Is Celebrity Boxing the Future of the Sport?

By Radhika Kumar

01/29/2026

Figure 1 Boxing has changed. But has it really been for the better? - Source: Pixabay

Boxing has always been a business as much as it has been a sport. It is one of the few sports that values promoters almost as highly as the athletes themselves. The promotion of an event has always indicated how big the fight will be, even if the two people in the ring are not the highest-ranked in their weight class.

But the business of boxing has become almost all-important in the last few years. Actual world-class fighters remain unknown to the general public, while celebrities and influencers enter the ring to much fanfare and command the biggest paychecks. The reason for that is that they are also attracting the biggest pay-per-view audiences.

There are still a lot of high-quality, meaningful bouts being held across the world. The type of events that cause fans to take a look at the sportsbooks featured at Online Sports Betting in order to make their own predictions. But celebrity boxing seems to be driving the sport at the current time. Is this really the future of boxing?

There have always been celebrity bouts, of course. The legendary Muhammad Ali was fighting pro football and hockey players back in the late 1970s, but the exposure of these bouts was nothing compared to the globally-streamed spectacles of today. With the rise of the internet, we have seen the rise of the internet celebrity. These influencers and online stars have become just as famous as the sports athletes they admire – and, in boxing, they have been able to use their influence and status to change the sport itself.

Many true boxing fans look down on the trend for YouTube celebrities fighting former pros. Even when it was announced that Jake Paul would be fighting Mike Tyson, most fans of the sport regarded the event as something of a grotesque sideshow – a meeting of a celebrity and a former legend, yes, but one who was almost 60 years of age. The fact that Jake Paul ended up winning the contest was not taken as proof that he was either a good boxer or that these celebrities would be able to seriously compete with any of the actual boxing champions of the day.

But still, the events are booked. The latest spectacle was Jake Paul, once again, going up against Anthony Joshua in Miami, Florida, in December. Joshua is a fine fighter who can boast of being the undisputed heavyweight champion of the world. But a shock loss to Andy Ruiz Jr. in 2019 was the beginning of his downfall. Even though he regained his titles in a rematch, he was thoroughly outfought by Oleksandr Usyk in two championship bouts and had most recently lost to fellow Brit Daniel Dubois in December 2024 before facing Jake Paul.

That is not to say that Joshua could not still be a good boxer. But the fact that he seems more intent on a payday fighting against celebrities says more about his serious ambitions of regaining the heavyweight belts, as well as what the future might hold for the sport of boxing in general.

It is, perhaps, not surprising that celebrity boxers have become so popular. There are huge, existing fan bases that promoters will look at as guaranteed pay-per-view ticket sales. The star power these celebrities can bring outweighs the economic reasons for staging a fight between two actual professional boxers. There was a time when even non-boxing fans knew who the heavyweight champion of the world was. This was true even well after the proliferation of boxing governing bodies meant that, at times, there were multiple champions at any one time.

Complaining about how we don’t have just one governing body for boxing these days is a waste of time, however. The situation is not going to change and revert back to the old ways of doing things – nor should it have to. There is the potential for real boxing to become as popular as it used to be, however, with the characters that crossover into the general public sphere, rather than just within the boxing community. Promotion of fights between big boxing names could still be commonplace, rather than celebrities hijacking the sport.

Figure 2 Streaming giants have been accused of helping to dilute the integrity of boxing - Source: Unsplash

It might be that a hybrid model is more likely to appeal to both boxing fans, the promoters, and the paying public. In this way, events could share space between high-level professional bouts between actual boxers and fights featuring YouTube stars and celebrity influencers. This way, the sport would still attract the revenue of the younger generation of viewers coming to see their heroes in action, while showing that boxing is a serious sport for true professionals at the same time.

Celebrity events – especially those using actual boxers – are only diluting the integrity of boxing and making a mockery of the ranking system that has governed the sport for centuries. Boxing may well have to adapt to include some kind of celebrity element to survive in an increasingly competitive sports streaming environment. But boxing should also not sell its soul. There are enough talented fighters and characters for boxing to retain its dignity without selling out to online trends.