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Every week it seems a new hot shot youtuber declares they’re a fighter and will be making their debut as a professional. It always starts the same, semi professionals first building confidence, then getting a solid beating from a professional. This fighter phenomenon seems to be appearing most in once famous online personalities. There's two things the internet loves most: hating on people, and watching people be violently put in their place. The culmination of these two can be found in influencer boxing. Which explains part of the trend's popularity. Undoubtedly the internet is leaving a huge impact on the pro-fighting world, the question becomes is this all for better or is this just another example of the internet ruining a classic.
The first shocking case of an internet personality becoming a wanna-be pro fighter is of course the notorious Jake Paul. While he was not the creator of this phenomenon he was crucial in its initial rise. It all started in 2018 when Jake Paul and his brother Logan staged a fight between fellow youtubers KSI and Deji. This amateur fight had a huge impact on both the fighters and the world of professional fighting. After the fight the others involved continued casual fighting in a series of what should be described as PR stunts. Jake on the other hand seemed to be stuck on the idea of fighting professionally. His choice to not only continue fighting but to attempt to move up is where we begin to see how this trend came to be. Now not only is there a way to take internet beef to the next level but you could also have a new career too. After Jake Paul came a wave of other influencers including but not limited to, Money Kicks (Rashed Belhasa), Joe Weller (one of the og’s), and most recently Bryce Hall. With every influencer fight comes fresh discourse over the harms and benefits the unique demographic brings to the sport.
To many the influx of influencers is bringing down boxing and they have some solid reasons for concern. The majority of wanna-be boxers have to go through a long process of gym training and coaching before they’re allowed to touch a ring. Influencers almost never have to go through this training leaving them under skilled and under trained. Boxing isn’t just punching and jump roping, there's nuances that you can only get from real gyms. This lack of training also shows a lack of respect and determination for the sport. It isn’t all the fault of the individual; the internet doesn’t usually favor long slow journeys for content. Social media platforms favor short term quick and exciting endeavors. Boxing matches and the press conferences leading up to those matches work great for this style of content. The training required however gets the cut. It’s more than just untrained fighters that ruffle people’s feathers.
For many long-time fans of the sport, influencers bring the sport down and harm public opinion. What once was a tough sport is now something for social media celebs to make a mockery of. Not only is public opinion lowered but any benefit brought in by new fans is mitigated by the fact that these influencer fights overshadow actual rising talent. It’s hard enough to be a professional athlete; it takes dedication and years of training. Now imagine anyone with an ounce of fame being able to one day decide they want to start the same sport. What’s worse, they often get more attention than real professionals. Influencers aren’t typically popular within the boxing community and it’s not hard to see why.
The internet loves to hate on people, influencer’s becoming boxers is no exception to this long true rule. Some of the ruthless internet hate is deserved but some is just the angry words from people scared of change with a keyboard. For all the hate there are some who defend these wanna be fighters. The main argument for influencers being accepted into the sport, besides it being wildly fun to watch, is they bring in new fans. Boxing as a sport has had a pretty dramatic decline in viewership with people favoring more sensationalized forms of entertainment. Influencer supporters argue that the new fans are a needed refresh for the dying sport. These fights, good or bad, do fill seats. Name recognition will always win at the ticket booth. In Jake Paul's most recent fight against Nate Diaz over 800,000 pay-per-views along with over 19,000 seats were sold according to the Sports Payout website. To put this number into perspective Statista estimates only around 447,000 pay-per-views sold per match in 2018. Many of these sales were from genuine Jake Paul fans, but many more were from people there to watch him get beat.
The greatest thing about influencer boxing is the irony within it. Influencers are nothing without people to influence and they don’t stick with endeavors that people won’t watch. The same boxing fans so worried about influencers tarnishing the sport are the exact same ones inadvertently promoting and paying these influencers. Boxing has always been a sport that uses drama to adapt. American Heritage published an article in 1991 about boxing's dramatization. One part states, “All sports are treated as businesses today, and boxing in particular is less of a sport, more of a spectacle. I’m amused, when I go to a major fight, to see spectators lined up with their cameras, not to take pictures of the fighters but to shoot the celebrities coming into the arena.” The celebrity dilemma isn’t new. Boxing, much like the internet thrives in an environment fueled by drama.
The internet and boxing are a match made in heaven. Nothing makes the internet happier than a quick bout of violence. Nothing sells pay-per-view like a dramatic story. Boxing provides the quick violent solution while the internet crafts the perfect drama-filled story. Like it or not the two work shockingly well together. If boxing fans want the sport to come back to its once great status, and sales, they should embrace the new wave. Rather than trolling on the internet they should support what’s best for the sport. Fans have a lot of power, it’s time for boxing fans to use that power to build the sport a future that people want to watch.
