By Niall Doran
This is the second part of the article. You can read part one here.
AS discussed in the initial segment, the Saudis are opening up the East to new boxing fans. Recently, Japan has been putting on perhaps the best professional boxing shows in the lighter weights that the sport has seen for decades.
On top of that, women’s boxing has grown with the likes of Katie Taylor, Claressa Shields, Amanda Serrano and others, all appealing to new fans.
Shortly, double-Olympic Gold medallist Shields will remarkably challenge for the world female heavyweight title, having fought as low as super-welterweight (154).
That’s huge and is not getting talked about enough. That’s the equivalent in women’s boxing of what Roy Jones did against John Ruiz to go from middleweight to win a heavyweight title. Only two men in history ever won a world title at middleweight and heavyweight in professional world championship boxing.
Then, there are the main legitimate US professional boxing stars that have been created in recent years, like Gervonta Davis and Ryan Garcia in America—genuine stars outside of boxing.
Furthermore, the heavyweight division’s renewed interest has finally brought in an undisputed champion in Usyk, who’s made boxing bigger than ever in Ukraine and Eastern Europe.
Moreover, Anthony Joshua and Tyson Fury are both growing constantly as brands outside of boxing and sport. They are still huge stars in the UK, too, of course—selling out stadiums between 90,000 and 100,000 capacities and posting post-World War II record attendances in recent years.
Above all else, though, a new pound-for-pound era of young talents like Shakur Stevenson and Devin Haney are emerging as new stars.
In Asia, “The Monster” Inoue is a pugilistic Japanese powerhouse, as well as RIZIN and new promotions in the country putting on, as mentioned, stacked full cards with top-tier lighter weight world title action. Those fights in Japan have been a thing of savagery at times; producing tremendous action.
In fact, Inoue is viewed by some already as the best Japanese boxer that has ever lived, and may be a future all-time great. For some, he is classed as the pound-for-pound number one already or at least has the potential to be. Perhaps even moving past the likes of Terence “Bud” Crawford in the years ahead.
Terence Crawford and Naoya Inoue
Or others cut from that prestigious cloth, like Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez, as the huge name in boxing now in the US, Mexico and Latin America (post Mayweather-Pacquiao era).
He is still the biggest pay-per-view attraction in the sport today, and he has also drawn a new generation of fans to boxing.
Moving back a few years, staying within this overall wave, Gennady Golovkin opened up boxing to more in Eastern Europe with his dominant reign.
Of course, Andy Ruiz became the first Mexican heavyweight champion of all time a few years back, and boxing grew even more in Latin America.
We’ll explore more markets in part 3 tomorrow, including some thunder rumbling Down Under…
