Boxing Review

The state of boxing in 2012, part one - Boxing - Yahoo! Sports:

By Kevin Iole, Yahoo! Sports 

Todd duBoef likes to refer to himself as “a boxing evangelist,” an odd choice of words for a low-key man who prefers to shun the spotlight.

Yet, the normally low-key Top Rank president displays a messianic zeal for the fight game. 

He’s not alone in his belief in the sport’s health, despite plenty of skepticism from outsiders. Golden Boy CEO Richard Schaefer said he’s “never been more bullish” about the sport’s future.

Kathy Duva of Main Events laughed at suggestions that boxing will die once Mayweather and Pacquiao retire. The Duva family has been involved in boxing for many decades and have been one of the sport’s leading promoters for more than 35 years.

But promoters, fighters and managers are encouraged by what they see as optimistic signs for the sport’s future, despite myriad problems.

Light heavyweight champion Bernard Hopkins is among those who believe the sport has a good future. 

But he said if promoters do a better job of making more compelling fights and, particularly, making matches that the fans want to see, the sport will thrive.

Cameron Dunkin, one of the sport’s top managers, with fighters such as Timothy Bradley and Brandon Rios in his portfolio, said he thinks the sport’s future is brighter than at any time since he got into it in 1986.

He said too many promoters are willing to take the television money, open the doors and hope the fans flock in without doing anything to convince the public why it should spend its money on a specific fighter or fight card.

Dunkin said he has been pushing his fighters toward Top Rank and Golden Boy because they are promoters who don’t operate that way and are attempting to change the way fights are promoted.

He raved at many of the initiatives of Top Rank president Todd duBoef, who has improved the company’s foreign distribution, overhauled the company’s website, dramatically increased its social media presence, hired several prominent boxing executives to scout and recruit the best boxing prospects, brought sponsorship sales in house and worked toward making the in-arena events more lively.

Top Rank founder Bob Arum, the 80-year-old Hall of Fame promoter, said he thinks boxing’s bright future is directly attributable to the work done by duBoef, his stepson. He called duBoef “a genius” and said he has laid the foundation for a strong future for the company.

Arum said he believes boxing will wind up on network television in 2012 and will continue to transition toward the Internet. Arum said Top Rank has been working on acquiring sponsors so when it goes to the network, it is what he called “pregnant.” It already will have all the advertising spots sold before it starts.

That will enable Top Rank to introduce fighters to a generation of fans who are missing out on them. The poor economy has forced people to make difficult decisions, and luxuries such as premium cable are often the first thing cut in their budgets.

Part of the issue, he said, has been that many of his competitors are undercapitalized and are either too cheap to spend money or afraid to do so for fear of a loss.

“Boxing is just another form of entertainment,” Arum said. “We can do a lot of things as promoters – getting publicity, doing marketing, so on and so forth – but we can’t control how the fights go. We can make the best matches we can, but once the bell rings, what happens is beyond our control.

“So, to make sure that we create a fun environment and want the person who buys a ticket to want to come back, we’re doing a lot of things in the arena: dancers, lights, music, singers, what goes up on the scoreboard, all those sorts of things. You have to spend money to make money, but there are a lot of people in this business who aren’t forward-thinking and don’t realize that you have to invest in the product. There has been way too little investment in the product for far too long, and it can’t remain that way.”

Golden Boy president Oscar De La Hoya said he gave a dictate to his matchmaker, Eric Gomez, to put on the best fights possible and said he has told his fighters they should expect to face difficult opponents each time out.

He agreed with Arum that there will be network television in 2012 and said he would be willing to put his biggest stars on free television, with the caveat that they fight opponents they’re not guaranteed to beat.

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