Any fan of boxing has heard it before: Boxing is dying. Some say boxing is already dead. Oscar De La Hoya's fight against Floyd Mayweather Jr. supposedly "saved boxing." What I scratch my head in wonder about, on a daily basis, is what exactly was boxing saved from? Boxing is far from dying and is a long way from dead.
All things in life have ebbs and flows. Boxing's no different. While this year has seen its shares of setbacks with injuries and postponements (David Haye, Floyd Mayweather Jr, Middleweight Champ Kelly Pavlik and Chris John to name a few), there have also been several action-packed, edge-of-your seat kind of fights that we just eat up. Anyone who saw WBA welterweight kingpin Shane Mosley dominate Antonio Margarito or World Cruiserweight Champion Tomasz Adamek dethrone Steve Cunningham got more than their money's worth. They got the chance to see boxing at an extremely respectable level. Miguel Cotto's razor thin WBO welter title defense over Joshua Clottey was another example of what can happen in boxing when two top athletes are willing to take the risks necessary to push themselves to the next level. What does this have to do with the Internet? Plenty.
Without the Internet, fans from all over the world would have missed many of these fights. Without the World Wide Web, fans who don't subscribe to premium cable channels would miss out on some of the most anticipated and surprising fights of this era. The Internet brings fans up close-and-personal to their favorite boxers and helps fans get to know fighters on the rise; as well as those well-established champions and veterans. There's up-to the minute news on every boxer from the journeyman who agrees to step in on short notice to the elite who have their every moved planned, tracked and reported for our pleasure and curiosity. If a fighter gets a divorce or gets injured in training, we know about it instantly.
In the cases of Alexis Arguello, Arturo Gatti and Vernon Forrest, sometimes we wish we didn't get the news.
Regardless of what news or access we have, it's vital to the lifeblood of boxing that we get it. Mainstream media stopped covering boxing a long time ago. As far as print media is concerned, of the few real fight magazines,"The Ring" magazine (while still relevant) is usually a month or more behind current news.
Watching boxing live, be it in person or on TV, is now a luxury that fewer hardcore fans can afford to indulge in; especially in troubling economic times. Tickets for an elite-level fight are well outside the means of many; in America and abroad. HBO and Showtime subscriptions are not something every boxing fan can afford; not to mention the countries where these outlets are virtually nonexistent. Boxing website forums play a huge part in helping get fans the fights they would otherwise have no way of seeing. An advocate of such an outlet, I personally take whatever spare time I have to do my share of sharing by recording and uploading every fight I can.
I do this for my own collection and love of the sport, but more importantly, it's to give fans a chance to see fights immediately. There are several boxing websites that have fight-sharing options. Some are better than others. Regardless, the point is that without fans of the sport willing to take time to record every fight and upload them so the fans can see them, regardless of availability, many excellent fights would be seen by so very few.
While promoters say they it hurts their bottom line by having these fights available on the internet, without these outlets, boxing would be in a worse position than is supposed. I've contacted more than a handful of boxers to get their blessing on sharing their fights before doing so as well as their opinions on shared fights. The positive response is overwhelming.
From the fan's perspective, it's a gold mine that keeps paying dividends.
For hard news, consider the online interviews you find. Without the ‘net, these interviews wouldn't be happening. Most newspapers don't cover much boxing. Those that used to have scaled back to, at most, sharing an Associated Press report of only a substantial headlining fight; if not a mere blurb.
Gone are the days of the reporter paid to cover boxing in daily or weekly circulation. These days, guys like Convicted Artist Magazine's own "Big Dog" Benny Henderson Jr. and Coyote Duran bring the most in-depth, well written and reported interviews and boxing news to the table. Online writers not only master their craft and support their passion, but also play a major role in keeping boxing globally alive.
Before television, fans showed up by tens of thousands to see their favorite sport. Later, many old-timers thought boxing was dying because the gates started shrinking. It wasn't. It was just that when larger modes of exposure broke down, fans gained new, smaller avenues to travel to see this sport. When boxing started slipping from the airways in the late 80's we heard the same thing. Now, with the advent of the Internet, we should never really take a statement like "Boxing is dead" seriously.
Boxing is alive and well and there are millions of fans like us online daily proving it. Look...you're doing it right now.
