GJohn De Carolis and Clemente Russo have given us two different versions on this very theme. For De Carolis that match was damaging.
I assure you that a lot of people I met on the street asked me about that meeting. It was still a way to talk about boxing. The gyms are full, the problem is competitiveness: there are few who want to fight. Boxing is very popular in terms of physical preparation, but no one wants to get punched in the face. Boxing is not tennis, you have to get hurt. And who wants to do it anymore today?
How did we get to this?
In general, boxing draws on the periphery, on socially weak categories. So if well-being increases and the desire to sacrifice disappears, boxing declines. It has become a physical culture sport. But these are guys who don’t think about becoming boxers. It’s like street running, bodybuilding almost. It must be said that the MMA phenomenon has stolen the public a bit, but that too is in decline.
After big figures like Mayweather or McGregor for the UFC the descent will be even more vertical.
Yes, especially in Italy, where if the character isn’t there you don’t talk about it. Daniele Scardina could have been the big opportunity.
Someone who can take his place?
It’s a question I always ask: who is the strongest Italian boxer around? I ask the experts and no one can answer. For me he is clearly Guido Vianello, but he doesn’t have that kind of image. Not even experts can point to a champion today.
But is all that money up for grabs good for athletes?
It’s all oversized and it’s paradoxical that today those who make a living in boxing in Italy at a medium-high level get starvation bags, apart from perhaps De Carolis or Russo. 99% of Italian boxers do another job. It doesn’t make sense for ten champions to get those numbers. In fact, what happened? That boxing, to survive, had to go to Arabia, where at least for a while longer they will be willing to shell out all that money.
Top level boxing is no longer held in Madison Square Garden but in Riyadh, in short.
Exact. Madison Square Garden had already been supplanted by Las Vegas, then the latter too was overtaken by Arabia. The same champions like Fury always ask for more, they say they will only fight for 100 million dollars. But it doesn’t make sense, because sport isn’t about getting rich beyond measure: it’s also about sharing the cultural, technical and social value of your discipline.
Does the system remain healthy despite these follies?
Something will have to change. These boxers take more than they give financially.
That is, is the turnover between advertising, pay per view and everything else less than the income of the two athletes?
Yes, in fact who is putting up the money? The oilmen. Once upon a time the big hotels used to put them there, but now they don’t want to do it either.
What is the next stop on this journey?
I don’t know, really. A similar thing in some ways happened in Italy, where many resources were squandered for the benefit of the organizers. The profits that existed in the Seventies and Eighties were exaggerated, but in the end they found themselves with crumbs, and today no one is willing to invest anymore.
