If you fall in love with boxing as a young person, you'll forever be smitten. The sport will deliver incredible thrills on the regular, moments you'll recall as vividly a half-century later as you do on the day that memory was made.
But boxing is a cruel mistress, and it will hurt you again and again and again, and will repeatedly have you vowing to break up for good this time. It's the way the sport has been for so long, it's hard to know if it's ever been any other way.
As the 2024 campaign kicks off in earnest on Saturday at The Virgin Hotel in Las Vegas with unbeaten KO artist Vergil Ortiz Jr., meeting Fredrick Lawson in a bout that will be streamed on DAZN, it's a good time to remember the things that give us as boxing fans hope for the future. But, to be fair, it's also a good time to remember the things that give us heartburn and keep us awake so many nights.
There are so many excellent young fighters coming into the sport, and the best fighters have been fighting each other more regularly. That all bodes well for boxing's future, near-term and in the short-term future. But there's always something of concern, from the best fights more frequently winding up in the Middle East where the start time is awkward for U.S. fans, to broadcast entities leaving the sport.
With that in mind, here are some of my reasons for optimism for boxing's future as well as a few that give me pause:
Great young stars on the verge of breaking through
Positive: The talent influx in boxing is real, but the key is for them to turn into stars. Two of those potential stars, Ortiz Jr., and Jaime Munguia, are fighting this month. Ortiz puts his perfect record -- He's 19-0 with 19 KOs -- on the line Saturday against Lawson in a super welterweight bout. Ortiz is an engaging, charismatic fighter who has been on the verge of turning into a superstar the last several years.
He's two months shy of his 26th birthday, the perfect time for him to hit stardom. There is little bad to say about Ortiz other than that he can't stay healthy. He's fought once in 28 months and that's simply not enough either to improve his skills or make his mark.
If things go perfectly, meaning he fights 2-3 times a year for the next 4-5 years, he's got a chance to be the biggest star in the sport. He's a skilled showman who has legitimate power and a burning desire to challenge himself against the best.
Munguia is only 27 but he's 42-0 with 33 KOs. The issue with Munguia is that he's been handled with kid gloves. He's now fighting at super middleweight, but he's missed so many of the best fighters from his days at 154 and 160. He faces John Ryder at the Footprint Center in Phoenix on Jan. 27, a fight he needs to win impressively.
He's similar to Ortiz in that he's got a fan-friendly style with plenty of power and a personality that attracts people to him. It's time for him to take that next step and face the A-level competition on the regular.
If he does, he's got a chance to be a major star in the sport.
If David Benavidez beats Canelo Alvarez if/when they meet, he has a chance to do the same. This is all nothing but positive for boxing, and there couldn't be better news than this.
The exodus to Saudi Arabia continues
Negative: It's hard to call this a total negative, because a lot of boxers are making a lot of money, with 0s and 0s and 0s and 0s and 0s and 0s and 0s at the end of their paychecks. But it's hard to develop boxing fans in the U.S. if the fights are beginning in a time zone that is eight hours ahead of New York and 11 hours ahead of Los Angeles.
The folks running boxing in Saudi Arabia are doing the seeming impossible: They're getting the massive fights made and they're bringing together promoters who previously hated each other and wouldn't so much look in the other's direction.
Promoter Frank Warren of Queensberry and Eddie Hearn of Matchroom have had an icy relationship for years. But now that the Saudi money is flowing into their coffers, it's easy for them to make bouts.
Warren is promoting the Feb. 17 bout for the undisputed heavyweight title in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, against lineal/WBC champion Tyson Fury and IBF-WBA-WBO champion Oleksandr Usyk. But he worked with Hearn on the massive "Day of Reckoning" card on Dec. 23 and promised to work together again.
It's better that the fights are happening than not, but Warren, Hearn and other promoters lured by the promise of the Saudi money need to remember this: The Saudis don't care about building boxing; they care about what's best for Saudi Arabia and they're using boxing to advance their tourism goals.
But if it's hard for people in the U.S. to see the biggest fights, they'll eventually lose interest in the sport. And losing out on an entire generation of American fans can never be good for a sport that needs to grow its fan base, not shrink it.
Fewer media outlets broadcasting boxing in 2024
Mixed: HBO left boxing at the end of 2018, and Showtime, its long-time rival, left the business at the end of 2023. NBC has had numerous dalliances with the sport, but other than a series from Boxer on Peacock, it's not doing much boxing. The Premier Boxing Champions are moving to Amazon Prime Video in 2024, starting in March.
The PBC's plan in recent years has been heavily pay-per-view, and that's likely to continue even if the PBC announced that some of its matches on Amazon Prime will be available without an additional charge.
Promoters, though, need to be wary of the cost. In the U.S., an annual subscription to DAZN is $240, PLUS pay-per-view fights. Amazon Prime costs $139, and while there are myriad other benefits, a boxing-only fan will have to pay that as well as to fork over for pay-per-view. ESPN broadcasts a good amount of boxing on linear television, but its streaming selection is ESPN+ and there's a monthly fee for that. And to buy an ESPN pay-per-view, one must have an annual Plus subscription.
It costs a ton to be a boxing fan, and yet the promoters still don't cater to you.
Amazon could turn out to be a game-changer in the boxing space, but that's got to be proven. So I'll grade this one as mixed, a little good and a little bad.
The probable schedule for 2024 looks incredible
Positive: Fury and Usyk will fight for the undisputed title on Feb. 17. If they don't do a rematch, which is no slam dunk, it's looking good that Anthony Joshua could fight the winner. If Arthur Beterbiev beats Callum Smith next week, that should set up a Beterbiev-Dmitry Bivol undisputed light heavyweight title bout for mid-year.
If Smith beats Beterbiev, which isn't out of the realm of possibility, a Bivol-Smith fight would be fun for the undisputed belt, though not on the same level as a Beterbiev-Bivol fight.
WBC super lightweight champion Devin Haney and former champion Ryan Garcia say they're in talks for a 2024 bout. Crawford owes Errol Spence a rematch, and it will likely happen in the first half of 2024. Though it's by no means done, there are talks to pit undisputed super bantamweight champion Naoya Inoue in a title defense against Luis Nery. That would be an incredible match.
There are plenty more that look promising, if not likely. When the best fight the best, it advances the sport.
Sanctioning body shenanigans
Negative: If I was granted one wish and given the power to change anything in boxing, if I thought it were realistic I would get rid of the sanctioning bodies and have only one title in each weight class. There are no need for multiple belts.
When people watch a fight on TV and see a boxer win a championship, it erodes their trust in the sport to find out he's been stripped of it a few months later by a sanctioning body.
But because the reality is that the sanctioning bodies aren't, I pray that the heads of the four groups agree to meet and lock themselves into a room and not come out until they do two things: First, is to come out with a unified, consistent rating system. So if Joe Blow is No. 1 in the IBF, he's also No. 1 in the WBA, the WBC and the WBO, as well.
Secondly, they need to adjust their rules so that fighters don't get stripped for taking a more lucrative bout against a more well-known. opponent rather than facing a no-hoper mandatory.
Fighters are rewarded for exciting fights
Positive: Boxers understandably would be reluctant to take a tough fight if they knew that if they'd lose, that defeat would haunt them for years.
But more recently, promoters have been rewarding fighters who put on a show even in a losing effort. At the end of the day, a boxing card is no different than a concert or a movie or a comedy act. You want to make sure the fans enjoy the product and leave happy.
Be sure that fans who were there to see Rafael Espinoza upset Robeisy Ramirez on Dec. 9 in their WBO featherweight title bout in Pembroke Pines, Florida, left happy. It was a great fight and both guys were slugging away.
Top Rank is looking to make a rematch, which makes sense since the first bout was compelling.
If the fighters put on a show, the last they should worry about is the outcome. Fight well, entertain the fans and know you'll be taken care of next time out. Yes, there need to be stakes because they brings the added excitement to a result. But no one should be buried when they lose a fun fight.
Increasingly, fighters who take those risks are being rewarded, and that's a great sign.