Boxing is in crisis and freak shows like KSI vs Tommy Fury are taking advantage

20 October 2023 , 15:34

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Boxing is in crisis and freak shows like KSI vs Tommy Fury are taking advantage

The withdrawal from boxing of Showtime, five years after HBO checked out, signposts the crisis boxing is facing.

Broadcasters need something to sell their audience. Clearly boxing has not been delivering the goods. How is this possible for one of the most exciting spectacles on earth, the sport that lit up the 1970s and 1980s with the likes of Muhammad Ali, Joe Frazier, George Foreman and the Four Kings, Sugar Ray Leonard, Roberto Duran, Marvin Hagler and Thomas Hearns?

There are a number of factors, including changing viewer preferences and the myriad ways people can watch sport these days, but most importantly of all the quality of the product. Back in the day the great fighters fought each other. Television could not get enough of a sport that filled the screen with drama, skill and commitment.

Next week the WBC heavyweight champion Tyson Fury is fighting an opponent who has never boxed, Francis Ngannou, in that noted boxing hotbed Saudi Arabia. Meanwhile undefeated unified champion Oleksandr Usyk sits idle and English rival Anthony Joshua twiddles his thumbs watching Formula One.

Whilst the big names squabble over the distribution of purses and generally find ways of not fighting each other, the gap is being filled by white collar freak shows. I don’t blame Tommy Fury and YouTuber KSI getting it on for multi-million-dollar purses, but let’s not call it boxing. It’s nothing of the kind.

Erling Haaland tells KSI to his face that he will lose Tommy Fury fight

I deliberately didn’t watch it. We had KSI in the gym a number of years ago. With the greatest respect, he was poor, a novice at best. We had Tommy Fury in as well. Nice lad. He was better, but still in need of a lot of work. He owes his profile entirely to Love Island and his family connections.

It's boxing... but not as we know it (Getty Images)

The huge social media following of the participants creates the value, but the standard is generally awful. Fights like that certainly don’t convert casual observers into boxing fans. I emailed Stephen Espinoza at Showtime this week. He loves the sport, but broadcasters are looking at it and telling us they no longer want any part of this.

The sports powerbrokers, the promoters and sanctioning bodies need to come together and admit we are bleeding out here. The fighters need to be at the table too. I’m encouraged by the reaction of the likes of Ryan Garcia, Terence Crawford and Teofimo Lopez, who at least recognise the issue and seem to want to do something about it.

Ultimately the buck stops with them. I know because I was a fighter. The best have a responsibility to fight the best. If they do, the money will take care of itself and we might still have a sport to cherish.

Follow Barry on Twitter at @ClonesCyclone @mcguigans_gym

Barry McGuigan