11 Comments
User's avatar
Des's avatar
2dEdited

Another great piece. Very interesting points.

On Zuffa Boxing, it’s very disappointing that it’s the morning of the fight and there is no tv/streaming deal in Ireland. Very interested in the main as Callum Walsh is a Corkman from Cobh (Interesting Fact; Cobh (pronounced “cove”) was formerly known as Queenstown which was the last port the Titanic stopped at before heading out into the Atlantic).

Funny tidbit about Zuffa Boxing. The official site (zuffaboxing.com) only has a landing page saying coming soon, whereas the store (zuffaboxingstore.com) is a fully functioning site with lots of merch.

Finally, the embedded Ari YouTube vid at the top of the article is very interesting. Particularly at 33:32 of the video where there is a very obvious edit and cutting. It’s just as Ari is talking about his tough time at school.

Enjoy the fights!

Zach Arnold's avatar

You saved yourself a lot of time not watching the Callum Walsh fight.

The rest of the card was decent. Max Kellerman's performance was, occasionally, suboptimal.

Tony Loiseleur's avatar

State athletic commissions losing critical revenue if the mid-level and smaller promoters get pushed out is a dimension I hadn't even considered. Of course, I doubt anyone in Congress saw this coming either, but they seem pretty keen to be convinced by TKO's lobbyists that they're doing the right thing here. A federal boxing body also sounds kind of nuts. So much for federalism.

Zach Arnold's avatar

Number one question unanswered by bill proponents -- how are you going to enforce it?

Answering that question is a poison pill.

Nate Wilcox, EIC The MMA Draw's avatar

TKO's money will enforce it.

David Ruiz's avatar

Before forecasting Boxing's Doomsday scenario, could've you provided more context as to how the Boxing industry got in this predicament like how did Boxing lost out on extensive tv rights deal that it made the sport even less accessible to the viewers?

Zach Arnold's avatar

We have chronicled the pathway to where the US legacy boxing promoters have gone off the rails:

https://www.themmadraw.com/p/the-bottom-is-falling-out-for-both

And with Top Rank announcing their next fight for their FAST channel, not much else to report.

Nate Wilcox, EIC The MMA Draw's avatar

Also this post where we went through each of the boxing promoters https://www.themmadraw.com/p/the-one-boxing-guy-fighting-tkos

Nate Wilcox, EIC The MMA Draw's avatar

The TLDR reason is that first HBO (Top Rank & Golden Boy), then Showtime (PBC), then ESPN (Top Rank) stopped carrying boxing. Then DAZN (Queensberry, Matchroom, Golden Boy) & Amazon (PBC) didn't pan out as alternatives.

Final straw was Riyadh Season pulling back.

Brett McCauley's avatar

Boxing is in MAJOR trouble. The health of the sport hasn't been good for a long time. TKO are coming in at the perfect time

Zach Arnold's avatar

When TKO smells blood in the water, they attack like sharks. Yes, maybe not through substance, but they have so many other means.