“The Fake Over”
Stop Paying for Boxing’s Decline
By William Trillo
Photo: Cris Esqueda – PBC
Did you actually pay $79.99 for Teofimo Lopez-Rolly Romero?
Really?
In 2026?
Congratulations. You just helped finance another installment of,
Boxing: The Slow, Sad Decline of a Once-Great Sport.
And before somebody tells me I’m being too negative, let’s be honest about what happened Saturday night. The fight was exactly what far too many people expected it to be: a $79.99 pay-per-view built around two fighters who spent large portions of the night looking like they had somewhere else to be.
Romero barely engaged. Lopez did just enough to win, but this was hardly the kind of performance that makes anyone want to throw another $80 at the television next weekend.
And yet fans will complain.
They always do.
“Boxing isn’t what it used to be.”
You’re right.
But then the next big fight is announced, the promotional machine starts cranking, and the same fans who swear they are done with boxing pull out the credit card.
Why would the promoters change?
You are paying them not to.
Promoters have spent years teaching fighters that the biggest payday doesn’t necessarily require the biggest performance. Put a recognizable name on the poster, attach a championship belt, call it a major event and charge $79.99.
The fight doesn’t have to be great. It only has to sell.
And Saturday night was another reminder of how broken that formula has become.
The problem isn’t simply Rolly Romero. It isn’t simply Teofimo Lopez. It isn’t even simply PBC.
The problem is the business model.
Promoters continue to push expensive pay-per-views because fans continue to buy them. Fighters continue to command enormous purses while fighting once a year or less because somebody continues to pay those purses. And fans continue to accept mediocre fights because they have convinced themselves that maybe, just maybe, this one will finally be worth the money.
Then the fight happens.
Then everybody complains.
Then the next $79.99 fight comes along.
And we do it all over again.
Boxing has always found a way to crawl out of the holes it digs, but this time it’s going to need a rescue team, a crane and maybe a miracle. As long as promoters worship at the altar of Riyadh Season and slap their logos on everything from ring posts to toilet seats, and keep overpaying fighters while passing the bill to fans through endless PPVs, boxing will stay exactly where it is:
Swirling The Drain.
At some point, fans have to accept that they have more power than they think.
Stop buying every PPV.
Stop rewarding mediocre matchups with premium prices.
Stop flying to Las Vegas for another supposedly can’t-miss Mexican Holiday event that turns into a glorified sparring session with Margaritas and Mariachis.
And stop pretending that paying for it while complaining afterward is somehow sending a message.
It isn’t.
The only message promoters understand is when the money stops.
Boxing has survived bad promoters, bad decisions, bad matchmaking and bad business before. It will probably survive this too.
But it won’t happen because somebody in a boardroom suddenly discovers common sense.
It will happen when the people paying for the product finally decide they’ve had enough.
Because somewhere, in some dusty local gym, there’s a kid with real talent dreaming of becoming a champion.
Do it for him — before the wolves drag him into the same broken system and shred his career like they’ve shredded the sport.
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