Throwback sports of boxing, horse racing get new slice of spotlight

Today is Grandpa’s day.

If Gramps is a sports fan, he’ll be smiling today because two glamour sports of his youth — boxing and horse racing, former kings of the sporting world in the 1950s — will have awakened to assume their regal status in the American consciousness.

Well, for at least one day, anyway.

“Boxing and horse racing are all the rage all of a sudden? What’s next to be in? Pressed waist coats and swing jazz?” quipped Darren Rovell, an ESPN and ABC network reporter who covers sports business, tongue firmly in cheek.

Actually, the triumvirate of boxing, horse racing and baseball once ruled America’s sport landscape decades before the National Football League discovered the revenue gusher of TV broadcast rights to become this nation’s most popular sport; Magic, Michael and LeBron made the NBA a popular personality-driven sport; and a fresh generation grew up with X Games, motorcycle double backflips and halfpipe tricks.

So, it’s Throwback Saturday, when Las Vegas hosts boxing’s biggest spectacle in years as undefeated hometown welterweight Floyd Mayweather Jr. battles rival Manny Pacquiao at the MGM Grand Garden.

Over at South Point, horse racing fans will revel in their sport during a Kentucky Derby party as horse fans embrace that equestrian slice of Americana. Even baseball has a Saturday showing in Las Vegas, as the Las Vegas 51s play their rivals from Reno at Cashman Field.

“People have called the deaths of boxing and horse racing during the last 50 years. Maybe they will have a rebirth in them on Saturday,” observed Rick Arpin, an MGM Resorts International finance executive who is a big sports fan.

But it’s a rebirth that will last a mere 24 hours, before the sports return to their mainstream America slumber, sports commentators say.

“Saturday is an aberration,” said Chris “Mad Dog” Russo, who headlines the Mad Dog Sports Radio Channel 85 on Sirius XM and was broadcasting Friday from radio row at the MGM Grand Garden.

“America loves big events,” Russo said, “but don’t read too much into the idea that there is a beginning resurgence of boxing.”

Sixty years ago, boxing and horse racing ranked among the nation’s most popular sports.

But they have fallen from their lofty perches to niche status for various reasons, such as an inability to cultivate a younger fan base and a lack of a network TV presence. Plus, the absence of any well-known boxing heavyweight in the U.S. has lowered that sport’s profile.

Hello X Games on Sunday afternoon TV. Goodbye boxing from “Wide World of Sports.”

ESPN and Sirius XM broadcaster Stephen A. Smith said he has taken up the cause of trying to return boxing to network TV after boxing promoters have sold the rights to premium and pay-per-view outlets for bigger paychecks than what the networks can afford.

“When you think about the sport of boxing, promoters sort of ruined the sport,” Smith said Friday.

Audience size for boxing matches was cut in favor of pay-per-view deals.

“For boxing, part of the problem was that it moved from network television to premium (buys),” added Fred Sternburg, who handles PR for Top Rank, which is promoting the Mayweather-Pacquaio megamatch. “You cut your audience.”

Smith also praised Las Vegas-based Ultimate Fighting Championship for doing something that boxing promoters have failed at: It gives the public the high-profile matches it craves.

Smith said UFC President Dana White delivers timely showdowns between fighters that fans want to see.

“You’re not at the mercy of promoters,” Smith said. “(White) gives you the fight when you want to see it.”

Russo, who hosts an MLB Network show called “High Heat,” acknowledges that baseball is too laborious for the younger generation.

“Baseball is too slow. Baseball is a nuance sport,” Russo said.

Saturday’s re-awakening of boxing and horse racing won’t last long, said Jen Wenk, owner of a Las Vegas public relations agency that handles the Arena Football League’s Las Vegas Outlaws and several mixed martial arts clients.

“The reason why there is this phenomenon is that they’re mega-events that capture the national interest but will revert back to a quiet period because they don’t have the year-round involvement in the local setting,” Wenk said. “The nation comes together collectively for one day, but it’s not relevant in the local setting like football.”

Contact reporter Alan Snel at asnel@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-5273. Find him on Twitter: @BicycleManSnel