Boxing & MMA complementary not competitive?
Kevin Kay: “If we can transfer them over to boxing, and get them entertained by boxing … and build some stars, I think then boxing has a longer life.”
When mixed martial arts debuted it was more spectacle than sport. As MMA became an established combat sport, it became viewed as a competitor to boxing. However, Jack Encarnacao argues that the lines between the two are now being blurred.
The latest evidence of this trend is Spike TV’s deal with burgeoning boxing powerhouse promoter Al Haymon, who is spending $20 million to bring live boxing matches to NBC in prime-time this year. Haymon and his anonymous investors are also shelling out cash to other networks, including Spike, which now serves as a cable home for Haymon’s Premier Boxing Champions series.
The first of 12 PBC cards set for Spike this year aired on Friday, and network president Kevin Kay — a key partner to the UFC in ushering MMA out of the shadows — plans on giving boxing a treatment similar to what the network did with mixed martial arts, making it alluring to younger viewers.
We’ve always had (a) pretty strong 18-to-34-year-old young male audience that’s been trained to watch combat sports, particularly mixed martial arts and now kickboxing, Kay told the Herald. And if we can transfer them over to boxing, and get them entertained by boxing, and get them invested in the stories of the fighters and build some stars, I think then boxing has a longer life.
Spike is placing its PBC fights among a year-round Friday Night Lights Out rotation of live combat sports, including 12-16 cards of mixed martial arts from the Bellator organization, which is owned by Spike’s parent company, Viacom, and eight events staged by global kickboxing outfit Glory. On those weeks when there aren’t live fights, Spike will broacast shoulder programming designed to introduce viewers to fighters’ backstories and build momentum for grudge matches.
In this emerging model, boxing and MMA don’t merely co-exist. They will stand shoulder-to-shoulder, on a sports night they collectively could have to themselves.
There’s very little sports competition on Friday nights, Kay said. Friday, to me, feels like a competitive environment that is conducive to making sure that people are not forced to make a choice between what we’re offering and somebody else.
While there’s a perception that Haymon may be overly invested out of the gate for the PBC venture for to last and become profitable, Kay doesn’t buy it.
There’s a lot of mysteries about Al Haymon, and financing, that’s his ball game. He seems to have plenty of money and deep pockets to be very invested in this, Kay said. This is a big opportunity, we’ve talked about this a lot, to bring the sport back and give it wider distribution on lots of platforms and expose people to it in a way it hasn’t been exposed in 20, 30 years. So I’m counting on Al, we’re all counting on Al. It’s his pockets, but I think it’s a smart plan. I’m not concerned about it.
