A Look Back at 2015 Boxing in North Carolina – By the Numbers

This past year, boxing promoters featured a total of 20 professional boxing events around our state, up from 14 events the previous year. The term “around” may be used loosely, however, as events were held in just 9 cities.

Charlotte (4)

Durham (2)
Fayetteville (1)
Goldsboro (2)
Greensboro (4)
High Point (1)
Raleigh (2)
Reidsville (1)
Winston-Salem (3)

Theory has it that the majority of attendees at local events are family and friends of fighters scheduled in a bout that evening. This is confirmed by the fact that fighters, quite often, are contracted with a commitment to also turn salesman and sell a certain number of tickets to the event. Hey, these are, after all, “club fights”. And while most venues are typically loaded to capacity by the time the first bell sounds, we can’t expect to see average boxing fans in general storming through the gates every time their town features an event, especially when the fan doesn’t see the name Floyd Mayweather, Canelo Alvarez, Manny Pacquiao, or Gennady Golovkin listed on the program sheet of scheduled bouts.

Having attended venues in Miami and New York City, for example, a comparison (though possibly unfair, given the nature of much larger populations) indicates considerable differences with regard to boxing events there and here in North Carolina. In larger cities, the average boxing fan does in fact appear at club fights whether or not they are familiar with any of the boxers on the card, for the mere enjoyment of watching two unknowns beating each other’s brains out. And unlike the oddity sometimes seen in North Carolina boxing venues, whereby the size of the crowd gradually diminishes throughout the evening (as the fighter that various groups came to see is done fighting), the same number of big-city fans arriving at the start of an event, for the most part, are still there when the final bell rings.

Such comparisons may raise the question: are we doing something wrong…or different?

Florida and New York boxing promoters can afford a larger budget and pay fighters higher salaries when its club fights can draw several thousand patrons. North Carolina promoters don’t always have that luxury. But surely there are flaws in how our boxing events are promoted, and it may help to increase the boxing fan base in our regions if certain changes are made.

The very first matter to consider is this: we must begin to take the sport of boxing much more seriously.

All fighters contracted for a bout should be verified as having earned the right to establish himself or herself as a professional prizefighter. This means the boxer has previously competed in the sport, has had a fairly successful amateur career, and has devoted a good amount of hours to rigorous gym training under the guidance of professional trainers.

Taking someone off the streets in Wilson, North Carolina and offering him $100 to get in the ring so he can pad the record of his opponent is not, I repeat, NOT taking the sport seriously enough.

Out of 20 professional boxing events in North Carolina in 2015 (137 bouts), there were 38 bouts with a “boxer” from Wilson. The combined win-loss record of all Wilson fighters appearing during the year is currently 0-79. That’s not a mistype. Not one had a single win on his record entering the ring. And it remained that way when exiting.

If promoters insist on using untrained, unskilled boxers from Wilson, at least match them up against each other. That would be more productive, as it nearly guarantees a win for a Wilson fighter, and fans won’t have such an easy time predicting who will lose.

And possibly get a good fight to boot out of it.

Paco Rivera, GAR1680 North Carolina Boxing Talk Radio & Blog

Twitter: @GAR1680