The Problem with Boxing in a nutshell

[Evander]

7. Jaron Ennis (Fought once this year in June. Likely will not fight again before Year's end)

Why wouldn't he box again later this year ?

I don't know, but I won't hold my breath that he will. I hope I'm wrong though. The more these guys fight the better for everyone.

As long as he's healthy, he'd be crazy if he didn't.
He's not really made ground on his performance against Zayas when he should have.
This would be an opportunity.
Put Vergil on the undercard and do it in November early December.
Or do back to back Ennis Ortiz events on different weeks or close to one another,

[784118]

The pattern is consistent. A genuine superfight or a novelty card (Canelo–Crawford, Paul–Tyson, Joshua–Paul) can pull tens of millions on Netflix. Ordinary championship boxing on TNT/DAZN is in the mid-hundreds of thousands. Linear networks largely walked away. HBO and Showtime are gone. Casual fans do not know where to find a fight or even that one is happening.


Several structural problems stacked up:Too many belts, promoters, and streaming apps.

Following the sport is work.

Top fighters fight once a year and duck risk. Fans notice mismatches and stalling.

The American heavyweight, historically boxing’s engine, has been absent for years. In fact 200,175, and 160 LBS are near dead.

MMA/UFC offers a simpler product: one organization, regular cards, stars who appear often.

Small-hall boxing, the sport’s farm system, is shrinking as tickets and TV exposure dry up.

[Evander]

Here's the current Top 10 P4P on Boxrec

1. Naoya Inoue (Has fought once this year in May, nothing else scheduled as of this moment)
2. Oleksandr Usyk (Fought once in May. Will not be fighting again this year. Nothing scheduled)
3. David Benavidez (Fought once this year in May. Nothing scheduled as of this moment)
4. Jesse Rodriguez (Fought once this year in June. Nothing else scheduled)
5. Shakur Stevenson (Fought once this year in January. Nothing else scheduled, not even any Rumors of what's next)
6. Dmitry Bivol (Fought once this year against a mediocre opponent. Nothing else scheduled)
7. Jaron Ennis (Fought once this year in June. Likely will not fight again before Year's end)
8. Junto Nakatani (Fought Inoue in May. You'll never guess whether or not he's got his next fight scheduled)
9. Devin Haney (Hasn't fought this Year at all. Nothing on the Horizon)
10. Jai Opetaia (The only person on the list who has fought twice this year. Both of his opponents were Fringe Contenders)

How Devin Haney get in there ?
Asking for a friend.

[gilgamesh]

Because people voted him in i guess

[Evander]

He's lived off getting beat by Ryan Garcia.

[skanksta]

I understand why it’s changed…some of it because it had to and some of it because it’s better for the health of the boxers……but yeah….for the fan experience….boxing is just exponentially worse than my youth in the 80s.

That era made me a fan for life….I have no idea how a 6 to 16 year old becomes a fan today.

Exactly - they simply won't.

[Ruthless-RKO]

He's lived off getting beat by Ryan Garcia.

A drugged up Garcia?

We get it. You’re one of them that just happens to hate Haney no matter what.

[784118]

The fan base is not big enough to help big fights being made. There I said it.

[Evander]

He's lived off getting beat by Ryan Garcia.

A drugged up Garcia?

We get it. You’re one of them that just happens to hate Haney no matter what.

I like his boxing style, could do with a proper tune up to see where he really stands.
Haney has chin questions as Connor Benn can talk to and they have both been flatened by the same opponent.

[Ruthless-RKO]

He's lived off getting beat by Ryan Garcia.

A drugged up Garcia?

We get it. You’re one of them that just happens to hate Haney no matter what.

I like his boxing style, could do with a proper tune up to see where he really stands.
Haney has chin questions as Connor Benn can talk to and they have both been flatened by the same opponent.

Haney got flattened by a juiced up Garcia.

[Evander]

Of course he did.

[Ruthless-RKO]

Of course he did.

At least you agree.

[zorndeslammes]

The pattern is consistent. A genuine superfight or a novelty card (Canelo–Crawford, Paul–Tyson, Joshua–Paul) can pull tens of millions on Netflix. Ordinary championship boxing on TNT/DAZN is in the mid-hundreds of thousands. Linear networks largely walked away. HBO and Showtime are gone. Casual fans do not know where to find a fight or even that one is happening.

On top of this, you have a huge change in the overall media environment. Whereas having TNT showing boxing would have been huge 20 years ago, the majority of households in the US have abandoned cable/satellite TV. Only 32-36% of them have it now. If you are on a streaming service like, say, Netflix, you're contending with thousands of other programs and movies for attention. That's pretty much the situation for Zuffa Boxing and Paramount+. Additionally, bigger name fighters simply don't appear on these platforms. The fights TNT is showing are basically "ESPN2 in 2001" level contests. It isn't just that it's work for fans to keep track of; what's the appeal to building new fans?

The UFC, for all it's vaunted success, is pretty constantly s#it on by it's fans and media these days. IDK when the illusion that Dana White was the bestest guy ever finally disappeared (maybe it was beating his wife in public) but that's long gone. Their middleweight champion is balking at ever fighting for them again because he can't even get a $1 million guarantee. Remember, UFC is getting $1.1 billion USD on average over 7 years with Paramount+. We aren't even talking about site fees or ads here. They rake in money. It's not debatable. They're publicly traded. They release the figures. Their post-EBIDTA revenue was $851 million in 2025. I don't know that there's been $850 million dollars cycled through the entire boxing ecosystem in a single year since COVID.

Several structural problems stacked up:Too many belts, promoters, and streaming apps.
<snip>
Small-hall boxing, the sport’s farm system, is shrinking as tickets and TV exposure dry up.

I'll just jump to this because I think it is in critical condition if not outright deceased. Increased costs of regulation in places like NY have probably have a negative effect on how many fights are being held but that's only a small part of it. Promoters might have been willing to lose money on these fight cards before to make money on HBO or PPV later. That's all gone, and with it, so are almost all of those promoters. They haven't been effectively replaced. PBC is basically dead. There's never been more casinos in the US, and yet they, once a vital link in the boxing chain because they provided the site fees that made many developmental cards happen, have largely abandoned the sport. I can only surmise that's because the cost of putting on fights and handing out tickets to gamblers no longer was no longer justifying the income received on the back end.

I don't know how many people here have looked at actually attending a standard non-televised club show, but you're often looking at paying something like $40-50 to see mismatches and glorified toughmen. Who is going to pay money for that other than friends and family of the fighters?

[Evander]

4. Jesse Rodriguez (Fought once this year in June. Nothing else scheduled)

I want to touch on this one again.
It's easy to say take the fight [Inoue] in a shorter time, but there's the reality of the actual sizes of the boxers.
Sure, lets balloon and blow Bam up so he makes weight.
Ask yourself what the credibility rate for that fight then becomes.
It's clearly downgraded, however if he's given enough time to adjust through the weight climb to when the fight comes to pass when rumoured [April/May 27], surely it's better waiting isn't it.

[gilgamesh]

4. Jesse Rodriguez (Fought once this year in June. Nothing else scheduled)

I want to touch on this one again.
It's easy to say take the fight [Inoue] in a shorter time, but there's the reality of the actual sizes of the boxers.
Sure, lets balloon and blow Bam up so he makes weight.
Ask yourself what the credibility rate for that fight then becomes.
It's clearly downgraded, however if he's given enough time to adjust through the weight climb to when the fight comes to pass when rumoured [April/May 27], surely it's better waiting isn't it.

He could beat Inoue while Inoue is P4P #1. Instead he's waiting for someone else to do it. That's what's happening by him not taking the fight. His opportunity is now.

[Evander]

4. Jesse Rodriguez (Fought once this year in June. Nothing else scheduled)

I want to touch on this one again.
It's easy to say take the fight [Inoue] in a shorter time, but there's the reality of the actual sizes of the boxers.
Sure, lets balloon and blow Bam up so he makes weight.
Ask yourself what the credibility rate for that fight then becomes.
It's clearly downgraded, however if he's given enough time to adjust through the weight climb to when the fight comes to pass when rumoured [April/May 27], surely it's better waiting isn't it.

He could beat Inoue while Inoue is P4P #1. Instead he's waiting for someone else to do it. That's what's happening by him not taking the fight. His opportunity is now.

It's a bit of a big leap in a short space of time, I'd imagine the Mexicans are intent on winning and not just showing up otherwise they would take it now.
And I don't blame them, they seem to be going the right way about this in terms of getting Bam to a weight where he can compete fairly against Inoue.

[Evander]

Look at the challenge Robert Garcia has in front of him.
Just a side hit for the boxing fans, this could be the biggest challenge of Robert Garcia's career.
Big moment for him as a trainer.

[kojebee]

Bring back the "bum of the month" fights.

Hardly ever fighting, dents the exposure of boxing to a wider audience.

Ali was busy fighting and defending his title.

Two Liston wins, and Patterson in 56.

Five defenses the following year. Two by March in 67, before his ban.

In 72, 6 fights, 4 in 73, 2 in 74 (lazy bugger, only Frazier and Foreman to deal with too!) 4 in 75, 6 in 72.

Fought a few quality operators, a lot of fighters these days have a 'defining fight' and a padded record if they can.

[joshj909]

Bring back the "bum of the month" fights.

Hardly ever fighting, dents the exposure of boxing to a wider audience.

Ali was busy fighting and defending his title.

Two Liston wins, and Patterson in 56.

Five defenses the following year. Two by March in 67, before his ban.

In 72, 6 fights, 4 in 73, 2 in 74 (lazy bugger, only Frazier and Foreman to deal with too!) 4 in 75, 6 in 72.

Fought a few quality operators, a lot of fighters these days have a 'defining fight' and a padded record if they can.

Doesn't even have to be bum of the month. Just some undefeated guy that doesn't pose a threat but keeps everyone interested. Kabayel is basically doing that but it's bum of the year for him.

[SportsRatings]

Bring back the "bum of the month" fights.

Hardly ever fighting, dents the exposure of boxing to a wider audience.

Ali was busy fighting and defending his title.

Two Liston wins, and Patterson in 56.

Five defenses the following year. Two by March in 67, before his ban.

In 72, 6 fights, 4 in 73, 2 in 74 (lazy bugger, only Frazier and Foreman to deal with too!) 4 in 75, 6 in 72.

Fought a few quality operators, a lot of fighters these days have a 'defining fight' and a padded record if they can.

I always point to "declining Ali" in 1975: fought Chuck Wepner in March, Ron Lyle in May, and Bugner in June! That's three fights in four months. Then he took 4 months to train for Frazier 3 in October. Only Wepner could be considered "bum of the month" but that fight inspired the Rocky.

Then in 1976: Jean-Pierre Coopman in February, Jimmy Young in April, Richard Dunn in May, and 4 months to train for Ken Norton 3. Again, 3 fights in 4 months, who does that today as HW champ? And this is a completely past-prime Ali, fighting at a rate that even today's "hungry" up-and-coming heavyweights don't touch.