Boxing news outlets and TV networks have joined in the chaos of a YouTuber fight week that has shamed boxing. It’s been branded ‘unprofessional boxing.’
Bonafide boxing fans have since complained that their usual news sources are blighted by the continued pandering to a crossover fad. It’s a disease in the sport that needs to be eradicated.
The fact major news stations give the influencer air time as if it’s a real professional fight is concerning, alarming, and downright wrong.
Why treat these cretins as if they could lace up the gloves of any top fighter? – It’s everything that is wrong with the sport.
While World Boxing News won’t mention any of them, just witnessing some of the events this week is sickening.
Not to mention the trolling, bating, and attention-seeking antics of some of the Saturday night’s event participants. The whole thing is a s***show.
Boxing has to take a stand as the current sensationalism of filming idiotic scenes and passing them off as pugilism would have some of the greats turning in their respective graves.
Irrelevant YouTube pranksters and Reality TV stars are showing their true colors in events that are clearly staged in a bid for notoriety.
Until we ignore them, they won’t go away and still harbor this ‘more eyes on the sport’ jargon from promoters who need them.
The major players in boxing, the ones that matter – they certainly don’t need them. The real fans – they don’t, and any news source with high standards doesn’t either.
Boxing has to be better than this. It must be better than this moving forward. The sport is being taken for a ride and besmirched by this nonsense.
Rehearsed WWE-style promos on primetime boxing networks are a disease. No self-respecting boxer worth anything would lower themselves to that.
There doesn’t seem to be an endgame until somebody realizes that putting them on the same channels as real fights is detrimental to the sport and not helping it.
But like the NFT fad that blew up in people’s faces, this plague of mediocrity will surely disappear in the same way. Once people realize they are being robbed of their money, just like NFTs, they won’t get burned again.
Non-boxers and non-boxing fans are slowly overtaking boxing. This won’t change until something significant happens to ignite a revolt.
It’s not that they can’t participate in the sport. They can if they stick to their channels. However, parading as pros on a professional network is the real punch in the gut we all could do without.
The views expressed in this article are the opinions of Phil Jay. Learn more, read all articles from the experienced boxing writer, and follow on Twitter @PhilJWBN.
