Bleak times for boxing

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Waning support?

More distressing than those one-off happenings were the 1-2 punch of boxing show cancellations in recent weeks. ESPN 2 isn't renewing their summertime boxing series (they still run a series in the winter) and Univision's Telefutura was dropping Solo Boxeo. The latter was particularly eye-opening, as boxing's success in recent years has come largely from the support, financial and otherwise, of Hispanic and Latin fans.

In the wake of this, it will be interesting to see if boxing can be supported by live audiences, or if there is an expansion of the internet streaming that has taken place for second-tier bouts.

The vexing part is that boxing for the past two years has been largely void of the "black eye" moments mainstream sports editors are so eager to hang on the sport. Critics of boxing always focus their gaze on the inevitable boring fights that do take place in a year filled with hundreds of bouts (see: Oscar De La Hoya/Floyd Mayweather), but there have been dozens of thrilling bouts in recent months, led by Israel Vazquez and Rafael Marquez, as well as Miguel Cotto and Antonio Margarito.

Some of the seeds of the current predicament were sown in the 1990s when network television execs, tired of the shenanigans of many of boxing's unscrupulous promoters, decided to discontinue showing the sport. But many sports today exist without a lot of network support.

It's also true that many of boxing's best are on the over 30. But that doesn't totally explain it, either - there will undoubtedly be millions tuning in this weekend to watch a 45-year-old mixed-martial arts fighter take on a former "professional" wrestler.

Lessons from MMA

MMA is benefitting in a big way from the unified force that is the UFC, with former Nevada commissioner Marc Ratner a key figure behind the scenes.

Anyone with more than an elementary knowledge of boxing will know that there are just too many disparate (and often greedy) entities to make any kind of monopoly feasible.

The sport draws huge support from white-collar guys who I suspect are projecting in a Fight Club-kinda way like they can't with Latin or African-American boxers brought up in slums and ghettos.

I'd say the majority of MMA fights are stinkers, but the packaging and presentation of the sport always makes things "seem" exciting. That's one lesson boxing promoters can learn, after years of staging undercard bouts in front of seats yet to be populated by the late-arriving casino whales.

Canada will largely be unaffected. The sport hasn't been big here for decades outside of Quebec, and interest could wane if Ontario champ Steve Molitor loses his title unification bout next week against Celestino Caballero of Panama.

Boxing will never disappear from the map, but like Formula One, its locus figures to increasingly move outside of North America.

There will be a resurgence in interest ahead of Dec. 6, with the expectation that Oscar De La Hoya and Manny Pacquiao will at least be Top 5 in all-time PPV numbers.

Where the sport goes in 2009 and beyond is another issue.

Recap

Calzaghe is one of the most unique fighters of all-time. He was legitimately hurt in the first round for the second consecutive bout, yet he again bounced back to largely sneer at the rest of the punches he absorbed from Jones. I've never seen anyone recover from punishment so emboldened in 30 years of watching the sport.

I still maintain that Hopkins and Jones beat Calzaghe circa 2000 and 2001, but there's no shame in that. Calzaghe is definitely an all-time great.

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