How can boxing make improvements that start in 2025?

As we head into 2025, boxing – as always – finds itself with more to do. There is hope and optimism; huge cards, the appearance of Netflix, more on Amazon Prime, and possibly a new direction for Top Rank’s output could all wind up with positive implications, but here are a few things the BoxingScene team hopes boxing might be able to do to move forward and into the New Year

Lucas Ketelle: I’d like to see a focus on undercard bouts that hold consequence to the main event and co-main event. Fights that if a fighter wins, they have a clear shot at their next step.

Owen Lewis: By investing in and highlighting younger prospects, particularly in boxing’s most storied divisions. With Usyk and Fury nearing the end of their careers, the future of the heavyweights is resting almost entirely on Daniel Dubois’ broad shoulders – he’ll need a dance partner. Welterweight is hollowed-out aside from Ennis; middleweight is a dried husk. Even super middleweight, a division that should be churning out epic fights, has ground almost completely to a halt thanks to Canelo’s chicanery. Promoters need to find promising fighters in these divisions and boost them as best they can. 

Declan Warrington: By making fights. There have been fewer big fights in the UK and the US, as a consequence of the Saudi Arabian investment into the sport, but the Saudis aren’t staging enough to justify how few are being made, as a consequence, in two of fight scene’s most influential hubs. Just because there are many who, in most respects understandably, want to pursue the riches on offer in Saudi Arabia doesn’t mean other fighters in other destinations can’t at least attempt to thrive.

Lance Pugmire: American promoters can be more assertive in creating their own stacked cards in places where the sport has always thrived – Las Vegas, New York, Los Angeles, Phoenix. Premier Boxing Champions seems to be on its way to emerging from a lethargic 2024 and Top Rank will have a new TV deal in place to flex its stable. The TV times of the Saudi cards is unappetizing to the mainstream sports fan here. It’s up to the powers that be: continue the sport’s niche position or take the momentum of the loaded Saudi shows and Americanize it for mass viewership.

Bernard Neequaye: I’m looking forward to witnessing more events in the US involving all the top fighters in the coming year as we look to see the revival of the sport.

Eric Raskin: By finding a way to get more product onto networks and streamers that casual fans can access. Frequent boxing on Netflix would be massive. Frequent non-PPV boxing on Prime Video would be helpful. Top Rank’s ESPN contract ends in August, and if the promoter’s new broadcast home is a streamer that only hardcore fans subscribe to, that’s bad for the sport; if they stick with ESPN or some other basic cable network, that’s a win. The Paul-Tyson fight was obviously an outlier in the way it crossed over, but there is a larger audience available to boxing if you make the boxing easily available to them.

Matt Christie: Wow, there’s a book to be written here. But I don’t yet have the time to write it and you certainly don’t want to be bored to tears with it. So though I could talk about powerbrokers turning a blind eye to damaged retired boxers, the sanctioning body rankings system, the lack of befitting punishment for PED cheats, and the need to put the sport behind a paywall, let’s start with an easy one: Put a 9pm curfew on main event start times. There are signs of improvement in this regard but nearly every major show still feels like an endurance test. We shouldn’t make it so difficult for younger generations to fall in love with the sport.

Elliot Worsell: Promoters need to build from the ground up again, otherwise the sport will be left with an extremely shallow pool of talent in the next few years. Too much short-termism, greed and laziness on the part of promoters has created an almighty chasm between the flashy, outsourced stuff at the top level and everything else and one can’t help but wonder if this new business model – so shortsighted and entirely dependent on a single country’s wealth – will effectively kill boxing at the grassroots level. 

Tris Dixon: While I agree with much of the above, I would love the attendance at shows to be near capacity from the first bell. Too often, thousands pour into a venue halfway through the co-main, in time to be seen ringside for the main event. I’d love it if promoters started work on getting a good crowd in through the door for the opening fights. Maybe that means revisiting scheduling, starting with a good 50/50, and working out the rest of the night from there, but it happens in many corners of the world and I’d love for the culture to change.