Line of Scrimmage: A new era of professional sports
Usually, I’d take on more hard-hitting topics than this one, but I’m saving them for later. This edition of my column came to mind from me misreading an article thinking that Jake Gyllenhaal was actually fighting in the UFC.
He’s not. He just posed at a weigh-in for a remake of the 1989 film, “Road House” and was not getting ready for UFC 285. I was reminded, though, of other celebrities, primarily social media influencers, who are taking on professional athletes in their domain. Yes, I’m talking about internet celebrities and now apparent boxers Jake Paul and KSI.
Paul has been fighting former UFC fighters in the boxing ring over the past two years, taking them apart and making the sports world wonder, “What the hell is going on?”
For his first bout against a professional boxer, Paul took on heavyweight champion Tyson Fury’s half-brother, Tommy, for eight rounds. Paul ended up losing by split decision, but it didn’t seem to deter him from continuing to box against other pros. He’s also garnered attention from commentators like Stephen A. Smith, who discussed Paul on “First Take” multiple times, debating if he was an actual boxer given his inexperience in the boxing realm — although he enjoys watching Paul box.
Something to note is that his Fury fight totaled an alleged 775,000 pay-per-view sales at $50 each, generating a net payout of $38.75 million. Clearly, there’s plenty of interest from viewers if the numbers are true, as it sold 200,000 more PPV purchases than Canelo Alvarez’s fight against Dmitry Bivol — making this an interesting era in boxing where social media personalities can outsell some of the best pro boxers.
The fact that Paul versus Fury could contend with one of the upcoming fights of the year, Gervonta Davis versus Ryan Garcia — which I doubt it will — is insane. Since Davis versus Garcia is one of the most anticipated match-ups in a long time, though, I’m sure it’ll blow the Paul versus Fury fight out of the water.
Considering that there’s been talk that boxing is a dying sport, seeing as it hasn’t been reaching the sales it used to reach, this could help the sport, even if it hurts the sport as of right now. It’s no knock on the sport itself: boxing is one of, if not the toughest sports on a person’s body and also one of the most dangerous.
After 2020, many of the largest PPV sales for combat sports events have been for UFC; The only noticeable boxing fights this decade being Tyson Fury versus Deontay Wilder, Canelo’s matches, and whoever Manny Pacquiao decides to fight in his old age. There hasn’t been consistent talk of highly anticipated fights in the boxing world for a long time. The induction of celebrities into boxing could spark new life into the sport and tap into one of the most important markets that keep so many things alive — young people.
Other sports that are teetering off in popularity, like NASCAR, are making attempts in attracting new fans. While there’s been plenty of resistance in taking Paul and KSI seriously as boxers, it might be what the sport needs in the long run by attracting a young fanbase.
Many major sports, including soccer, basketball and football, have polarizing characters with players who are huge on social media. Anthony Joshua and Canelo are currenrly duking it out to be the boxer with the most Instagram followers at around 14 million each, which puts the sport’s popularity into perspective.
The NFL has a consistent number of players with millions of followers. The NBA has mega superstar LeBron James, who’s garnered 147 million followers, many being fans who want to know what his next move is. James, along with other stars like Stephen Curry and Giannis Antetokounmpo, keep many people around the world interested in basketball. Soccer is the world’s largest sport, so there’s no surprise when the two most followed people on Instagram are Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo.
If the boxing world uses both Paul and KSI’s Instagram followings — 22 million and 12 million, respectively — it could be the key to reviving the sport in the long run, even if they make it a laughing stock for a bit with their celebrity fights.
Jason Lopez Lopez is a senior writing about the intersection of sports and sociopolitical issues in his column, “Line of Scrimmage.” He is also a sports editor at the Daily Trojan.