Crossover Boxing: help or hindrance for the boxing industry?
Crossover boxing has become one of the most popular and lucrative sports in the last ten years. On Saturday 28th October 2023, WBC Heavyweight Boxing Champion Tyson Fury shared the ring with former UFC Heavyweight Champion Francis Ngannou in Saudi Arabia. The fight saw some of the world's biggest sporting stars attend the event such as Cristiano Ronaldo, Mike Tyson and Conor McGregor.
According to The Mirror, Fury made well over £50 million whereas Ngannou walked away with at least £10 million. And despite many assuming Fury would beat Ngannou easily, The Gypsy King was awarded a controversial split decision.
However, crossover boxing does not just favour seasoned professionals who have boxed or practised mixed martial arts from an early age. One week before Fury fought Ngannou, his younger brother and ex-Love Island contestant Tommy Fury shared the ring with YouTuber, music artist and Sidemen member KSI. According to the Metro, KSI made around £10 million while Tommy Fury earned approximately £3.7 million.
Not to mention, all of those who are signed to Misfits Boxing promotions, most of which have a few years to no boxing experience, yet make considerable sums of money from fighting each other.
The question is, are these crossover boxing fights good for the sport?
Most professional boxers will never fight on television. Unlike many influencers involved in crossover boxing, they will spend their careers fighting on small hall shows.
what do coaches and amateur boxers think?
"I was at the KSI Logan Paul fight in Manchester a good few years ago. I have seen how busy our class was afterwards. I asked the kids, 'did you watch that' and I said 'put up your hands' and there was a big number. I think yeah, it did help. It's these YouTubers who normally play computers, you know, boxing and they're doing well out of it. I think it's a positive. I don't think it's a negative. We know real boxing and we know the professionals that do it on a daily. We know the amateurs. We know these guys are YouTubers. They are getting well trained and I thought it was decent. I was ringside for it and I thought it was a decent standard actually. And it's a positive, the more kids we bring to this sport the better it is."
"I don't really mind it to be honest as long as it doesn't affect my boxing. I don't really mind it".
"There's not really any negatives to it. I believe it's put more eyes on the sport. It's brought attention to it and kids that may not have seen it from other boxers professionally, they're now seeing their favourite YouTuber boxing and getting into it and seeing them change their way of life, their lifestyle. I believe it's brought a lot of eyes that wouldn't see it regularly and again, can change a lot of young people's lives and get them into something they thought they might not have ever got into before."
"People see that and that's what motivates the youth to start boxing and stuff so I think that's lovely for the sport, give it good exposure."
"I think it's gone down because of the KSI-Tommy fight but it's still entertaining because you're watching two YouTubers box and it's still fun to watch. They [Nawid's friends] do like KSI and they want to start boxing as well because it looks fun on the TV and then they want to try it as well."
But what is the view of an experienced professional boxer?
David Rajuili is a professional boxer from South Africa with a record of 13 wins, 12 losses and one draw. In 2018, Rajuili won the World Boxing Federation African Lightweight Championship.
What does the data say?
Despite crossover boxing increasing the number of events and televised shows there were across England in the last six years, levels of participation have not gone up significantly according to data from Statista.
In fact, in 2021 the number of people participating in boxing aged 16 or older dropped to 493,000, around 300,000 less than in 2020 and the lowest its been in several years.
2022 saw boxing participation rise back up to 593,000 but this is still significantly less than levels in 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017 and 2016.
With 2023 soon coming to an end it will be interesting to see whether boxing participation levels have gone back up again. This is especially because of two massive crossover events this year in Tyson Fury vs Francis Ngannou and KSI vs Tommy Fury.
However, if it doesn't, maybe crossover boxing is not having such a positive effect after all, and the only people benefitting are those who are getting financially richer from the sport.
Crossover boxing is not slowing down with more celebrities, influencers, Youtubers and retired fighters all keen to step foot into the ring to make a quick buck.
Similar to professional boxing, at the lowest level anyone can compete. It's not difficult to get a professional boxing license. York Hall is home to countless journeymen who make a living off fighting most weeks and losing the majority of their bouts against various prospects.
The only difference with crossover boxing is the rewards involved. An untrained influencer may have thousands if not millions of followers on social media which means they are likely to get paid quite handsomely for a night of fighting, especially when compared to your low-level professional boxer without a similar number of fans.
Of course, at the highest level in boxing when there are world titles on the line, the monetary rewards may surpass those earned by the average boxer in the crossover scene. However, the bigger your following the more you earn in both respects.
Anthony Joshua is no longer a heavyweight world champion but he was ranked number 28 in the Forbes 2022 World's Highest Paid Athlete's List with earnings of $53 million.
On the other hand, this means even someone with minimal boxing experience such as former The Only Way Is Essex member, Joey Essex can compete under the bright lights and make a healthy return.
"Boxing is a tough business. If you don't sell tickets you don't get opportunities. Promoting myself on social media is the best way I can increase my following. Also, I feel like if people get to know me as a person through everything I put out, then there's more chances people will support my journey. I have to see myself as a business. All I'm doing really is advertising that business so it becomes more successful."
What does this mean for the future of boxing?
Crossover boxing has shown how you don't need to be a supremely talented boxer to make a healthy living from the sport.
In this social media age, having the ability to promote yourself and grow a massive following is arguably more important. This is because the more people who want to watch you fight, the more money you are likely to earn.
However, as a result, crossover boxing might tempt some professional boxers who already have a lot of fans, to not bother with the traditional route of trying to become a world champion.
Tommy Fury is the perfect example. Despite fighting at Wembley Stadium on the undercard of his brother, Tyson Fury in 2022, Fury has fought two influencers (KSI and Jake Paul) in his last two fights.
And he now seems intent on staying in the glamorous crossover realm, rather than return to small hall shows and face unknown opposition.
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