Boxing’s Current Problem

Is there a decrease of hype around boxing at the moment? Yes however that’s expected since all the sports in the world have took a major hit but boxing has definitely took a dip in excitement through no fault of its own yet some responsibility has to lie somewhere and this is boxing’s current problem.

After week one of Matchroom Boxing’s ‘Fight Camp’, I’ve started to feel like boxing is coming back as it was such an entertaining night. For the next couple of weeks, Matchroom has fantastic cards planned and weekly fights are back! BT Sports are also continuing to put on cards also and that’s very exciting for boxing fans as once again, we’re beginning to be spoiled for choice. I’ve not even mentioned the Showtime cards which are just absolutely great with my favourite fights being: Charlo/Dervyanchenko, Charlo/Rosario, Davis/Santa Cruz and lastly Oubaali/Donaire.

So what is the current problem in boxing? Obviously, Covid-19 has put things on hold for a while but even before that, big names in boxing don’t fight frequently. Take the unified heavyweight champion for example, Anthony Joshua last fought in December against Andy Ruiz Jr. yet his next fight seems like it’s going to be in December meaning he’s not fought in a year which just isn’t good enough. Even before the pandemic, Joshua fought twice last year and usually fought twice a year which isn’t good enough. Gervonta Davis fought 3 times last year and that’s good, 3 fights a year isn’t too bad for a boxer but fighting 2 times isn’t great.

Inactivity in boxing is a massive issue in boxing and if boxers fought more often then boxing definitely can make a massive jump back to mainstream attention as in my opinion, this is the best era of boxing in a good while and the names are so talented from Vasyl Lomachenko to Canelo Alvarez, from Naoya Inoue to Josh Warrington - the talented boxing pool runs deep at the moment and I can’t wait for what the future holds for boxing.