The End of Live Arena Boxing
By Teodoro Medina Reynoso
PhilBoxing.com
Thu, 19 Mar 2020
The current coronavirus pandemic which nobody but nobody has an idea of when and how it will end has prompted a drastic change on how we live and try to survive in many parts of the world.
Talking of spectator sports, organizers in many countries including the United States have generally cancelled or postponed events with a few opting to continue games or plays on closed doors and near empty venues.
Countries as China and Japan have suspended the holding of boxing matches for a definite period subject to extension depending on the progress of contagion containment measures by their governments.
Chinese promoters have tapped some foreign countries and markets not yet affected or badly hit by the health emergency to hold boxing bouts. While countries like the Philippines and Thailand have taken advantage of the ban on boxing in China and Japan to ramp up their domestic boxing and present themselves as alternative fight venues.
But that was before authorities in the Philippines and Thailand adopted even stricter and extreme measures to address and curb the spread of the disease making it impossible to hold live arena boxing and other spectator sports or events for that matter, almost countrywide.
So, no go.
Meanwhile, the United States has also been hit by the coronavirus with certain prominent entertainment as well as sports personalities turning positive results, prompting President Donald Trump to declare a national emergency.
As a consequence, major boxing venues, including hotels, have been forced to close and boxing bouts already scheduled for the remainder of March up to April have been forced to be cancelled or reset for a much later date.
A prominent casualty is the major US fight debut of Japan's Naoya 'The Monster' Inoue who is originally set to meet Filipino Johnriel Casimero on April 25, 2020 in a high profile world bantamweight unification at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. No definite date has been announced by fight organizers.
Meawhile big time promoters continue to try to present a business as usual front by merely postponing scheduled fights while negotiating for major bouts to be set also for a much later dates as late as the last quarter of the year.
But postponing or scheduling fights for future dates and hoping that the pandemic would have subsided by then is wishful thinking.
Quite possibly, I am afraid, we are seeing the start of the end of live arena boxing as we know it.
Even in the event of the global health emergency ending on its own or through medical cure, the psychological scar it would leave may be such as to prevent people around the sporting world from going to closed venues to watch games or contests.
People would now be willing to watch sports events live in the relative safety and comfort of their homes, even if they will have to pay a certain amount for it, than going to the venues.
This would mean there would be no need for cavernous venues holding thousands of people for live major boxing bouts. Therefore there will be no need for humongous live audience for gate receipts to pay for venue rentals.
This could mean that big live fights will be more of a studio production with the television covering staff and crew, ring officials, representatives from the sanctioning bodies, the fighters and their corner people constituting the live audience.
Under this setup, the DAZN given its accent on paid subscription (minus the live gate receipts) and paid streaming service through various digital platforms could be the most suitable model.
Networks carrying or covering major boxing bouts can also make do with the current pay per view setup but measures should be instituted to prevent illegal streaming.
The challenge, as I see it is how to motivate fighters who are used to fighting before live large crowds of fans to fight as hard under the new setup.
The author Teodoro Medina Reynoso is a veteran boxing radio talk show host living in the Philippines. He can be reached at teddyreynoso@yahoo.com and by phone 09215309477.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Teodoro Medina Reynoso.
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