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By Joshua “City” Brewer

By now, you may know that last night’s IBF world welterweight title fight between defending champion Errol “The Truth” Spence, JR., 24-0, 21 KO’s, and Carlos “Chema” Ocampo, 22-1, 13 KO’s, was a major success for boxing. The fight in itself was a blitzing. It was the equivalent of football legend Lawrence Taylor getting an open shot at a blindside sack on your quarterback of choice. Ocampo showed a bit of moxy as he tried to fight fire with fire, but that was short lived as a left hook-right hook body combination sent Ocampo home quicker than his walk from the locker room. The outcome was almost a foregone conclusion but the manner in which Spence dispatched of Ocampo with such an intense body attack shows why he’s one of boxing’s best and most feared.

The football analogy used earlier is relevant as this was a joint promotional effort between Spence JR.’s team and the Jerry Jones, owner of the Dallas Cowboys of the National Football League. The fight took place at the Ford Center in Frisco, Texas, a suburb of Dallas, Texas, the Dallas Cowboys 400,000 square foot practice facility. Upwards of 15,000 fans were in attendance. Herein lies the ultimate premise of my article and quote from the 1989 film, Field of Dreams, “If you build it, they will come.”

If you were to do a pulse check on the sport of boxing it would become apparent that 2018 has been arguably the best year in boxing so far this decade. Rewind back to 2015, the year of the infamous fight I won’t mention, and we were still unsure of what the future held. There seemed to be a boxing ‘cold war’ between promoters that would prevent the best matchups from being made. 2016 wasn’t bad. We saw many stables to include the Premier Boxing Champions, start to sign and display a ton of talent. Boxing started to get more time on network television and as far as where we are now, boxing has taken unprecedented strides this year. ESPN and Showtime in particular have made major commitments to the sport of boxing and where we’ll be in the future.

The introduction of the new and exclusive ESPN+ streaming platform essentially has provided fight fans with the opportunity to see Pay Per View level fights for $4.99 a month. On top of that, through Top Rank’s deal with ESPN, you get access to a catalog of some of the greatest fights in history that have taken place under the Top Rank promotional banner. From my view, a part of what will continue to help the sport grow is boxing showcasing some of its top talents and rising stars in hometown fights. Spence, JR., is a resident of Desoto, Texas, and the Ocampo fight was the first time he defended his title in his hometown. Fans came out and supported to the highest extent.

At the very least Spence, JR., has shown that he can certainly put fans in seats. During the post fight interview he and Jerry Jones seemed content with the notion of making an Errol Spence, JR., title defense, or any matchup for that matter, an annual occurrence.

This is what boxing needs. This is what boxing fans need. Las Vegas, Nevada, is considered the boxing capital of the world given its prevalence in generating huge money for huge fights. That said, sometimes the average fan gets left out. The U.S. Census Bureau reported the median household income across America to be $55,322 in 2016. The average person can’t afford to shell out whatever amount for a ticket to a fight in Las Vegas, along with whatever travel and lodging modes available to them. Factor in those with additional family that must be taken into account along with lodging rates being elevated when the news of major fights are announced, and you could be well into the thousands of dollars (or euros) before you even step foot in a venue.

There are other things for boxers and promoters take into account. When you look at boxing as a whole, globally, the majority of fights take place out of sight and out of mind by comparison to other sports. Additionally, many fighters are homegrown, in a sense, as they are making their way through the ranks. That aside, when boxers reach what is considered to be an elite level, the lure of the major cities tends to take hold. This may very well not be by choice as these are typically the only feasible options for generating the most funding. For many promotions, they tend to barely break even during the early stages of building a fighter’s career profile.

There’s been a shift from where the biggest fights were held 30+ years ago. Some of the most iconic fights in history took place in locations no one would even dream up these days. The Muhammad Ali Vs Sonny Liston rematch took place in Lewiston, Maine. A fight of that magnitude will likely never take place in the state Maine, ever again, and I’m not advocating that one should. But, for fighters like Spence, JR., it’s definitely not a bad thing to host at the very least an annual fight in front of his hometown fans. He’s on board with it and it shows that he at least has the fans in mind. He isn’t the only one.

Terence Crawford fighting in Omaha, Nebraska, is good for boxing. Nico Hernandez fighting in Wichita, Kansas, is good for boxing. Gary Russell, JR., fighting in the Washington, D.C., area is good for boxing. Jose Ramirez fighting in Fresno, California, is good for boxing. Shawn Porter and Robert Easter, JR., fighting in Ohio is good for boxing. Deontay Wilder fighting in Alabama, and Brooklyn for that matter, is good for boxing. Not every fight has to be in said fighter’s hometown, but for the sake of growing the sport, it’s good to give elite fighters the opportunity to showcase their talents where they learned their trade. This should lend to more eyes, more word of mouth, more sharing, and more growth.

From there, everything is limitless as far as potential venues. Boxers don’t necessarily have to be boxed into (no pun intended) single locations for major fights. As far as Deontay Wilder Vs Anthony Joshua, the opportunity for Wilder to take the heavyweight title(s) in front of 90,000 plus fans in Wembley Stadium has a legacy defining appeal. That said, all of this is easy for me to say from the outside looking in. That’s why discussions on topics of this nature are important. Who knows, maybe I’ve gotten it all wrong. Either way, boxing lives. And with that, may the sweet science live on forever.

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