Fight often, fight each other, fight hard: Garry Jonas and making non-championship bouts great again

When Angelo Leo unleashed a perfect left hook to send Luis Alberto Lopez crashing to the canvas and out for the count on August 10, he not only put himself in the running for knockout of the year, but he also pulled off a major upset. Lopez was the defending IBF featherweight titlist, was ranked at number one at 126 pounds by ESPN while Leo was unranked, and was a healthy –350 favorite at DraftKings.

But for those who had been paying attention – and particularly to those who had been steering Leo’s career over the past several fights – the New Mexican’s victory was far from surprising.

“Angelo, you know, was a previous champion,” says Garry Jonas, owner of BoxingScene and ProBox TV, who had featured “El Chinito” on three ProBox cards since November 2023. “Even though he only held it for a short period of time, he lost the belt to Stephen Fulton, which is no shame. [Lopez won a vacant 122-pound belt by outpointing Tramaine Williams in August 2020 but dropped a wide unanimous decision to Fulton five months later.]  So, we knew he was a legitimate contender and was going to be very, very competitive with Lopez, if not win that fight. So, it wasn’t a surprise to us. It might have been to others.”

Lopez’s victory atop an ESPN card was also a victory of sorts for ProBox TV and the philosophy behind its twice-monthly Wednesday night fight cards on which Leo had most recently been plying his trade.

“Our series was born from the idea that there are very, very good fighters that don’t have enough spots, that arguably are just as good as some of the fighters you’re seeing on DAZN or ESPN, or some of the fighters you saw on Showtime last year,” Jonas explained to BoxingScene. “And I go up to this group of young men who are very disappointed that they’re not on those platforms. And I say, ‘Hey, I’ve got good news for you. We’ve got a significant platform for you to fight on.’”

Because ProBox TV fights are streamed free on YouTube, Jonas acknowledges that they may carry an element of stigma. 

“I know people go, ‘Well, it’s free on YouTube, so it can’t be anything high level’ and I understand that.” But, he argues, Leo’s title-winning knockout is just the most prominent sign that the platform is a path to bigger and better things.

“We’re making a declaration to the fans with Angelo, and “Hot Rod” [Radivoje Kalajdzic], who was in a championship fight the week before and made us proud because he gave David Morrell a very tough fight. [Kalajdzic’s previous two fights were at the ProBox TV Events Center in Plant City, including a KO win over Sullivan Barrera in March.] And we’ve got Ronny Rios [who most recently stopped Nicholas Polanco on ProBox TV] fighting Nick Ball [on October 5]. We’ve got Trevor McCumby [who outpointed Christopher Pearson in Plant City in January] fighting Caleb Plant on the Canelo Alvarez card in September. I mean, there’s obviously something going on here. I think it’s a testament that this is pretty high-level stuff and it’s working. That’s what I promised these guys. I said, ‘I will get you back to those platforms. Trust in me. Bite down. Fight 50/50 fights and be entertaining. It doesn’t matter if you lose.’ What Angelo Leo did validates that ProBox TV is a serious contender that fans may have overlooked simply because it’s free on YouTube.”

For Jonas, there are three principal keys to making those fights entertaining for fans, and to putting the boxers back on the path to contender status, the first of which is placing those fighters in even matchups.

“Yeah, that’s the bad news for these guys,” he laughs. “That’s the punchline. You have to fight each other. And I know you don’t really have a choice, because I’m the last resort. There’s also a certain level of desperation to get back to those bigger platforms.” 

The second key is booking boxers who are happy to fight on the front foot. 

“I appreciate a good boxer,” Jonas says. “But the truth of the matter is, we need to thrive on the entertainment factor. So, I want bangers. I want guys who have high activity that are entertaining. If you are more of a boxer, that’s great too, but keep your punch count up.” 

The third element is keeping boxers busy. Because promoters are inevitably somewhat beholden to the slots they are offered by networks and streaming platforms, that can be a problem. 

ProBox TV doesn’t have that issue, says Jonas. “We can roll as often and whenever we want all year round. I’m not a promoter, I’m not here to compete with promoters and in the end we can be helpful to them, and I’m thankful to the promoters for giving the fighters on our platform an opportunity to get to bigger opportunities  with them. If Top Rank wants to roll with Leo we will roll with them in return for giving Leo the opportunity. We owe them that.”  

One consequence of limited TV and streaming openings, especially when combined with boxing’s lack of a central governing body, is, Jonas argues, that the emphasis has fallen disproportionately on championship fights, with those at the top receiving all the attention and financial windfalls while those below fight for scraps.

“There’s no meritocracy,” he argues. “There are no official standings. There’s no season that plays out resulting in champions. It’s just a bunch of random fights. And here’s the bigger problem: that emphasis on keeping your fighter undefeated ruined non-championship boxing. Because a lot of non-championship boxing serves one purpose: to get the A side to a championship fight. So, one consequence is that the sport frequently forgoes entertaining non-championship boxing. Too often, it’s a case of, ‘Hey guys, we all know who’s going to win. Don’t pay attention to this. Just concentrate on the championship fights.’” 

If ProBox TV aims to fill that gap, then it’s reasonable to ask: what exactly is ProBox TV? It has its own arena and its own streaming boxing series, it has shoulder programming featuring the likes of Paulie Malignaggi and Chris Algieri, among others, and it has the website you’re reading right now. That’s a unique combination; so, if Jonas is on the shortest of elevator rides, how does he describe his creation?

“I say it’s your boxing channel,” he replies. “Do you watch the Tennis Channel? Do you watch NBA TV? Do you watch the NFL Network? That’s us. We have news. We have talk shows. We engage the fans. We have supporting content. We take it very seriously. We know supporting content is the precursor of engagement. And oh, by the way, we have a fight series. Just like the Golf Channel broadcasts tournaments. It may not have the Masters, it may not have the British Open, but it has a series on there, and so does the Tennis Channel. That’s us. We don’t promote boxers. We promote boxing, good fighters in great fights, evenly matched action fights. These are the best fighters that are no longer or never were on the top platforms, who bite down and fight each other to work their way back.”

Two such fighters square off on Wednesday night when former junior middleweight titlist Jarrett Hurd and Jeison Rosario, both of whom are arguably drinking at the Last Chance Saloon, meet in Plant City.

“Obviously we’re working with Premier Boxing Champions and working with any of the promoters who have certain fighters that are falling through the cracks, whom they want to keep busy,” Jonas explains. “We’re available for that and happy to do it. It came up that these guys needed fights, and did I have something for them? And I replied, ‘Well, I do. I have something for them. I have a platform for them to fight each other.’ Full credit to  [promoters] Samson [Lewkowicz] and [Luis] de Cubas and PBC for agreeing to make that fight on our platform. Again, we owe them for working with us like that. It’s great for the fans and for the fighters. Everyone wins.”

As for the matchup itself, Jonas says that “We’re pretty excited about it. Who knows what either guy has left? It’s a box of chocolates, in some respects, right? But you know what? Sometimes the most fun thing about a box of chocolates is not knowing what’s inside.”

Two years after ProBox TV first sprouted legs, how does Jonas feel about where it sits and where it is going?

“I’m thrilled with the way it’s rolled out,” he says. “I’m happy with BoxingScene; we’re going to be making some serious improvements and upgrades to that site that I think the fans are going to enjoy. I’m very happy with the talk shows, the supporting content, the progress we’ve made there, and the viewership that we get. So, number one, we’re in a great position after two years. Number two, where do I see it? The design always was that we would make a few changes to the sport, that we would make it affordable, that we would feature the non-championship boxing and build it up from there. So, we’re building a strong foundation. I think we’re going to be in championship boxing. We’re going to the UK in October, and we’ll start doing fights on a regular basis over there. We’re going to start doing two events a month next year in Europe, and then we’re going to move into Asia, and then we can say we’re a global company. I think we’re going to end up delivering high level content for nominal prices. So, the master plan, at least in my own little brain, is coming together.”

Kieran Mulvaney has written, broadcast and podcasted about boxing for HBO, Showtime, ESPN and Reuters, among other outlets. He also writes regularly for National Geographic, has written several books on the Arctic and Antarctic, and is at his happiest hanging out with wild polar bears. His website is www.kieranmulvaney.com.