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 three years could potentially represent his absolute prime – with plenty of attractive matchups out there at 175lbs and above.
I get the logic, but I was caught slightly off-guard by the pick, figuring Benavidez would go top 10, maybe top five, but not top one. He is not a superstar (though he’s close) nor a heavyweight (though he could eventually get there). But the more I thought about it, the more sense it made. Benavidez was perhaps the surest thing on the board, as a fighter currently headlining PPVs and all but guaranteed to continue doing so for the next three years.
Pick 2, Team Christie: Moses Itauma
Matt went with the riskier pick with the much higher upside – the highest upside in all of boxing, most would agree, given that Itauma is just 21 and appears more likely than anyone else to be ruling the heavyweight division when this three-year contract is up. Matt acknowledged he was gambling ever so slightly “on him becoming what everyone believes he will. But if he does become that, as a heavyweight, he will surely be the most marketable fighter on Earth.”
Impossible to argue with that logic. Had I had the top overall pick, I would have taken Itauma. And Tom’s Benavidez pick allowed me to dream that the southpaw KO artist from the U.K. would still be there for me at No. 3, until Matt rudely dashed that dream.
Pick 3, Team Raskin: Oleksandr Usyk
If I can’t have the guy expected to be king of the heavyweight division at the end of the three-year period, I may as well grab the guy I know for sure is the king at the start of it.
The gamble here is that the 39-year-old Usyk could retire in a year or two, or show signs of aging at any moment. But that risk seemed worth taking for drafting not only the current heavyweight champ but, to most, the reigning pound-for-pound champ, who can sell out arenas (and, with the right opponent, stadiums) and command eight-figure paydays for as long as he’s on top.
Pick 4, Team Dixon: Jaron “Boots” Ennis
This is a bet on talent and, Tris explained, on “the slightly old-fashioned notion that America wants a new boxing star, even if it doesn’t know it yet.”
Ennis is 28 and has had the look of a future P4P king since around age 20. That future has been slow to arrive because the opposition has often been lacking, but based on the fight he currently has lined up (Xander Zayas) and the fight he nearly had lined up (Vergil Ortiz Jnr), clearly the matchups exist at 154lbs to get Boots kicking at the next level.
Pick 5, Team Greisman: Naoya Inoue
David is not constrained by America-first thinking, as he chose to go global with his first pick. “He’s both Japan’s biggest star and a superlative talent,” David explained as he made the selection. “Even if his undefeated run were to come to an end, he would remain a top draw for his remaining years in the sport.”
This selection means Greisman needs to go into hurry-up mode getting his promotional company up and running, as Inoue fights this weekend against Junto Nakatani. It also means that in a few days from now, David may have in his stable the consensus pound-for-pound king.
Pick 6, Team Greisman: Gabriela Fundora
We have our first major curveball of the draft – the equivalent of the Rams taking Ty Simpson 13th overall. I wasn’t sure if any female fighters would get selected in our draft, but David grabbed Fundora – and in his defense, if he wanted her, it would have been risky to wait since he wasn’t getting to the podium again until Pick 15.
Anyway, David expressed a belief that the 24-year-old women’s flyweight champ has more upside than any female boxer, including Claressa Shields, in part because she has better potential opposition than Shields. (Who doesn’t?) With six knockouts in her last seven wins – double the number of KOs Shields has accumulated in her entire pro career – Fundora does indeed strike me as the correct first female fighter to select (even if I suspect she still would have been there for David in the third round).
Pick 7, Team Dixon: Jesse “Bam” Rodriguez
As with Itauma in the first round, the gentleman drafting immediately prior to me selected the precise fighter I had my eye on. So, yep, I love this pick by Tris of the 26-year-old junior bantamweight titlist from San Antonio.
Tris specified that Rodriguez is “young, gifted, ambitious and has crossover potential” and confidently declared that Bam “won’t be beaten anytime soon.” Barring a leap to junior featherweight to face Inoue, I tend to agree. (And even against Inoue, I’d give Rodriguez a decent shot.)
Pick 8, Team Raskin: Saul “Canelo” Alvarez
I didn’t necessarily want to pair Usyk with Canelo and build my stable around 30-somethings who may or may not still be in the sport at the end of their three-year contracts. But when the biggest star in North American boxing is available to you at Pick 8, a guy who’s still on some pound-for-pound lists and guarantees you one or two major PPV events a year for as long as he’s still fighting, you have to take him.
It’s diminishing returns with Alvarez from here on out, no doubt. But those returns will do their diminishing from a damned high starting point.
Pick 9, Team Christie: Jake Paul
And there it is. The most polarizing possible pick in the draft came in. The pick that made Tom immediately declare, “I no longer want to participate in this.” At least Matt properly prefaced his selection with a “Here goes nothing.”
Matt explained that while Paul’s “circus act fights” don’t hold appeal for him personally, “they reach an insane amount of people.” Paul’s fights always get attention, and there remain numerous matchups for him, serious and otherwise, that would sell. Also, Matt noted, referencing the other fighter in his promotional stable, “if he gets too big for his boots, I’ll just match him with Itauma.”
Pick 10, Team Ivers: Ryan Garcia
Moments after expressing revulsion at the Paul pick, Tom dipped a toe in slightly similar waters by choosing Garcia, a boxer whose celebrity and social media following somewhat exceed his actual in-ring credentials. And Tom acknowledged as much, saying Garcia is “probably the sport’s biggest crossover star – Paul aside.”
But as Tom pointed out, there are entirely straightforward reasons to want to promote the 27-year-old “KingRy” for the next three years, as he is “in perhaps one of the best active divisions in 147lbs, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see him move up and mix it at 154lbs either.”
Pick 11, Team Ivers: Vergil Ortiz Jnr
Continuing to assemble a squad consisting only of Mexican-American fighters in their 20s, Tom used his third pick on Ortiz, who may actually soon be available to interested new promoters IRL.
In addition to Ortiz’s obvious fighting ability and his positioning in a talent-stocked weight range, Tom sees upside in adding him to this particular promotional stable, noting, “I’d also love to make an in-house fight between Ortiz and Garcia down the line.”
Pick 12, Team Christie: Shakur Stevenson
Probably the best pure boxer on the American scene right now, Stevenson is a tricky one to assess in a draft like this because his pugilistic style is not often fan-friendly.
But, acknowledging the marketing challenges with the 28-year-old southpaw, Matt figured “every promoter surely wants the next Floyd Mayweather.” Stevenson, Matt assessed, appears the closest thing out there to Floyd, even if it takes him until toward the end of the three-year window to start making it happen at the box office.
Pick 13, Team Raskin: Sebastian Fundora
I didn’t come into this experiment expecting to end up with the second Fundora off the board, but I surely wasn’t going to let “The Towering Inferno” slip any further and give David the opportunity to corner the market on Fundoras.
Sebastian is still young (28), still improving fight to fight and building his name with each win. He scores knockouts and makes entertaining scraps. And even if he suffers a second defeat soon and we look back and say he peaked against the likes of Tim Tszyu and Keith Thurman, Fundora is built to maintain some “physical freak” marketing appeal.
Pick 14, Team Dixon: Gervonta “Tank” Davis
This pick means Tris’ stable consists of Boots, Bam and Tank, as fine a collection of fighters better known by their monosyllabic nicknames as any I’ve seen. (I’m now wondering if we should do likewise with Tris and start referring to him simply as “Dix,” but … nah.)
Anyway, there’s obvious risk in drafting Davis, who may or may not ever fight again and may in fact trade in his nickname for an inmate identification number at some point soon. But Tris was focused on the potential reward that comes with that risk: Tank generates money and has spectacular punching power, and, Tris keenly observed, “what a redemption arc you could take him on if he was invested for three years.”
Pick 15, Team Greisman: Xander Zayas
Could Zayas lose his “O” in his next fight? Absolutely, as FanDuel Sportsbook pegs him as a +300 underdog against Ennis in June. But that’s a risk David is willing to take, especially in the later stages of this draft.
“No matter what,” David reasoned, “I think he’s going to remain a draw both in Puerto Rico and among the diaspora, especially in Florida and New York City.” One loss to Boots wouldn’t prevent Zayas, who is a mere 23 years of age, from enjoying a long career delivering entertainment to enthusiastic crowds.
Pick 16, Team Greisman: Keyshawn Davis
In a span of three picks, two talented but troubled Davises have come off the board. Despite a bumpy stretch – there was a no-contest due to a positive test for marijuana, a fight canceled because Keyshawn missed weight and an alleged attack on another fighter backstage – Greisman the promoter is still betting on the 27-year-old Davis’ talent with his final pick in this draft.
“He’s got a fan base in Norfolk hungry for another boxing star,” David pointed out, “and he competes in a weight class with plenty of big fights that can be made.”
Pick 17, Team Dixon: Adam Azim
The final round of this draft is shaping up as an opportunity to take risks on some unproven up-and-comers, and Tris described his selection of 24-year-old British junior welterweight Azim as “playing a wild card.”
Tris described him as “rapid, young, low mileage, yet to reach his prime,” and observed that there are “big fights out there for him and he can tap into a significant Pakistani fanbase.” Tris also sees Azim adding new layers to his game each time out. “The Assassin” would have been a reach any earlier in this draft, but as a fourth-round flyer, he makes perfect sense.
Pick 18, Team Raskin: Richard Torrez Jnr
Now it’s my turn to take a shot on a high-upside prospect (something I’m particularly willing to do since, with Usyk and Canelo, the other end of the career spectrum is already well represented on my roster).
Am I convinced the 26-year-old Torrez can succeed at the top level? Not at all. But if he should go from U.S. Olympian to heavyweight champion of the world, at a time when Americans are not exactly dominating boxing’s glamour division anymore, he’d become the biggest star in the sport. And if he loses to Frank Sanchez next month, we’ll just permanently remove every trace of this article from the internet.
Pick 19, Team Christie: Hamzah Sheeraz
In a fourth round that saw Raskin and Greisman select Americans and Dixon snap up a Brit, Matt kept the patriotic theme alive with the undefeated Essex-based super middleweight Sheeraz.
“He just might be the next Thomas Hearns,” Matt reasoned, “and his stink-the-place-out showing against Carlos Adames might have just been an aberration.” Edgar Berlanga would likely agree with that assessment.
Pick 20, Team Ivers: Ben Whittaker
And we end with more Brits picking Brits – although that’s a change of pace for Tom’s otherwise all-American roster.
The 28-year-old light heavyweight Whittaker, fresh off a first-round blast-out this month of Braian Suarez, is “one of the few prospects I rate highly in Britain,” Tom decreed, “and one of the few that has the potential to be a real star.”
***
And thus concludes our draft. Among the notable fighters not selected: Claressa Shields (and all other women not named Gabriela Fundora), Devin Haney, Agit Kabayel, Jai Opetaia, Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua.
To them I say: There’s always next year. (When surely we’ll be able to attract 800,000 fans to this thing.)
Final draft order:
1. David Benavidez
2. Moses Itauma
3. Oleksandr Usyk
4. Jaron “Boots” Ennis
5. Naoya Inoue
6. Gabriela Fundora
7. Jesse “Bam” Rodriguez
8. Saul “Canelo” Alvarez
9. Jake Paul
10. Ryan Garcia
11. Vergil Ortiz Jnr
12. Shakur Stevenson
13. Sebastian Fundora
14. Gervonta “Tank” Davis
15. Xander Zayas
16. Keyshawn Davis
17. Adam Azim
18. Richard Torrez Jnr
19. Hamzah Sheeraz
20. Ben Whittaker
Final rosters:
Ivers: David Benavidez, Ryan Garcia, Vergil Ortiz Jnr, Ben Whittaker
Christie: Moses Itauma, Jake Paul, Shakur Stevenson, Hamzah Sheeraz
Raskin: Oleksandr Usyk, Saul “Canelo” Alvarez, Sebastian Fundora, Richard Torrez Jnr
Dixon: Jaron “Boots” Ennis, Jesse “Bam” Rodriguez, Gervonta “Tank” Davis, Adam Azim
Greisman: Naoya Inoue, Gabriela Fundora, Xander Zayas, Keyshawn Davis
Eric Raskin is a veteran boxing journalist with nearly 30 years of experience covering the sport for such outlets as BoxingScene, ESPN, Grantland, Playboy, and The Ring (where he served as managing editor for seven years). He also co-hosted The HBO Boxing Podcast, Showtime Boxing with Raskin & Mulvaney, The Interim Champion Boxing Podcast with Raskin & Mulvaney, and Ring Theory. He has won three first-place writing awards from the BWAA, for his work with The Ring, Grantland, and HBO. Outside boxing, he is the senior editor of CasinoReports and the author of 2014’s The Moneymaker Effect. He can be reached on X, BlueSky, or LinkedIn, or via email at RaskinBoxing@yahoo.com.
