If Brian Kelly has his way, boxing fans might be tempted to go out and buy some tacos or window shop electric cars in between rounds of the next televised title fight. As the new chief revenue officer of Top Rank, one of the world’s largest boxing promoters, Kelly is charged with building out the organization’s partnership division on the strength of ad buys that leverage content across its social platforms, event sponsorships, branded content experiences and in-arena activations—an integrated marketing approach that Kelly says can expand boxing’s audience reach beyond the traditional pay per view model. “Boxing historically has been looked at as a singular event,” he says. “I want us to change that narrative.”

He has more than a puncher’s chance of winning that fight. Boxing, whose last heyday came three decades ago, is on the verge of breaking through once again—especially with the coveted Gen Z demographic—potentially luring more advertisers that have historically stayed on the sidelines. The sport is benefiting from its appeal with multicultural viewers—including Hispanics—as well as growing global audiences. And now that in-person attendance restrictions are easing as the pandemic wanes, boxing enthusiasts anticipate more big crowds like the 73,000-plus fans that witnessed Canelo Alvarez’s eight-round TKO victory over Billy Joe Saunders earlier this month at AT&T Stadium, the largest indoor boxing event in U.S. history. 

Boxing has also become a pop culture force thanks to increased participation rates in popular gym training regimens like CrossFit, as well as the cross-over celebrity appeal of MMA fighters and YouTube sensations like Jake and Logan Paul. The two brothers have been teasing a fight against each other, and Logan is set to fight an exhibition match against pro boxer Floyd Mayweather Jr. next month in a pay-per-view event on June 6.

“You could argue that MMA/boxing gained recognition initially because of the crossover fight between Mayweather and MMA star Connor McGregor back in 2017,” says Chris Simmons, VP of celebrity and influencer marketing at The Marketing Arm, which has a handful of influencer deals with MMA fighters. “Brands such as DraftKings, Triller and others have noticed the rise of both sports, and are following with a watchful eye.”

Brand risks remain

Top Rank is banking on these trends to attract newbie brands. The company has been in discussions with major marketers in the automotive, telecom, quick-service restaurant and travel industries about buying bundled ad packages, which are valued in the mid- to high-six-figure range, according to Kelly, who joined the company in April from G/O Media, having previously served as head of sales at Bleacher Report.

He comes to the table armed with a litany of statistics to support his argument that boxing is on the cusp of breaking out into new territory with brands that have no discernable track record in the sport. The American sports fan’s interest in boxing has grown 16% over the last decade, second in growth only to international soccer, according to third-party polling data referenced by Kelly.

But according to sports marketing experts, boxing is still no sure bet. The sport still carries a considerable brand safety risk for the majority of mainstream advertisers, says Sam Yardley, executive VP of products and services at Two Circles, a sports marketing agency that consults with boxing promoters around the world. 

“You might get more dollars from sponsors in existing categories like spirits or beer, but it’s unlikely you’ll see autos, financial services or airlines dive in. An injured fighter [endorsing] your brand is not a very good look,” he says. 

Gatorade gets into the U.S. ring

But there are still ways for mainstream brands to play off boxing’s rising popularity without making direct endorsements. Nissan, for example, ran a TV spot for its 2020 Sentra that featured a Latina mom encouraging her daughter to pursue her boxing passion over dancing.

Similarly, Procter & Gamble’s new “Lead with Love” Olympics video (part of its ongoing “The Proud Sponsor of Moms” campaign) features the story of a Spanish-speaking mom who follows her son’s journey to fame in the Olympic boxing ring.

Boxing can provide advertisers with an attractive entry point and the necessary scale to reach the growing numbers of cord-cutting audiences in the U.S. ESPN, for example, airs 54 Top Rank boxing events each year in prime time on ESPN and through its ESPN+ streaming service as part of a seven-year exclusive broadcast rights deal that began in 2017. And Yardley says a major move like Gatorade’s recent partnership with the widely popular American boxer Ryan Garcia—the first time the sports drink brand has signed a boxer to a national endorsement deal in the U.S.—could spur interest from other big brands that are not a natural fit for boxing. “[Garcia] is definitely a rising star and the kind of person who could create breakthrough endorsement deals and bring the sport to a much wider audience,” he says.

Ad spending on boxing programming across network and cable TV grew from $23 million in 2018 to $48 million in 2019, before falling last year to $45 million during the pandemic, according to Kantar.

Going global 

Boxing’s popularity in the U.S. declined rapidly following its most recent heyday in the 1980s and ’90s, when stars like Sugar Ray Leonard, Marvin Hagler, Leon Spinks, Mike Tyson and Evander Holyfield were household names. But it has been on an upswing in the past five to six years, thanks in part to its growing reputation as a global sport, says Bryan Harris, chief operating officer and managing partner at sports marketing agency Taylor in New York.

“Boxing has always been popular around the world, but the epicenter was always in the U.S. That’s not the case anymore,” says Harris. “It’s still very important—Canelo has a huge American fan base and largely fights here—but if you look at the highest-ranked fighters and the major cities around the world that host marquee events, the sport is as global as it ever has been.” In 2019, boxing matches accounted for four of the top 10 streamed events on DAZN (an OTT sports subscription service), including the top event, a heavyweight matchup between Andy Ruiz Jr. and Anthony Joshua II that took place in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

“Boxing’s status isn’t where it was in the ’80s and 90’s, but there are more opportunities for marketers to get involved today given the global nature of the sport and that the traditional broadcast networks aren’t the exclusive partners anymore,” says Harris. “I would say it’s making a fairly strong comeback.”

Part of the explanation for boxing’s resurgence in the U.S. has to do with the sport’s multicultural appeal. Boxing is the second-most-popular sport among Spanish language- dominant Hispanics and fourth most popular among English-dominant bilingual Hispanics, says Kelly. “If you look at the combination of Hispanic and Asian American demos, Top Rank [boxing] delivers a higher index than any other sport,” he says.

But it is boxing’s disproportionate strength among the Gen Z cohort—with its more than $140 billion in collective spending power—that could tip the balance for skeptical brands. Boxing ranked No. 8 among the sports/leagues than Gen Z prefers most to watch on TV, followed closely by No. 9 Ultimate Fighting Championship/MMA and right behind No.7 National Hockey League, according to a new survey of 500 Gen Z sports fans conducted by Austin, Texas research firm Knit, which studies the Gen Z demographic. A separate survey from Two Circles put boxing even higher with Gen Z: It placed No. 4 behind only football, basketball and soccer, according to the survey, which polled 6,000 consumers and was released last month.

Boxing’s youth appeal is often attributed to its ability to produce short bursts of sharable entertainment content, such as major punches and knockouts. The Knit survey found that “action packed” was the most important characteristic in driving Gen Z TV viewership of boxing, followed by entertainment value (33.6%) and social interaction (32.2%). Boxing and UFC are both bucking the trend of declining TV viewership among Gen Z across the major sports leagues, according to Aneesh Dhawan, the 20-something CEO of Knit.

“In our previous work, we found that the biggest thing that Gen Z wished for was more engaging and interesting TV broadcasts,” says Dhawan. “The format of boxing and UFC really resonates with Gen Z, which is why those sports have become more popular on TV.” Notably, the study found that boxing and UFC fell out of the top 10 rankings (at 11 and 13 respectively) of sports that Gen Z prefers to watch in person. “Other sports are more enticing to watch live for Gen Z because they provide more down time in between the action for people to talk to each other and converse on social media,” Dhawan says.

Brands can look for sponsorship opportunities based on what the athletes eat, drink and wear outside the ring, says Julia Vanderput, strategy director at The Marketing Arm. “The CBD entry into CrossFit illustrates this well,” she says. “[CBD brands] have leveraged lifestyle over competitive performance, which makes the product more accessible to consumers who are not competitive but emulate professional CrossFit [regimens].”

Boxing still has a ways to go to prove itself as a viable sponsorship vehicle for all brands. In the Knit survey, only 28% of Gen Z respondents said they were likely or very likely to purchase brands that sponsor boxers or UFC fighters, which was exactly half the response (56%) for the same question about sports in general. But UFC has still been successful luring new brands. According to sponsorship consultancy IEG, the following brands of struck new UFC deals in the past two years: Love Hemp (CBD); Venum (fightwear); Howler Head (banana-infused bourbon); DraftKings; Thorne Research (vitamins/supplements); and cryptocurrency brands Chiliz and eToro. 

“Part of what makes boxing and mixed martial arts so alluring for fans is the controversy of a fighter saying something outrageous or offensive, and conservative brands run a mile from that,” Yardley says. “The challenge for combat sports is how to legitimize themselves in the eyes of larger brands.”