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Over the past year, televised boxing has expanded beyond traditional viewing methods.  Digital streaming just happens to be the latest platform that the sport of boxing has conquered.  Boxing fans on the go can now whip out their phone, tablet, or laptop and load up an app to watch boxing.  Once you add up all the free, cable, and premium networks that broadcast boxing on top of the digital streaming services, boxing fans seem to be making out pretty good.  Well, looks can be deceiving if you value quality over quantity.

            With the untimely death of HBO boxing and the rise of digital streaming, the sport has split itself into several major factions.  You have PBC which is backed by Showtime and Fox.  They probably have the biggest number of star fighters in their roster.  Next is Goldenboy and Matchroom who have boxing’s biggest superstars in Canelo Alvarez and Anthony Joshua in their stables.  This provides huge potential staying power for DAZN (the new digital streaming platform that airs their fights) Last but not least, Top Rank holds a firm position with the ESPN network and its digital streaming accomplice ESPN Plus.  Their stable is top heavy with pound for pound champions Vasyl Lomachenko and Terence Crawford.  From the look of things, each major promotional entity involved has enough resources to make the fights that will elevate the sport.  If this is the case, why are we getting all these showcase bouts. 

            Now for those who are new to the sport of boxing, a showcase bout is a fight where the perceived A side is favored to win and most likely win big, thus showcasing their talent and skill level on the big stage.  Traditionally showcase bouts came in the form of tune ups designated for inactive fighters looking to work off some rust before taking a tougher challenge, but over recent years showcase bouts started becoming accepted as legit main event headliners for boxing cards.  To make matters worse, most boxers are on a one or two fight a year schedule so more than likely they’ll be using one of those dates as a showcase bout.  Now multiply that routine with the amount of A side boxing stars in each major promotional stable and fans are left with the dilemma of having to choose between competitively matched cards or star boxers shaking off some rust whenever multiple boxing cards get aired on the same night or overlap. 

            Boxing is elevated by its biggest stars participating in fights that the fans want to see.  When that starts happening less, the attention is now diverted to just seeing an actual good fight regardless of the star power or lack thereof.  Everyone likes a winner, but even that gets stale once we see that the actual winning is never in doubt.  Boxing is supposed to be the theater of the unexpected, but its hard to stage drama an unpredictability around a concept that will most likely lead to only one result.  When you factor in the bad judging and how certain superstars can’t lose a decision no matter what, the chances of an upset or something dramatic happening go down even more.               Showcase fights aren’t necessarily a bad thing given the circumstance.  A showcase bout for a boxer who is coming from a long stretch of inactivity due to an injury is easier to accept than a guy who routinely fights once a year against mid-tier opposition deciding to fight an even lesser threat for his annual fight.  That type of behavior does nothing for the sport but disrespect the less fortunate boxers that work just as hard but get less exposure.  Boxing can do without the oversaturation of showcase fights.  Stars should be fighting each other or at least the next best available contender.  You’ll have divisions loaded with talent having showcase fights instead of fighting each other.  Whole televised cards are built around this concept and now that all the major promotional companies have regulated themselves to mostly in house cards, you can expect this trend to continue to grow.

Written by Shutterworth

for RingGangRadio

Last Friday was a rarity of some sorts in which there were 2 notable boxing cards airing back to back that night.  Being the huge boxing fan that I am, having options like this warms my heart.  I also felt that it was time to go and catch a card live.  It has been 3 months since I last did so in Boston for Demetrius Andrade vs Walter Kautondokwa.  Top Rank was holding an event at Turning Stone Resort Casino that would be airing on ESPN+.  The main event was Bryant Jennings vs Oscar Rivas for the NABF Heavyweight Title.  Always a fan of watching the Heavyweights go to work so that is always an incentive.  Plus I’ve never been to Turning Stone, which has turned into quite the boxing hotbed in the last few years.  So I decided that I would take a personal day to drive 4.5 hours from my home in Massachusetts to Verona NY.  The drive itself was pretty straightforward although the scenery was low-key depressing with all the snow and rural landmarks along the highway.  I checked into my accommodations, had a quick bite, and took a 2 hour nap before heading out to the casino. 

A shot of an exchange between Jason Sosa and Marcos Delgadillo

(Photo Credit: Mikey Williams / Top Rank)

                Parking was very ample and free, as par for most casinos I’ve been to.  The event center was pretty nice.   I went into one of the media rooms to pick up my credential for the evening, talked to some of the other members, and then headed out to ringside to set up in the front row.  The undercard before the main card was pretty entertaining.  Carlos Adames and Fazliddin Gaibnazarov scored impressive stoppages.  Vikas Krishnan made an impressive debut and Robson Conceicao put in a dominating performance over the distance.  However the highlight of the undercard was between former WBA Super Featherweight Jason Sosa and journeyman Marcos Delgadillo.  It’s funny on where you might catch a Fight of the Year candidate sometimes.  This was a phone booth type of war where both fighters would visit the canvas once.  The scores were a little bit too wide for my liking for Sosa (97-91, 97-91, and 96-92) but it didn’t take away from how the great the fight was.  Also a lesson in this is to never judge a fighter by their record.  You may miss the big picture.  Delgadillo (17-19-2, 9 KOs)   I am positive will be a tough night’s work for anybody.  That is real talk.  Thankfully ESPN+ aired it so if you have the subscription or if you see on it YouTube, do yourself a favor and check it out.

Shakur Stevenson landing a left hand against Jessie Rosales

(Photo Credit: Mikey Williams / Top Rank)

The main card opened with Shakur Stevenson facing Jessie Rosales.  From the opening bell it was all Stevenson.  One thing I noticed in this fight from past performances is Shakur seems to be growing into his body and he is planting his feet more to deliver more power into his shots.  He boxed beautifully in the first round and then turned it up in the next 3 rounds.  Rosales was visibly hurt and shook up from those punches.  Finally in the 4^th round, Stevenson lands a beautiful short inside left hand and down went Rosales.  Rosales got to his feet but the referee decided that he had enough for the night. With that win, Shakur Stevenson improved 10-0-0 with 6 KO’s.  In the post-fight interview, he expressed interest in a fight with current IBF Featherweight Champion Josh Warrington.

Oscar Rivas trapping Bryant Jennings on the ropes

(Photo Credit: Mikey Williams / Top Rank)                 Bryant Jennings vs Oscar Rivas kind of took me by surprise.  Not with the action and how it played out in the ring but for the fact Rivas was fighting in America.  If you look at Rivas’s record, all but one of his fights took place in Canada.  The reason for it is because commissions have not licensed Rivas in the United Stated due to reported eye issues.  So, for the fact he was licensed in NY of all places was a shock to me.  I had read and heard plenty of Oscar Rivas but have not seen him fight so I anticipated on what he could do against a seasoned veteran like Bryant Jennings.  The fight itself was a tense chess match.  There wasn’t a whole lot of action but you could feel the intensity in the ring.  Many of those rounds were incredibly difficult to score because of it.  The finish in the final round was nothing short of sudden and explosive.  Rivas ended up throwing a series of hard right hands that knocked Jennings down to the canvas.  Jennings got up shaky and tried to move to clear his head, but Rivas was on him.  A flurry of punches by Rivas left Jennings almost defenseless as the referee stopped the fight.  At the time of stoppage, judges had Rivas up on 2 cards (106-103 and 105-104) with Jennings up on the last card 106-103.  It was a great victory for Oscar Rivas (now 26-0-0 with 18 KO’s) who finds himself as a new player in the heavyweight/world title scene.  For Bryant Jennings (24-3, 14 KOs) it was an unfortunate setback and he acknowledged as such with the simple phrase “It is what it is”.

Written by PatScorpio for Ring Gang Radio

published on 1/21/2019

There once was a time in boxing where a draw meant that two fighters strengths canceled each other out and both roughly won the same number of rounds leading up to the decision.  Then there were the rare times when a fight was so damn good, that the consensus was that nobody deserved to lose, and both combatants would be awarded a draw.  Either way, draw verdicts in boxing came unexpectedly and infrequently.  Nowadays, it seems like we get a draw in every other big fight that takes place.  This wouldn’t be a problem if these fights were extremely close and competitive, but most of the recent bouts in boxing that were scored draws had clear winners.  The draw was given to lessen the blow of the robbery committed against the real winner while the loser leaves virtually unscathed with an undefeated record and glossy stature in the sport still intact. 

Let’s go back to 2017 where two high profile fights ended up in a draw.  Badou Jack fought James DeGale for all the marbles at super middleweight in one of the better match ups of the year.  After surviving an early knockdown, Jack battled back to take control and did just that during the 2^nd half of the fight, dropping DeGale in the process.  Unfortunately, Jack’s effective body punching and pressure boxing that reduced DeGale to sporadic offense and aimless movement wasn’t enough to win officially, even though most observers scored it for him.  Gennady Golovkin would fall victim to the same draw robbery scenario later that year when he didn’t get the nod for effectively coming forward and out-boxing Canelo Alvarez over the course of 12 rounds.  DeGale and Canelo were allowed to lose without officially losing, while Jack and Golovkin were allowed to win without officially winning which is a travesty in itself since hard working fighters are being robbed of their moment at the mountaintop. 

This trend carried on to 2018 where we saw three more draws happen in major fights (Broner/Vargas, Stevenson/Jack, and Wilder/Fury).  Broner and Vargas fit the mode of what fans are used to seeing when draws happen in boxing.  Vargas controlled the first half of the bout with his volume punching and Broner turned it up in the 2^nd half with his accurate counter punching.  Neither guy dominated the other, nor could they ever get it going offensively once the other was in their groove.  Their strengths neutralized each other.  Broner’s talent couldn’t overcome Vargas’s work rate and vice versa.  A different type of fight broke out between then lineal light heavyweight champ Adonis Stevenson and Badou Jack but yielded the same draw result.  Stevenson controlled and clearly won the first half of the bout due to Jack not really doing much since his game plan was to turn it up late once the older Stevenson grew tired.  The plan seemed to be working until Stevenson ended up hurting Jack late with a body shot, thus taking a much-needed late round in the fight.  Fight was probably one of the easiest 115 to 113 types of bout to score, but fans tend to put more emphasis on rounds that are won bigger, so Stevenson’s early fight dominance gets overshadowed by Jack’s 2^nd half rally.  Deontay Wilder vs Tyson Fury was another major fight that had a clear winner, but amazingly ended up in another controversial draw.  Despite Wilder scoring two big knockdowns, he was soundly out-boxed by Fury for at least 80 percent of the fight.  Tyson Fury was robbed of one of the greatest sports comebacks of all time due to oversaturation of draws in boxing. 

That’s five draws in less than 2 years.  That’s ridiculous once you consider the competitiveness of the fights in question.  A draw went from happening every now and then to becoming a common occurrence in the most convenient of times.  When future super fights are hanging in the balance or a promising star needs to stay undefeated, you can always rely on the faithful draw verdict.  Boxing being known as the theater of the unexpected, will become a thing of the past if every major fight keeps ending in a draw.   There’s too many draws happening in boxing once you start expecting them.     

Written by Shutterworth for Ring Gang Radio