With this upcoming Mayweather – Pacquiao fight building so much excitement, NBC is jumping on the boxing bandwagon. The question is will the sport’s momentum continue after May 2nd?

It’s no secret this fight between Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather is the biggest thing on this side of Holyfield-Tyson. Leading up to it, NBC is bringing boxing back to primetime with Premier Box Champions (PBC) on Saturday nights. The broadcast being called by legends Al Michaels, Marv Albert, and Bob Costas pulled in 3.4 Million viewers on March 7th. That’s a pretty decent number for a sport that has not been able to attract any significant audience between big fights.

So who is benefitting from this recent success? Boxing or the network, NBC? Boxing has a little a gain but NBC is getting most of the  upside and its not their fault. Only because boxing has a lack of branding. Look at the way other sports are packaged such as the NBA and NFL. There is one league in charge of the image and clear pipelines to consumers. So what does boxing need?

17 weight classes, 5 federations, up to 6 different champions per class, and a long list of promoters worldwide. With so much division in the sport of boxing one thing is clear to me. There is no clear direction for the sport. When it comes to an agenda, it’s decided by the boxers and promoters. The federations have no real power. They don’t decide place, prize, fighters and we could  continue.

As you can see boxing has a list of issues. The one thing that is fixable is getting people to pay attention to boxing all the time. UFC is dominating the “fight night” lane and is turning fans into diehards with the delivery of content. They secured sports with a television deal worth a reported $90 Million with Fox Sports. They flexed the ability to package up to 12 Pay Per View fights and allow you subscribed directly with them to get every single piece of UFC content for $10 a month.

UFC Fight Pass is where sports is at on the digital front

What is UFC doing that boxing is not? Again branding.

You have one name that synonymous with the sport. Add that to the one marketing machine that spits out new stars every year and one man that the face of that machine in Dana White.

This is where boxing is failing. There’s one star and one brand name in Floyd Mayweather. He is the biggest draw in the sport but even betting is down on his fights

The amount wagered on (the Mayweather -Maidana Fight) was down significantly across town. Jay Rood, vice president of race and sports books for MGM, said the rematch attracted less than 50 percent of the betting action that Mayweather’s fight with Canelo Alvarez drew in September 2013. –  J.R. Gamble

 

Listen to J.R. Gamble on #DaRundown Sports Podcast Recapping the Mayweather Maidana fight

 

A single fighter netting $200 Million for six fights alone is not healthy for the sport. It could be if there were about 10 fighters worth the same draw. It would mean the sport was healthy.

I have a plan to fix boxing but it take a conglomerate of power to pull it off. Take the top boxing promoters and the top boxing federations and if they put the money together they could probably buy the sport of boxing from the rest of the world.

As currently constructed boxing is a front that is more like the first season of Empire set in the Wild West. So many hands in the cookie jar and cooks in the kitchen, there’s no wonder we couldn’t get this fight sooner. This is where a democratized approach doesn’t work. So I think it’s time for a new approach.

1. Consolidate All Federations into One League

There are too many belts and too many champions. Ask  an average sports fan who hands out the Pro Basketball championship? Now ask them who hands out the belts in a championship fight? If boxing wanted to stay viable People will need to identify an entity that governs it as a source for all things boxing. Since it is an individual sports they should take the approach like PGA when it comes to the young guns coming up.

2. Four Regional Champs and Overall Champ for each Weight Class

So what do we do with  all these belts now that it’s just one league? Basically divide the globe into four corners. Create a system that require you to win your region to be eligible for a Title Fight. To become champion of a region you would need have the highest rank among region and beating the incumbent. You can fight outside your region but it would weigh somewhat less like an interdivision game in the NFL. The overall champ could pick his match from the three contenders. The other two would fight for the next title shot.

3.  Strong Brand Name Ambassador

Dana White is the face and voice of UFC. He has a clear Agenda to create a lasting impression on the fight world. Anything you want to know about the sport just look to him. The same goes for many leagues in America

4. Create Stars

The thing about boxing is it is an individual sport. The NBA is a team sport but the success of the league is on the back of their stars. If boxing wants to something they need a Rampage Jones or Bone Jones for that matter. The sport filled with individuals will need to have top performers be promoted for the good of all. You don’t think the PGA misses the draw Tiger used to bring? Use the cable and internet as platforms to get people involved. Boxing doesn’t promote a # on Twitter the network does. It doesn’t add any cache to the sport. They need more control for this to happen. This unified approach should help. You can literally manufactured stars in your sport by putting them front and center. You put some marketing dollars around the sport and use the winners as the faces. It’s a win even for the promoters who are now able to leverage the TV exposure into lucrative marketing deals and not being so dependent on big fight dollars.

5. Calendar Marking Events

Most sporting event’s a synonymous with a time of year, usually a season that is appropriate for it. You know the Super Bowl is in early February. You know the NBA Finals in June. I could go on. The point is boxing would need to mark its territory and make PPV dates a staple in the calendar year after year. I would say the minimum for me would be four. One in each quarter but I would put the Summer/Fall close together to avoid NFL. Each one having its own purpose and one being the Title Fight Night, where each fight is for a belt.

All of this is a half baked idea. I don’t have all the inner workings of  boxing at my fingertips to tell you what will work and what won’t. All I have is the knowledge of what works in sports with other leagues. If boxing doesn’t want to die when Mayweather retires, they better work on something before it goes the way of horse racing and is forgot about until the important matches.