(Esther Lin/ Premier Boxing Champions)
The NFL Draft is a sports event without any sports. No, college kids man-hugging the league’s commissioner for an uncomfortably long period of time does not qualify as a sport, even if it does require a degree of strength and endurance.
Over the course of three days at the draft, 32 teams select, depending on the year, roughly 257 players, nearly half of whom will never make an NFL roster. Sound like a pointless event to attend in person?
Well, according to the NFL, approximately 800,000 people showed up for the league’s annual draft this past weekend in Pittsburgh.
Which means it was attended by approximately 799,995 more people than the inaugural BoxingScene Professional Boxer Draft, which also took place last weekend – over WhatsApp messaging, with no witnesses aside from the five BoxingScene writers taking part.
Here was the setup, as we spun off the occasion of the NFL’s annual extravaganza to enjoy some drafting fun of our own:
The participants were, alphabetically, Matt Christie, Tris Dixon, David Greisman, Tom Ivers and me, with the draft lasting four rounds (meaning 20 fighters in total were selected).
We approached it as if we were each starting our own promotional company – meaning we were drafting for some combination of marketability, talent and general probability now and in the future of putting asses in seats. How to balance those factors was up to each man making selections.
In this hypothetical, every active boxer on the planet was available regardless of their current promotional situation, and every draft pick would be signing a three-year contract with their new fictional promoter.
Also, in this scenario, current network or promotional impediments to fights getting made do not exist. Any fight can potentially be negotiated.
The draft order was determined randomly, and it went snake-style, meaning whoever picked first in one round picked last in the next. The random order: Ivers, Christie, Raskin, Dixon, Greisman.
So, who are the most desired fighters in the sport right now and over the next three years from a promotional perspective, in the varied opinions of five experienced boxing journalists? Here’s how the draft shook out:
Pick 1, Team Ivers: David Benavidez
Tom explained that he took “The Mexican Monster” because he’s one of the few American stars on the pay-per-view level younger than 30 (Benavidez is 29) and the next…
2026-04-28 21:30:00
