...Do Not Talk About Anything But Fight Club

The last time there was a big, transcendent boxing match, I commented on the weird place boxing has in modern sports. It's usually invisible to the mainstream, but in a big match, it suddenly jumps onto the stage, and everyone acts as though is always been there.

In this case, there's the added narrative of a face-off between the new and old fighting sports, the uncertainty of an unprecedented match-up, and an awkwardly-timely racial undercurrent.

But I'm still surprised by how it's being covered. Granted, sports news has a thankless task of trying to satisfy many people with different tastes. They take advantage of the fact that while different people like different things, most people they like at least one mainstream sports will have at least an abiding interest in other mainstream sports. But smaller sports like boxing present more of a problem. Usually, they just do quick coverage in between other sports. We're going to talk about horse racing for five minutes, but then it's three hours of football. That's why the coverage of this fight is perplexing. It's been Superbowl-style, can't-get-enough coverage. The unstated assumption is that virtually all sports fans are interested in this fight.

I was shocked to see sports channels break away from programming to show live coverage of the press conferences. In non-sports news, that sort of saturation reporting is reserved for massive stories, the kind where they report it non-stop because it would just seem wrong to go to another story. So you report on the same thing, even when all you can show is an interview with some guy who's not saying anything.

It's been more bizarre when you consider that,

• The hype started so long ago. The world press tour was really early, seemingly a misjudgement.
• The match is a new level in boxing's metamorphosis into pro wrestling. The boxers' appearances have been chaotic and profane... wait, there's a word for that now, isn't there? Ah yes, "Trumpian." That's just added to the poor timing; a cascade of childish masculinity might have piqued interest for a week, but it can't really be sustained for a month.
• These contenders aren't really very marketable, outside their sports. Bad boys often sell well in the sports world, but there's a difference between controversial and unlikable.

So in short, we have two cult-following sports clash, each represented by a cartoonist man-child. I can see how that will find a big audience. But what's been a surreal experience is that it's shoved in front of all sports fans, with the assumption we're all in love with it. At least it'll be over soon.