Xander Yarob Zayas Castro vs. Jorge Luis García Pérez

Saturday, twenty-sixth of July at MSG. At stake will be the vacant WBO super welterweight championship of the world. Zayas and García Pérez are currently ranked #1 and #2 by the WBO, respectively.

IB not-so-funfact:

This event will conclude Top Rank Promotions' contract with ESPN.

This will bring an end to more than eighty years of continuous boxing programming being regularly scheduled on traditional linear television.

It stung of course when HBO and its blockbuster history and grandiose production value fell, and there were additional pangs when Showtime followed them out the door to effectively sunset the premium cable boxing era. This, however, is a deep hurt. I know the world is changing, and OTT streaming content is now king in the world of media delivery - but still. It never occurred to me growing up, that I would outlive televised prizefighting.

 

Why is the last gasp of a network's involvement with our beloved sports always ...so goddamn underwhelming?

Always the whimper, never a bang.

HBO's final broadcast was a B.A.D. triple-header featuring what under ordinary circumstances would have all been undercard bouts. As much as I love Cecilia Brækhus, her taking on Aleksandra Magdziak Lopes wasn't exactly a major event. Neither was Gallo Estrada in a stay-busy (tuning up for the Wangek bout) with a random like Victor Mendez. And then you have Shields vs. Hermans, a very untelegenic bore that was the pitiful icing on the depressing three-layer cake.

Then with Showtime - another ****-poor triple-header nobody cared about. You had a pretty obvious-on-paper mismatch in Morrell vs. Agbeko, with the desiccated corpses of Andre Berto and Robert Guerrero followed by Christopher Lavelle Colbert vs. José Alberto Valenzuela Gastelum II as chief support. Woof.

And then you have a slew of lesser networks whose farewell shows are lost to memory. Can you name the final boxing card on Versus? Or its successor NBS Sports Net? ...or FS1? ...or Spike? ...or PBC on FOX? ...or ABC? Of course you can't.

 

The "nationally televised in the US" boxing epoch began with Lou Nova vs. Max Baer on June 1st of 1939. Huge fight, at Yankee Stadium. Pitted the number one and number two contenders for Joe Louis' throne against each other. Made the cover of Ring Magazine.

Auspicious start.

And 31,467 days (86 years and 2 months) later...that epoch will conclude with this. All due respect to Zayas and García Pérez, but ****.

 

Wow, there are really none 25 and under right now?