rising tide DOES lift all boats when it comes to boxing.
But I’m just me, a guy with a column who gets aggressively ignored by the establishment boxing media for pointing out some of this shit. All I can do is keep pointing this stuff out and hope that somebody that matters picks up the cause.
Got a question (or hate mail) for Magno’s Bulging Mail Sack? The best of the best gets included in the weekly mailbag segment right here at FightHype. Send your stuff here: paulmagno@theboxingtribune.com.