In the boxing world these days, it often feels like disaffected fans now outnumber its loyal followers. Something along the way turned them off, and now boxing is mostly off their radar.
It could be any number of things.
Maybe it's how painful it has been to get the biggest fights made and to get the best regularly fighting the best. Maybe it's a perception of corruption or incompetent judging. Perhaps it's the unfairness of seeing a fighter win a belt in the ring and then being stripped of it by a sanctioning body a short time later.
Whatever it is, though, it's real.
That's why I always see massive events as huge opportunities for the sport to win back some of those fans. In late 2006 or early 2007, not long after Oscar De La Hoya and Floyd Mayweather agreed to fight, I urged then-Golden Boy Promotions promoter Richard Schaefer to make a bout between Rafael Marquez and Israel Vazquez as the co-main event.
Everyone who followed boxing then knew Marquez-Vazquez would be a sensational fight; it was and they wound up fighting four times, with the first three of those epic encounters.
Given that, I wanted to see Marquez-Vazquez on the De La Hoya-Mayweather undercard because I felt it would send a message to those disaffected fans who left the sport that boxing was changing, and that these were the kinds of fights you'd see if you came back into the fold.
Alas, it didn't happen. The fight was made as its own event and a huge opportunity to find more fans was lost. That's why I see Friday's bout at AT&T Stadium between former undisputed heavyweight champion Mike Tyson and social media star turned boxer Jake Paul as an opportunity.
It's an opportunity to win back fans who had gotten frustrated by the sport's self-immolation tendencies but who will turn it because Tyson is once again on their TV screens.
Good production and great fights matter
Whether that's through vastly better and more innovative television production or outstanding fights, we know that a huge audience is going to see this bout and both of those could impact the wider perception of the sport. There will likely be more than 60,000 crammed into the home of the Dallas Cowboys, and perhaps a lot more than 60k.
Netflix is a global streaming service available in 190 countries with 283 million subscribers. If just 10 percent of Netflix’s subscribers tune in, this bout will reach an audience 50 times larger or more than that of a typical televised boxing match.
Tyson, the former undisputed champion, is one of the biggest draws in the sport's history. Even at 58, he's a hugely recognizable figure worldwide. He sold 1.6 million pay-per-views for an eight-round exhibition bout with Roy Jones Jr. in 2020. Jones recently did an interview with TalkSport and said Tyson still punched incredibly hard.
"Mike Tyson hit me harder in my chest than I have been hit in my whole career," Jones said. "He still has that legendary power, trust me."
Tyson remains gold at the box office.
He never left the public eye, though some may have forgotten just how washed up he looked when he lost to Danny Williams and Kevin McBride in 2004 and 2005, respectively.
'Ya'll must've forgot'
There's a good portion of the public which apparently expects the 58-year-old Tyson to perform and, most importantly, to punch like the 20-year-old version did. That version of Iron Mike knocked out Trevor Berbick in two rounds in Las Vegas in 1986 to become the sport's youngest heavyweight champion.
At Stations sportsbook in Las Vegas, Paul is a -260 favorite with Tyson a +220 underdog. Brandon Yaeger, the lead combat sports oddsmaker at Caesars Palace, told the Las Vegas Review-Journal that pro bettors favor Paul and the public is all over Tyson.
“All the small tickets are on Tyson," Yaeger told the newspaper. "The public is all on Iron Mike, but the bigger plays are on Paul. As far as educated bettors out there, I know they favor Jake Paul. But I’m not sure they have a lot of confidence in it.”
The public's interest in the fight places a lot of pressure on four fighters: Katie Taylor, Amanda Serrano, Mario Barrios and Abel Ramos. Taylor rematches Serrano and Barrios defends his welterweight title against Ramos on the undercard.
If they deliver big-time fights, it could help win back a lot of fans who over the years had gotten disgusted by the sport. Those fans may have heard about the influx of Saudi money into the sport and how big fights that weren't remotely possible before have begun to get made.
They're going to tune in out of curiosity to see Tyson, and so many of them will be watching boxing for the first time in years. It's critical those fans see a good product.
Now, who knows what to expect in the main event? If Tyson were remotely close to his prime, he'd destroy Paul. At 58, though, he's a massive question mark. Nobody knows what may happen.
Keys to regaining fans
The winner won't really matter, as long as Tyson doesn't get hurt. Sadly, though, that's something we have to worry about even more than we do in a normal boxing match. Boxing always carries significant risk and having a 58-year-old take punches to the head only increases that risk of something bad happening.
If Taylor and Serrano and Barrios and Ramos put on shows, though, maybe they'll help boxing start the long climb back up. It's not going to happen overnight and it's not like Taylor-Serrano II or Barrios-Ramos are the best fights boxing could put forward.
At the end of the day, boxing is entertainment and if Friday's show turns out to be fun and Netflix's broadcast looks slick and innovative, a percentage of fans will likely give boxing another chance.
That's all those who care about the sport can ask. Let's hope the main event is not a fiasco. Let's hope the production is a lot better than the average boxing broadcast and, most of all, pray that the two chief undercard bouts deliver both exciting action and fair results.
Those things could help reverse the tide of fans who once loved the sport from abandoning it. Nothing would be better for boxing than to welcome those prodigal sons back into the fold.
Amanda Westcott/Most Valuable Promotions
Jake Paul is better than a 2-to-1 favorite to defeat Mike Tyson on Friday in Arlington, Texas, in a bout streamed on Netflix.