BLACK-AMERICANS GIVEN UP ON BOXING?

October 4th, 2012 By Pedro Fernandez

Don King & Mike Tyson @ 1988 WBC Convention 11/1/88


CHANGING DEMOGRAPHICS OF BOXING

San Francisco, CA- What has gone unnoticed, at least from a media point of view, is the lack of Black involvement in boxing. Before you say wait a second, African-Americans are supreme in five of 17 weight classes. It used to be more. Support for the game by African American fans since the end of the Mike Tyson era, has almost evaporated to non-existence except of when Floyd Mayweather “appears.”

CRACK COCAINE TOOK GENERATION(S) FROM BOXING

There are a few reasons, if not more that may begin to explain this phenomenon as to why Blacks have abandoned boxing. First of all, Crack Cocaine took away an entire generation, if not two groups of high-risk African-American youth. I watched it happen as towards the end of the 1980s.

BOTH NBA & NFL HAVE RECRUITMENT PLANS

There are so many other sports out there, but predominantly basketball and football, which are marketed with a future in mind. Boxing, rather the people that run it, are only concerned about how much profit they can make today. As was suggested here years ago, Mike Tyson might deserve some of the blame, as people
who got wired on boxing because of Tyson could only appreciate instant knockouts, and lost interest after his bubble burst and fights went more than two rounds.

DID THE BLACK BOXING FAN DIE OFF TOO?

When I talk to the old time promoters, they tell me that the percentage of Black ticket buyers fell by the wayside in the early 1980s, if not a few years prior. I wondered, did they just get old and die off? Economics surely plays a role as Blacks here in the U.S. on a whole, make far less than Whites, racial equality or not. But there were always African-Americans at the fights I attended as a kid.

BLACK FAN A NO-SHOW UNLESS…

…They have a black fighter on the bill that can sell tickets. Now when I go to a club show, the percentage of African American ticket buyers is a non-factor. When four blacks headlined a card at the Staples Center in February 2005, Bernard Hopkins-Howard Eastman & Jermain Taylor-Daniel Edouard, stunningly 12,000 people turned out. With the exception of Mexican boxing “die-hards,” it was an almost all White crowd.

REASONS KING DID GREAT IN ST. LOUIS WITH SPINKS!

Having discussed economics, I should tell you almost 18,000 African American fans turned out in St. Louis in 2005 to watch Cory Spinks get knocked out by Zab Judah. Those numbers had a lot to do with promoter Don King scaling the house down cheap, and support from the St. Louis city government and media. This is the exception to the rule. In the late 1970s, you could get a ticket to a fight at Caesars Palace maybe $50 for the cheap seats at fights like Larry Holmes-Muhammad Ali.

BOXERS ARE NOT HOUSEHOLD NAMES ANYMORE!

Ray Mancini Was a "House Hold" Name!

In the early 1980s while boxing was at its most recent zenith, fighters like Ray Leonard, Tommy Hearns, Marvin Hagler, and Larry Holmes were African Americans who were household names. What kept boxing in the public eye was the national TV exposure it received on ABC, and to a lesser extent, NBC followed CBS.

FINAL BIG AMERICAN TV STAR FIGHTERS NOT BLACK

The last two serious TV draws we had pre-Pay Per View were not black in Ohio’s Ray “Boom-Boom” Mancini and Mexican Jorge Paez, both drew incredibly well on Saturday or Sunday afternoons.

REAL BOXING FANS UNAWARE OF ANYTHING ELSE

During the NFL season, it wouldn’t be a shock at all to see one network counterpunch pro football with a live fight, or the NBA would be on one channel, with live (delayed on west coast) boxing on another.

DO BLACKS ONLY TURN OUT FOR FLOYD?

Up until this point, African-Americans were not only fighting professionally, their demographics were at least on the chart when it came to planning a boxing promotion. The lack of boxing on Network TV is surely to blame to a great extent.

LARRY MERCHANT RESPONDS LIKE ONLY HE CAN!

I think HBO’s Larry Merchant, the Godfather like figure that he is, said it best. “There are two things people talk to me about at the supermarket. One of them is, wheres the real superstar in the heavyweight division? I tell them, he’s playing linebacker somewhere.”

PART II ON MONDAY INCLUDES DON KING

Pedro Fernandez

Note: Mr. Fernandez is an award-winning writer, talk show host, and four-time Golden Gloves champion. He offers a different approach when it comes to covering professional boxing & MMA that is featured exclusively at www.RingTalk.com Comments related to this article can be left below.

COMMENTS

  1. Ahead of your time as always Pedro… MLB is seeing this same thing and the GREAT Dave Winfield has been aware of this for over a decade now and leading efforts to bring Baseball back into Black Communities… The best of the lot are all gravitating towards Basketball and Football.

    As far as boxing goes… Dana White nailed it.

    Jack Dunne on October 4th, 2012 at 7:43 PM

  2. The boxing “black out” is a result of a few factors but……

    1)Do black folks turn out for Floyd? In a word, Yes. The reason being that he promotes himself (good or bad), he’s still in the news and guys tune it to either see his boxing brilliance or hope his arrogant ass gets beaten.

    2) Self serving promoters, especially Bob Arum have disrupted black interest. He figured out long ago that Mexican fight fans love their boxing so he makes steady income with these low budget shows on ppv and highlights latin (especially Mexican) fighters. Now golden boy is following the same trend with their new red head Mexican golden boy Canelo. Promoting him as the next big thing while avoiding the # 1 contender in E. Lara (an undefeated..I dont count the robbery against Paul williams, black cuban fighter with slick skills)

    3) PPV destroyed the grooming and marketing of fighters on regular television. Rather than build a fighter up by showing him on network television, everybody wants to put even semi-talented fighters on ppv. You pay for a fight, it ends up being garbage and guess what? next time around, no one bites. Alot of black folks dont have that kind of disposable income..shelling out 60 bucks a bunch of unknown fighters.

    4) Promoters and managers milking their fighters rather than have them face a real threat. Recently a “contender” named Kell Brook and his manager refused a fight against Tim Bradley because according to them, they wanted to fight to become a mandatory challenger!! I sh*t you not, they actually turned down a title fight to remain a contender.
    Even Lou dibella refused a fight pitting Sergio Martinez against Golovin recently because he said Gennady wasnt a big name (translation: GGG is a threat to Sergio and I’d rather have Sergio keep making money by fighting guys I’m more confident in him beating). Old time fighters wanted to challenge the biggest and baddest to get a rep. I remember an old fight poster with Hagler and Hearns that had the headline “whos the baddest?” Now its “who the weakest?”…with guys looking to cherry pick weak titlist. Put it this way, Paul Maliggnaggi is calling himself welterweight champion…no offense to him, he’s a decent hard working fighter but not a champion by any stretch.

    5) Black kids see Lebron James making millions after high school and want to emulate him. It makes the prospect of getting up at 5am to go running and going to the gym to get punched in the face less appealing.

    6) The rise of MMA on regular television and top fighters actually fighting each other took away attention from Boxing. The constant mismatches being put on PPV boxing cards didnt help.

    Joel on October 5th, 2012 at 5:42 AM

  3. Certainly is something to contemplate Pedro, no doubt. Quick question, Larry Merchant said there were 2 things people ask him about at the supermarket. He answered one, just curious as to what the 2nd thing was? Peace.

    Pete the Sneak on October 5th, 2012 at 5:53 AM

  4. Interesting. Anecdotally based, yes, but definitely seems to hold some water.

    Cheesey1 on October 5th, 2012 at 6:45 AM

  5. Nonsense, if the men of the Soviet Union had been allowed to compete back in the 60s and 70s, the world would never have even heard of foreman, frazier, holmes, liston, ali… Back then, the World Heavyweight Title wasn’t really a World Title at all; it was really just the United States Heavyweight Title. When the rest of the world finally was allowed to get involved, then america saw their true level.

    the bradguy on October 5th, 2012 at 1:40 PM

  6. Well done, Joel!

    Pedro Fernandez on October 5th, 2012 at 5:16 PM

  7. brad, The soviet union isn’t the only country in the world. That comment lacks real merit. Those same fighters you are mentioning weren’t beating our guys in the olympics. I do agree that there would have been some good heavyweights from there, but to say if russians were allowed to go pro we never would have heard of Foreman? That’s the dumb comment of the day. He mowed over those guys by KO in the Olympics.Lets stick to some real reasons. Blacks in America just lack the work ethic to be involved in boxing like they were in the 70′s and 80′s. The reality is like someone replied earlier most youth today (and I am going to include whites here) would rather play sports like football or basketball, sport where they can participate in high school and furthermore they don’t have to endure getting their face bashed in. As far as role models it’s difficult for blacks to want to become boxers because they rarely stage fights in urban areas anymore. Normally when they do the are in heavily latino populated areas such as Los Angeles. However blacks do support black fighters if given the opportunity as Floyd, Broner, Peterson and Ward have drawn well at home. Bottom line is until black youth can identify with boxing from a mainstream perspective very few will become excited about being involved in the sport. Couple that with the lack of gyms in the inner city and lack of public funds to support them, the problem will continue.

    KP on October 6th, 2012 at 8:19 AM

  8. I agree…great points by Joel!… and KP….I disagree…just for the day?? lol… imagine the klitschkos going through a gauntlet of foreman, frazier, ali, holmes, or liston…i mean, those guys are tad bit better than ross purity and r.i.p…corrie sanders right?

    1200 Techs on October 8th, 2012 at 2:46 PM

  9. you got it right – they will only watch and show up when blacks are on the card. their loss as there is a lot of good boxing that does not involve blacks.

    Übermensch on October 8th, 2012 at 2:55 PM

  10. KP, I completetly disagree re the “lack of work ethic” comment and nonetheless there are a lot of top African-American boxers, the issue is the viewership.
    I do agree with you re. the ridiculousness of the BradGuy’s comments.

    Cheesey1 on October 8th, 2012 at 6:15 PM

  11. I guess when I was referring to lack of work ethic, I was making a comparison to the heavyweights of the past who appeared in much better condition than the fat slobs you see fighting today. Maybe I am wrong about that assertion but thats what I see for the most part in the majority of American heayweights.

    KP on October 9th, 2012 at 10:16 AM

  12. Blacks come out and support their people, the same way blue collar whites come out and support Kelly Pavlik, same way Mexicans support their fighters. You don’t see flocks of Mexicans at a card with a black fighter headlining against another black fighter. To assert that that other races of people don’t do the same thing blacks do is just ignorant. The difference is that the black populations is only about 12 percent in America, and blacks are much closer to the poverty line than whites and latinos in this country. With less disposable income and less people you are going to see less support. It’s a mathematical thing. Also boxing just isn’t as popular and I think someone also made an assertion to style. The majority of black fighters are defensive minded and aren’t punchers. The only reason why Floyd does well is because he appeals to the urban community and is always in the spotlight. The rest of people want to see him get knockout out. Thats his appeal.

    KP on October 9th, 2012 at 10:23 AM

  13. Latin fighters have always been the most talented fighters with the exception of Heavyweight where Blacks once dominated. Now that whites dominate that division we start hearing about lack of black participation in boxing. It’s just an excuse. The current Heavyweight champions have raised the bar with their training and fitness that Black American Heavies have not been able to match. And until that happens there will be no change in that division. Work harder and learn from those guys and maybe you will see results. Stop the excuses.

    Laurent on October 9th, 2012 at 12:42 PM

  14. the bradguy should have said “if the CUBANS (HW) were allowed to turn pro”. imagine stevenson against foreman, frazier, holmes, ali …etc. Also, never heard of any great russian HW during that era, be it pro or amateur???

    dondon on October 9th, 2012 at 9:35 PM

  15. ^ The Fall of the Iron Curtain? When Soviet Union and its socialistic countries existed and did well they did NOT allow their athletes to turn out professional boxers. It was BANNED.

    darben on October 10th, 2012 at 7:06 PM

  16. Black Americans have not given up they have just been joined by fighters from around the world. Boxing is more global than ever and will continue to be that way. This is a good thing, not a bad thing. It’s sad when people can’t accept change and want to make excuses for why certain ethnicities can no longer run the show.

    Marcus H on October 29th, 2012 at 2:18 AM

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