BY MIKE HOUSER
Nevada Appeal Sports Writer
Seemingly always on the verge of suffering a knockout, the sport of boxing is once again standing across the ring from the probing left jab of a recession and the looming iron right fist of a depression.
With money machines like NASCAR, the National Football League and Major League Baseball being forced to either pool their resources or cut their respective staffs, what chance does professional boxing have in the face of such potentially dire consequences?
According to sports historian Bert Sugar, the Sweet Science isn't ready for a 10-count just yet.
"People were counting boxing out in 2007," Sugar said. "If you'll remember, before Oscar De La Hoya and Floyd Mayweather met, people were billing it as the fight to save the sport and it ended up having the largest pay-per-view crowd ever.
"In 2008, De La Hoya met Manny Pacquiao and HBO probably had its biggest year on pay-per-view, while the Arena Football League called off next year, the WNBA lost Houston " its flagship team " and NASCAR began merging teams."
Throughout history, boxing has taken the best that tough economic times have had to offer. During the Great Depression, which began in 1929 and lasted throughout the 1930s, boxing not only held its own, it thrived.
Sugar said three great fighters " Jimmy McLarnin, Barney Ross and Tony Canzoneri " each had a series of rematches with each other while fans showed up in droves to watch them.
"Rivalries are important in any sport," Sugar said. "Rivalries go back to the first days of boxing in the bare knuckle days. The Plug Uglies would enforce the votes for the (William "Boss") Tweed Machine; in the interim, they'd box each other.
"In the first decade of the 20th Century, guys from 110th Street and 115th Street (in New York) would fight each other and they'd sell tickets to it."
Sugar said as important as the rivalry is between the fighters, the other dynamic, not often mentioned as part of the equation, is how the rivalry translates to the fans.
"It's not the fighters that made the rivalry," Sugar said. "The teams at Ohio State and Michigan turn over. The fans don't turn over. The fans make the rivalry."
RECESSION AND 'CIVIL WAR'
Given its relatively small and presumably local market, the Feb. 14 matchup between Yerington's Jesse Brinkley and Reno's Joey Gilbert also would appear to be at the mercy of the economy, especially where the upper-priced tickets (of $253.50) are concerned.
The fight also isn't big enough to run on HBO or its PPV arm, although it will be shown on a two-week tape delay on a Fox affiliate.
But the Brinkley-Gilbert event " billed as "Civil War" " has something unique going for it and is riding the wave of a pair of phenomena that McLarnin, Ross and Canzoneri never could.
The Information Age has conspired to morph a local imbroglio like Brinkley-Gilbert into a worldwide affair. Thanks to the confluence of the NBC reality show "The Contender" (which was filmed in 2004, aired in 2005 and featured Brinkley and Gilbert) and the Internet, the otherwise backyard feud is now a global event.
Houston businessman Chet Koerner, whose TKO Boxing Promotions will co-present the card with Reno-based Let's Get It On Promotions, said the combined exposure has carried over well enough to generate the kind of interest that gives the event "the feel of a Las Vegas fight."
In spite of zero radio and print advertising and with local casinos and other entities yet to buy their ticket allotments, there has already been more than $150,000 in ticket sales for Brinkley-Gilbert.
In a surprise, Koerner said the $253.50 ticket sales are outpacing that of the $43.50 tickets.
"There's a high-end crowd for this," Koerner said, including such sports luminaries as Darren McFadden, JaMarcus Russell, Antonio Fargas and Michael Bush, of the Oakland Raiders, Tito Oriz and Diego Sanchez of the mixed martial arts (MMA) world and boxers Winky Wright and Jeff Lacy. And those are just Gilbert's fans.
Both fighters have traditionally drawn well from their core fan base, with Brinkley bringing in fans from Yerington and Gilbert those from the University of Nevada, for whose club boxing team he earned three national championships.
If Sugar's theory on fans carries over to this fight, the rivalry between fans of Brinkley and those of Gilbert should be nearly as interesting as that of the brawl itself. It already carries the appeal of an afterschool brawl in a parking lot.
The rest of the fans " both local and out-of-state " have their own loyalties not based on geography, which should add to the usual boxing event atmosphere.
The venue itself " the Reno Events Center " seats 7,200. In the event of a sellout " something Koerner said is a distinct possibility " there will be a gate of $504,000. There also would be an allotment of 500 standing-room only tickets. Koerner said he is expecting a minimum of 1,200 walkups.
In addition there are at least three sites bidding for after-parties, something that may be figured into ticket sales, depending on the packaging.
And even though there is a tape delay, the card will be broadcast four times and eventually reach 80 million viewers in the United States and 200 million worldwide, Koerner said.
Not bad for what nearly amounts to a Northern Nevada turf war between two former friends.
And, in a rarity, while the rivalry between Brinkley and Gilbert is creating a lustful division between fans, it has harmonized the camaraderie between Let's Get It On's Tommy and Terry Lane and Koerner.
"We've developed a very good relationship with Chet," said Let's Get It On president Tommy Lane. "We like him. He's signed some very good fighters. The dynamic between us is terrific."
"This isn't a one-and-done deal," said Koerner, who added he and the Lanes will be working together in the future.
Brinkley-Gilbert may not be the event in Reno that Jack Johnson-James J. Jeffries was on July 4, 1910, (it had in excess of 16,000 fans at a venue constructed specifically for the fight). Nor will it sell out Lawlor Events Center like Ray "Boom Boom" Mancini-Livingstone Bramble II did in 1985 (11,758 fans brought in a Reno-record $725,000 live gate).
Nevertheless, Feb. 14 will be one big night and one big " and getting bigger " fight. Not to mention one seemingly golden future for local fight fans.
So much for the looming specter of a seemingly mighty recession and another doomsday prediction for the Sweet Science.
Visit Reno Events Center or www.ticketmaster.com for ticket information.
- Contact Mike Houser at mhouser@nevadaappeal.com or (775) 881-1214.