Boxing Hoping De La Hoya-Mayweather Can Revive Sport

Many Feel De La Hoya-Mayweather Will Be Last Big Bout For Some Time

Golden Boy Promotions CEO Richard Schaefer said the number of public exposures for Saturday’s Oscar De La Hoya-Floyd Mayweather Jr. bout -- including TV shows, sponsors and media coverage -- is “close to a billion consumer impressions” (PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER, 5/4). Boxer Shane Mosley said of the fight, “Clearly boxing needs this. Two megastars, two champions, two great fighters who people want to see fight anybody, are fighting each other. How could a boxing fan not want to see that?” (HOUSTON CHRONICLE, 5/4).

DOWN FOR THE COUNT? In Phoenix, Norm Frauenheim writes, “From life support to last rites to rebirth, [boxing] always has moved on, surviving if not exactly thriving. But a familiar obituary is back and buzzing louder than ever in the noisy build-up to the most anticipated fight in years.” De La Hoya: “I don’t think we’ll have the big, huge events for a while. We’ll have great fights, but not the mega events. Boxing is going to take a hit for a while” (ARIZONA REPUBLIC, 5/4). In L.A. Steve Springer writes, “There is De La Hoya and there is everybody else, and that leaves a gap into which the sport’s visibility and popularity have plunged. Even more ominous for boxing, the hole has been at least partially filled by mixed martial arts.” De La Hoya said, “I don’t think there is pressure on my shoulders to save boxing. This is not a dying sport. There are still big fights here, big fights in England, big fights in Germany. The sport is alive and well. It’s just a matter of making the right fights” (L.A. TIMES, 5/4).

FUTURE OF BOXING: Thursday’s 11:00pm ET edition of “SportsCenter” examined the state of boxing, and boxing historian Bert Sugar said, “Boxing was once, in its heyday, one of the three major sports along with baseball and horse racing. ... Now, charitably, boxing is number eleven on the list of top ten.” HBO Senior VP/Marketing & Operations Mark Taffet, on almost all significant fights airing on PPV: “It’s very important that boxing get back in the mainstream and that more fans have an opportunity to see it on a regular basis. Pay Per View should be special” (ESPN, 5/3). IFL Exec Producer Jay Larkin, formerly Showtime Senior VP/Sports & Event Programming, said that a “big fight can happen again but acknowledged there are none on the horizon save the possibility of rematches” between De La Hoya and Mayweather. Larkin: “This will be the last one for a while, but it does not have to be the last one. A few solid wins against real opposition can produce a star quickly” (WASHINGTON TIMES, 5/4). Promoter Roy Engelbrecht said that the sport “does not need to find another De La Hoya, it needs to find a new De La Hoya.” But boxing manager Jackie Kallen noted, “We don’t really have a finder system. Every other sport has one” (SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE, 5/4).