Influencer Boxing: How It Is Changing The Dynamic Of Boxing And Sports

Recently, social media sensations Austin Mcbroom and Bryce Hall headlined the "Battle Of The Platforms" boxing event which has drawn massive attention across the internet. The event, which took place in Miami, was action-packed as many popular influencers featured in their own bouts with some resulting in brutal knockouts and others ending with controversy. Overall, the event was highly entertaining, with the showmanship of the fighters being both the main attraction and differentiation from traditional boxing. This event is just the most recent in a line of influencer boxing events and due to the audiences and numbers they attract, it won't be the last.

YouTube star Austin Mcbroom fighting TikToker Bryce Hall    image: LiveXLive

On the 2nd August 2017, English YouTuber's Joe Weller and Theo Baker uploaded a video of themselves having an amateur boxing match against each other consisting of 3 rounds. This was the origin of influencer boxing. This video sparked a challenge from highly notorious YouTuber and musician, JJ Olatunji, who is better known as KSI. The victor of the bout (Joe Weller) agreed to fight Olatunji and thus the first influencer boxing event was formed. Both fighters promoted the event to their millions of fans through mainly social media posts. This was a very unconventional way to promote a boxing event as the norm was to use the mainstream, this proved to be highly effective though. The event, which took place on the 3rd February 2018, sold over 7,000 tickets and amassed over 20 million views on YouTube within 12 hours. It was a massive success and the night ended with the winner KSI challenging 2 of the most talked about influencers on the planet at that moment... Jake and Logan Paul.

The next influencer boxing bout took place between KSI and Logan Paul at Manchester Arena. This was the first event in which the scope and potential of this new sporting venture was realised. Both fighters promoted the event to their millions of fans but the fight also gained interest from the internet community as a whole. This lead to the event generating over 1.3 million PPV buys which made it the biggest non-professional boxing match of all time. This fight gained the attention of the entire boxing community, was it good for boxing or was it bad? Notorious boxing promoter and head of Matchroom Sport Eddie Hearn thought the former and decided that he wanted in on the action. KSI vs Logan Paul 2 was produced and promoted by Hearn's Matchroom Boxing in partnership with Sky Sports and the sports streaming service DAZN. The event that took place in Los Angeles at the Staples Center, was a massive global success. Although no figures were released, Eddie Hearn stated that it was DAZN and Sky's biggest PPV of 2019 (including Anthony Joshua vs Andy Ruiz). This was the point in which the entire boxing industry realised that influencer boxing was becoming a staple of boxing's future.

Over the last 18 months influencer boxing has soared to new heights. Social media star Jake Paul is currently one of the most talked about boxers in the world and has sold millions of PPV's in the events that he's headlined. Many companies have emerged and hopped onto the train of influencer boxing due to its profitablity and room for growth as their is not one clear dominant promotion. Just a week before the "Battle Of The Platforms" event took place, Logan Paul had a boxing exhibition with Floyd Mayweather, a boxer who is deemed as "The Best Ever". This fight has sent shockwaves through both social media and the mainstream media, nobody would've ever though that a YouTuber would take on arguably the greatest boxer of all time. The event amassed a large amount of attention and both fighters pocketed a large amount of money through PPV sales. This combined with the most recent influencer event has lead many in the boxing community to believe that boxing has forever shifted, now that it seems as though there is more money in these influencer boxing matches than there are in many of the top boxing bouts between the best. 

Mayweather and Paul trading punches in the ring.      image: Showtime Boxing

It's no secret that social media is becoming more prevalent in sports. Many athletes and big companies are trying to learn and take things from influencers that they can use to increase attention and popularity towards themselves. For the boxing community, there is a lot to learn from the social media stars. A large reason why the events have been a success is due to the tremendous amount of promotion through multiple social media platforms. Many of the fighters have tens of millions of followers in which they promote to constantly and this is a big reason why there is so much interest in the fights and so many PPV sales. We are already seeing many professional boxers such as Ryan Garcia prioritise growing their social media followings. Big promotion companies, such as Matchroom Boxing and Mayweather Promotions have started to adapt to a new method of promotion through social media, with the latter signing YouTube personality, rapper and boxer Viddal Riley. 

Something surprising about the influencer boxing fights is that they're actually quite entertaining from a pure boxing perspective. Due to the fighters being novices, it makes the fights closely contested and interesting. There a glimpses of technical boxing quality but for the most part it is 2 people in the ring who have had only a few months or years of training throwing power punches in unorthodox fashion. This provides excitement and unpredictability, nobody can predict what is going to happen unlike in regular professional bouts where the audience know the fighters styles and qualities. The "Battle Of The Platforms" event was testament to this with multiple enthralling fights and plenty of surprises.

As for the coming few months, influencers will likely stir up drama on their social media channels with one another to create some hype around some more potential fights. Many rappers and actors are also interested in entering the ring towards the later stages of 2021. There's even potential for a female boxing event which will definitely garner much attention despite women's boxing not being nearly as widely popular as men's. One thing is for sure, whatever happens, there will be a lot of people watching with keen interest.

So, what is next for the long term future of influencer boxing and boxing in general? Despite many viewing the wave of influencer boxing as just a fad that will die out, quite a few key figures within the boxing world believe that this is the template for the future of boxing. The involvement of many key players within the boxing world such as DAZN, Showtime, Mayweather Promotions and Matchroom Boxing, suggests that this indeed may be true. The attention and money being generated by influencer boxing is too big to ignore. The new generation of boxing fans are being introduced into the sport by influencers and the potential for growth within this market is exponential. In the future, we will see social media stars become more and more intertwined within the nexus of boxing and sooner rather than later the sports industry as a whole will likely follow suit.