Disclosure: The views and opinions expressed here are the author's own and do not necessarily represent those of crypto.news editorial.
Boxing is the fourth most popular sport in the United States, but behind closed doors it is one of the most divisive and inefficient sports industries. The growth of social media, large-scale marketing campaigns by advertisers, and an influx of influencers stepping into the ring have all fueled boxing's recent growth. Boxing is now estimated to be worth more than $1 billion in the United States alone, with 300 million boxing fans worldwide.
However, the industry currently faces significant challenges, especially for young and underrepresented amateurs who have not benefited from this growth. Thankfully, blockchain technology has the potential to transform this.
Talent should be relevant for career progression in any sport, but unfortunately, it is not enough. The journey to becoming a professional boxer involves collaboration with many different people from all over the world, including sparring partners, agents, promoters, trainers, nutritionists, masseurs, and more, who use different platforms to connect and communicate. This fragmented environment makes it difficult for inexperienced boxers to find the right professionals, negotiate fair pay, and build mutually beneficial relationships.
With 17 weight classes in men's boxing alone and belts awarded by four different governing bodies, the industry operates in a siloed ecosystem with opaque decision-making processes that often lead to fights over rankings, fight negotiations and revenue.
Access to sufficient funding is essential to career growth, but financial barriers often prevent aspiring boxers from taking chances. However, top professionals can earn millions of dollars, such as Floyd Mayweather, who earned $223 million for his bout with Manny Pacquiao in 2015. Yet in 2018, the average professional boxer earned just $35,584 in total earnings. The enormous costs associated with securing and paying for top-tier stakeholders, services, and equipment, traveling abroad to network, and building a brand presence make the path to success financially unfeasible for most.
Many of these issues occur across the sports industry, but sports clubs, athletes and governing bodies are leveraging the benefits of decentralised blockchain to tackle them.
Blockchains like Chiliz facilitate the creation of fan tokens, allowing sports teams to interact with their fans and drive revenue, like Tottenham Hotspur's “Spurs Fan Token”. The technology is also used to streamline processes, like Sports Illustrated's NFT-based ticketing service, to combat fraudulent ticket sales and further inspire fans. The symbiotic relationship between sports enthusiasts and cryptocurrency holders has led to strategic partnerships aimed at raising awareness, such as Lionel Messi with Bitget, Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles, and Manchester City with OKX.
In boxing, world heavyweight champion Oleksandr Usyk sold a series of limited edition NFTs with all proceeds going to support charities in his native Ukraine during the war, but blockchain's potential to transform the boxing industry goes far beyond NFTs.
Decentralization is key to revolutionizing the boxing industry. Blockchain provides a single decentralized network that unifies boxing's fragmented ecosystem, eliminating centralized third parties and facilitating transparent transactions and interactions between all parties involved.
The growing creative economy has led to an increase in the tokenization of real world assets (RWA), and now boxers, promoters, coaches, sponsors and other industry participants can tokenize their skills and services on the blockchain, giving them full control over their data and career decisions, increasing transparency, reducing costs and streamlining a process that is crucial for poor and marginalized boxers in the early stages of their careers.
Not only that, but blockchain will be globally accessible to anyone with an internet connection, creating a unified boxing community for boxers and fans, increasing networking opportunities and making it easier for talented fighters to find sparring partners to help them succeed.
Blockchain’s transparency and immutability are crucial in bringing trust to the industry. All data, including records of athletes’ contracts, partnerships, and financial transactions, are stored permanently on the blockchain, fostering trust between parties and supporting informed decision-making. Since it is accessible to everyone, boxers can analyze past transactions to understand their legitimacy and ensure fair compensation and trustworthy partnerships. When advertisers pay boxers through the boxer’s agent on the blockchain, the boxer will have full visibility into how much they should receive without the agent taking an unfair cut. Similarly, to fight corruption, such as the 11 boxing matches that were believed to have been fixed at Rio 2016, compensation can be made public to the referees and boxers involved.
With sensitive data about boxers and high-value transactions at risk, blockchain's strong security measures guarantee industry participants the privacy and integrity of their data. Strong encryption technology protects transactions and communications, making it difficult for fraudsters to intercept or modify data without authorization, preventing illegal or illicit transactions. This high level of security provides peace of mind, especially for boxing professionals who are unfamiliar with or skeptical of blockchain technology.
Decentralization also reduces transaction costs and removes middlemen who may profit from within the boxing industry. Cryptocurrency is a universal medium of exchange that allows seamless cross-border transactions, such as for coaching services, advertising endorsements, and fan interactions. As a currency accepted globally, it widens the network of connections that can be made within the industry, allowing American boxer Mike Tyson to easily make payments to Brazilian promoter Rafael Cordeiro without having to worry about exchange fees between currencies.
Fan Tokens and NFTs are a great way for boxers to monetize their brand and interact directly with their fans, avoiding traditional middlemen and maximizing revenue streams for athletes. Fans are incentivized to purchase tokens by unlocking access to exclusive content and decision-making processes.
The final piece of the puzzle can be solved by creating a unified, blockchain-based SocialFi platform that brings the industry's needs together in one place. Last November, the world's first boxing platform, Ready to Fight, was created to harness the benefits of decentralized Web3 technology to connect the boxing, fan, and cryptocurrency communities. By providing a vast ecosystem for boxers to showcase their talent, network with industry peers, connect with fans and monetize their content, Ready to Fight solves a problem for the boxing industry in one fell swoop.
There's a lot of work to be done to convince Web2 users to adopt the technology, but as the boxing community embraces blockchain innovation, the industry will become clearer, fairer, and more accessible to all.
