Youtube paving the way for the future of boxing

By Mohammad Azmi Ahmad Hamaydeh

Over the past few years, we have seen the sport of boxing fall in popularity in comparison to other fighting sports such as MMA.

This drop in viewership and profits was quickly growing and the revival of the sport, in particular by the unlikely candidates that did revive it, could have never been foreseen.

The trend of influencers creating official boxing matches and classifying themselves as professional boxers started in early 2018, the first fight being between two major influencers which slowly transcended into something much bigger.

Social media influencers were now fighting world-class boxers, and this garnered massive media exposure and brought in ridiculous profits to the sport.

This turning point for the sport was officially highlighted on 6 June 2021, when one influencer by the name of Logan Paul fought boxing hall of fame legend, Floyd Mayweather.

Source: Logan Paul vs Floyd Mayweather

Via: AMNY

The two stars stepped in the ring and although many boxers thought this would undermine the sport, the effect that it had was the greatest thing the sport has seen since the likes of Mohammad Ali.

Both fighters had made north of USD100 million from the fight. In fact, there were so many people paying to watch the fight that the Showtime website, one of the official portals to purchase the fight and watch it live, had crashed.

Many boxing analyst’s and boxers have publicly shown their support towards the merging of media influencers and boxers.

“Boxing owes these guys. They owe these YouTube boxers some respect. They should give them some belts because these guys make boxing alive,” said Mike Tyson, Hall of Fame boxer.

“Boxing was pretty much a dying sport. UFC was kicking our butts. Now we got these YouTube boxers boxing with 25 million views. Boxing’s coming back. Thanks to the YouTube boxers.”

Another hall of fame boxer, Roy Jones Jr, added, “Listen, my ego says so many things, but my reality is they help boxing so much.”

On the other hand, this support has not echoed through all sports followers or sportsmen, related to the sport of boxing.

Phil Jay, a World boxing news author commented on the events saying “YouTubers do indeed bring in some viewers.

But the majority are youngsters who won’t stay in more than one fight, let alone the whole event.”

Their involvement does nothing for our sport. It only serves to make a mockery of the professional process.”

With future fights already lined up for influencers, we do not see any changes occurring that will ban them from taking part in the sport of boxing.