The massive commercial success of Saturday's KSI vs Faze Temper at London's Wembley Arena was another sign of a trend that boxing fans have been seeing in martial arts for quite some time now. We are talking about fights between celebrities and bloggers from YouTube and TikTok. This contradictory trend was criticized yesterday Oscar De La Hoya.
"Are we going back to real boxing soon?" — rhetorically asked the head of Golden Boy, the Olympic champion of Barcelona and the former world champion among professionals in six weight categories.
Interestingly, the aforementioned London tournament was broadcast by the DAZN platform, with which De La Hoya cooperates, promoting, among other things, his fighter Ryan Garcia on it. It remains to be seen if the promoter's statement means tension between him and the platform, which is still trying to make real profits from boxing despite losing billions of dollars on it in recent years.
On the other hand, more and more professionals are taking part in so-called "exhibition" or "demonstration" fights, as, for example, Floyd Mayweather, Manny Pacquiao and other legendary boxers do.
Can we just go back to real boxing soon?
— Oscar De La Hoya (@OscarDeLaHoya) January 15, 2023
