Will third time be the charm for primetime boxing on Netflix?
First, Netflix served us a main event between a faded heavyweight legend and boxing’s current Novelty Event King, and if you were surprised that Mike Tyson and Jake Paul delivered eight of the dullest rounds in recent memory last November, you should have paid more attention to the people involved. A boxing match between a 58-year-old man and a low-level pro might end in several ways, but none of them are satisfying to people who love the sweet science.
Then, this past summer Netflix stepped up as the broadcast partner for the third bout between Katie Taylor and Amanda Serrano, headlining an all-women’s card in New York City.
As a contest, this pairing promised a lot – both their previous fights were fast-paced and dramatic, with Taylor prevailing each time. But as entertainment, chapter three, another Taylor decision victory, underwhelmed. It happens sometimes. You can make a high-stakes matchup, but you can’t script the action.
Photo: Netflix
On Saturday boxing returns to the world’s biggest streaming platform with a new promoter. Where Paul’s Most Valuable Promotions handled Netflix’s first two boxing broadcasts, TKO and Sela are promoting this week’s card.
And, of course, there are new protagonists.
Saul “Canelo” Alvarez takes on Terence “Bud” Crawford, with much more than Alvarez’ undisputed super middleweight title at stake. If a consistent presence on Netflix represents success for the boxing industry overall, signifying that the sport has moved from niche to mainstream, then turning drive-by viewers into long-term fans will require a headline bout that lives up to the pre-fight hype. Right now Netflix has two strikes against it but on Saturday they’ll take their biggest swing yet, hoping Alvarez and Crawford can produce the service’s first unforgettable main event.
For a parallel, we only need to look at the Ultimate Fighting Championship, which shares a parent company with the new TKO boxing promotional company, and whose president, Dana White, has taken a lead role in hyping this Saturday’s fight card.
In the spring of 2005 the UFC went from obscurity to the spotlight in a matter of weeks, thanks to the reality television series, The Ultimate Fighter, which culminated in a fight card that aired on Spike TV. And the highlight of that event, as anybody who witnessed it will tell you, was the all-action, three-round brawl between Forrest Griffin and Stephan Bonnar, an instant classic that riveted viewers in real time and quickly became part of both the organization’s folklore and its marketing message.
Photo: Los Angeles Times – Canelo Alvarez
That bout isn’t the only factor that propelled the UFC from a combat sports afterthought to a $11.3 billion-dollar juggernaut, but if you hadn’t heard of mixed martial arts as a sport, or the UFC as a promoter before that night, Griffin and Bonnar made you pay attention. If you glimpsed it, you stopped to watch, and if you watched, you wanted more.
But the differences between Canelo-Crawford and the Griffin-Bonnar are meaningful.
First is that boxing is not MMA, as a sport or as an industry.
The business of mixed martial arts barely existed in the US in 2001, when White teamed up with the Fertitta Brothers to buy the UFC, and set the promotion on a path to prominence. Before that, most sports fans thought of the UFC as a freak show – if they thought of it at all. The Ultimate Fighter, and that Griffin-Bonnar brawl, introduced mainstream audiences to a brand new sport.
Pro boxing, on the other hand, has a history that stretches back to the late 19th century, and a list of champions whose exploits transcend the sport. Pioneers like George Dixon in Canada. Civil Rights icons like Muhammad Ali in the U.S. Crossover pop-culture titans like Mike Tyson.
These days, though, boxing is more like horse racing or baseball – a sport with a glorious past that has lost market share to the NFL, NBA, and, in recent years, the UFC. Its appearance on Netflix is less about introducing fans to boxing than it is about reenchanting them with the sport’s world-class athletes and rich history.
Photo: Forbes – Dana White
It’s often an uphill struggle, as boxing tries to find its footing in a shifting media landscape.
In the last eight years, we’ve seen HBO and Showtime drop the sport completely, while ESPN, whose contract with Top Rank expired in July, remains without a boxing partner. But we’ve also seen streamers like DAZN, Amazon Prime, and now Netflix, fill those voids. It’s not clear that the market for high-level fights has ever disappeared. It has just fragmented and moved.
But high-octane action always finds an audience thanks to the easy shareability of highlights on social media. And entire bouts are ripe for rediscovery, since Netflix archives its live events. We know Christian Mbilli and Lester Martinez will set the bar high with a fast-paced, power-packed co-feature, but can Alvarez and Crawford rise to meet that standard?
It’s a fascinating question for hardcore boxing fans.
Alvarez is the defending champion and the promotion’s clear A-side. He has sold out NFL stadiums in the past, and organizers are banking on him to do it again on Saturday. But with just one knockout win in his past seven bouts, it’s clear he has entered the win-a-safe-decision phase of his boxing career. The strategy gets results, even if it doesn’t produce action, and works well against challengers like Edgar Berlanga and Jaime Munguia, that Alvarez knows he can outbox.
Employing it against Crawford, a crafty tactician with a mean streak, is a different challenge. Yes, he looked vulnerable in his super welterweight debut against Israil Madrimov last summer, so we can’t know how jumping up two more weight classes will affect him. But if recent photos of Crawford looking pumped-up and shredded are a clue, he’s already enjoying life at super middleweight.
Photo: Vincent Ethier – Christian Mbilli
His challenge is combining that newfound strength with his built-in speed advantage to force Alvarez to fight at Crawford’s pace and distance. If that happens, Alvarez will have few options besides hitting Crawford so hard that he has to reconsider.
Then the fight begins, and we’ll be halfway to a classic.
And if that happens, everybody wins.
Especially Netflix.
Photo: The New York Times – Terence Crawford
