The Boxing Truth®

The month of August 2022 closed with both curiosity and intriguing in two events being staged on August 27th in two different countries. First, it was the debut of the MisFits Boxing series that pits celebrities and social media personalities in the Boxing ring to do battle. An event that was streamed on digital subscription sports streaming network DAZN as part of its subscription offering as well as a low cost pay-per-view offering depending on what country or region you were viewing the event from. The United Kingdom, Ireland, and those of us in North America (United States and Canada) were offered the event at a low cost of $9.99 for current subscribers. Some readers will recall a column penned by this observer last week where I asked a simple yet complex question because it could be answered in a variety of ways. Does “Celebrity Boxing “ hurt or benefit the sport? I also concluded that column by saying that I would be tuning in, in part out of curiosity as well as a Boxing scribe ...

  Since th e latest i nflux of celebrity bouts began to find its way into the sport of Boxing a couple of years ago, one question that I have been asked more than once is do these bouts, which nowadays usually consist of social media influencers help Boxing overall or does it actually hurt the sport? Obviously, it is a question that can be viewed and answered in a variety of ways.     The most obvious argument in favor of these bouts occurring on a regular basis is that it brings in a segment of the population that the sport of Boxing for whatever reason struggles to attract on an ongoing basis. This observer is referring to the casual fan. Normally when discussing the struggle Boxing faces in procuring the interest of a casual fan, yours truly will often use the term “Casual Sports fan.” A distinction of fan that can be defined as one with a general interest in sports, but not a thorough follower of any particular sport . In this case however, the term should be reduc...