Boxing: Elite Level Peer Pressure
Boxing’s 2023 opening act raised the bar for the sport entering the fall season. A number of fighters coming off impressive early wins in the first half of the year will “spin the block” before 2024 as more big payday fights become possible.
Vegas Sports Today spoke with Showtimes Sports’ Stephen Espinoza and he talked about the persuasive leverage that comes with the incentives for taking big risk fights. “Everyone wants a piece of it, and nobody wants to be left out.” Espinoza further elaborated on the effect these fights have had on fighters from a competitive vantage point, adding Showtimes competitors’ inactivity in the market made those promotions easier to work with. “Fighters are seeing this guy take tough fights, and they don’t want to be the one who breaks the streak.” said Espinoza.
Evidence of Espinoza’s assessment can be verified based on the decisions of stars like Canelo Alvarez and Terrence Crawford who both signed a 3 fight deal with Premier Boxing Champions (PBC). Also, both fighters have sued their promoters, well, technically Canelo sued DAZN, who is a streaming networking partner with Golden Boy Promotions who according to court documentation of Alvarez’s complaint suggested Oscar Dela Hoya and staff were also responsible for his loss of potential revenue.
The fighter that comes to mind most affected by this super fight streak from a competitive standpoint is Devin Haney. Oakland’s only four belt era undisputed champion reigns over a division deep as the welterweight roster except Haney can’t operate the way Crawford can at this point. So, for ‘The Dream’ to maintain the streak he has to pick the lesser poison with big profit potential. Hopefully we can all agree Gervonta Davis and Shakur Stephenson are the two best qualified and obvious choices. When I compare the energy between Devin and Shakur’s exchanges versus Devin
and Prograis, and personally I don’t find it to be at all a coincidence Haney and Stephenson’s exchanges have taken center stage on social media while a lot of us have had our accounts suspended for far less than what was said by these gentleman.
As I stated before there are some mega fights rumored to be in the works some involving Deontay Wilder vs Anthony Joshua, David Benavidez vs Demetrius Andrade, Tank Davis vs Pittbull Cruz, and not that I’m a huge fan but Lord if you can find it in your heart to send someone for Kieth Thurman before 2024, in July he told reporters at the Crawford vs Spence media day “My pockets are hungry” , and that’s yet another statement relevant to Stephen Espinoza’s assessment of a fighters reaction to the streak. “Everyone wants a piece of it, and nobody wants to be left out.”
