The Final 10-Count? ESPN’s potential exit could cripple boxing in the U.S.

For the second straight year, the Super Bowl set a ratings record. Across all of its platforms, Fox averaged 127.7 million viewers for the Philadelphia Eagles’ 40-22 victory over the Kansas City Chiefs. While the game was streamed on Tubi, and NFL digital platforms, 111.3 million of those viewers watched on television on Fox.

And that’s the jumping off point for boxing and the shocking news that broke on Front Office Sports Tuesday that ESPN will not renew its deal with Top Rank. Top Rank’s last show will be in July.

Unless ESPN does a deal with another promoter, there will be no regularly scheduled boxing on television in the U.S. 

That’s got to be harrowing for anyone in the boxing business and for all boxing fans here. 

Viewing habits are changing quickly, but for things like live sports, free over-the-air television is still the best place to get the biggest audience. That said, the growth of the streaming platforms is obvious by examining ratings for the last two Super Bowls.

In the 2024 Super Bowl on CBS, 120.25 million of the 123.7 million total viewers watched on television. This year, 111.33 million of Fox’s 127.7 million total viewers watched on TV. 

While streaming is growing quickly, free TV still dominates live sports, as evidenced by the Super Bowl’s viewership numbers.

It’s important to note that it was free to watch the Super Bowl digitally. I was one of the 14.5 million on Sunday who streamed the game on Tubi.

Boxing isn’t free to stream in the U.S. If ESPN exits the boxing business on linear TV, fans will have to pay for every fight they watch.

That’s no concern for those with deep pockets, but boxing is a grass roots sport that appeals to the working class and the lower income earners in the country.

Top Rank Boxing on ESPN wasn’t a direct replacement for HBO, who exited the business in 2018, or Showtime, which left in 2023. 

Throughout their existence, HBO and Showtime aired fights involving the biggest names in the sport, and even toward the end of both networks’ runs, they had big names in non-pay-per-view fights.

The current iteration of Top Rank Boxing on ESPN hasn’t had the level of fights on a consistent basis that either HBO or Showtime had.

But if it goes away entirely, it could be crippling to the boxing industry as a whole in the U.S. Then, the only way to regularly watch boxing here would be to pay for a service.

American boxing fans have had to deal with that for a long time. The biggest fights for years have been pay-per-view. The NFL wouldn’t be nearly as big as it is now if all of its games weren’t shown for free on television, including the playoffs and the Super Bowl.

As a boxing fan, it was funny to listen to NFL fans complaining last year that a playoff game streamed on Peacock or that a regular season game was on Netflix this season. Boxing fans in the U.S. would love to tell them how good they have it.

Television broadcasts are critical for boxing. There are few ways for the fans to learn about the fighters and their personalities. HBO Sports’ 24/7 series was one of the most significant factors in Floyd Mayweather’s rise to superstardom. It debuted a few weeks out from the grudge match between Mayweather and arch rival Oscar De La Hoya.

The first episode of the series was called “De La Hoya/Mayweather: 24/7,” and premiered during HBO’s packed Sunday evening lineup featuring the hit series’ The Sopranos and Entourage.

The series provided a behind-the-scenes look at both boxers and allowed fans to develop a rooting interest in one or both of the fighters.

Decades earlier, ABC Sports used to do segments during its Olympic coverage and during other sporting events it dubbed “Up Close and Personal,” which gave viewers an intimate look at the boxers.

The hardcore fans will watch everything, or most everything, but they’re a tiny segment of the potential audience. In order for a fight to do well, it needs to build interest among general sports fans or even from those outside of sports who simply heard the drumbeat of promotion for a bout.

If ESPN walks away from boxing, there will be a huge void in the landscape. 

Manny Pacquiao fought Jeff Horn on ESPN. So, did Vasiliy Lomachenko and Guillermo Rigondeaux. And Lomachenko’s hotly anticipated bout with Teofimo Lopez aired on the network, as well.

Lomachenko became one of boxing’s biggest stars in large part due to his repeated exposure on ESPN.

For those big fights, ESPN had its set on location and provided extensive coverage throughout fight week. It increased the visibility of the fighters and the event. The broadcasts introduced fans to some of today’s biggest stars, best fighters and greatest matches.

If ESPN doesn’t make a deal with another rights holder, its incentive to cover boxing is virtually nonexistent. It will only pay attention to the absolute biggest fights and even then the time spent on it will be dwarfed in comparison by its coverage of NFL, NBA, MLB and NHL, among many other sports.

Boxing won’t be able to swing the fans who loved the ESPN products to a similar outlet because there isn’t one. Streaming services like DAZN exist and regularly produce fights, but it’s $225 per year plus extra for some pay-per-view fights.

The coverage on streaming services won’t hit the same as it did on linear television because there is just a certain segment of the audience that won’t pay to stream the fights. There’s another segment of the audience who would like to do so but can’t afford the price.

The NFL is king in the U.S. for many reasons. It’s easy to bet and the lines are simple to understand. The Ravens -10 over the Steelers is simple for people who aren’t avid bettors. But Artur Beterbiev at -125 over Dmitry Bivol at +100 is confusing to the masses.

But the biggest reason for the NFL’s dominance is its television policy. Every game in the regular season has been broadcast and was available in the home market assuming the game was sold out.

Playoff games were on free, over-the-air TV until recently when a few games moved to ESPN on cable.

Each Sunday from September through January, fans know they could count on sitting in front of the TV after church and watching the game.

Boxing has never had anything close to that in the U.S. But if ESPN exits the market, even the little scraps that have been given to rabid boxing fans hungry to see the action will be gone.

It’s going to be a dark day for the sport in the country with the biggest economy and the most disposable income.

If ESPN exits boxing, it’s a Standing 8 count for the sport in the U.S. and there’s no saving by the bell. 

If no one steps up, we could hear the final 10-count for the sport as we know it when that final Top Rank Boxing on ESPN show airs in July.