{"id":153643,"date":"2025-09-18T23:25:08","date_gmt":"2025-09-18T23:25:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/153643\/"},"modified":"2025-09-18T23:25:08","modified_gmt":"2025-09-18T23:25:08","slug":"chasing-her-boxing-legacy-canadas-sara-bailey-is-ready-to-pay-the-price","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/153643\/","title":{"rendered":"Chasing her boxing legacy, Canada\u2019s Sara Bailey is ready to pay the price"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Canadian boxer Sara Bailey with her WBA light-flyweight title belt at the West End Athletic Club in Etobicoke, in August. This weekend, Bailey will face Argentina\u2019s Evelin Bermudez in Ottawa in a women\u2019s world title unification bout, with the IBF and WBO belts also on the line.Jalani Morgan\/The Globe and Mail<\/p>\n

Sara Bailey the boxer heads into Saturday\u2019s world title unification showdown against Evelin Bermudez looking to break records.<\/p>\n

The winner of the bout, which takes place at the Hard Rock Casino in Ottawa, would own three world titles in the women\u2019s light-flyweight division, with only the fourth championship belt still outstanding. So a victory would put Bailey, who lives in Etobicoke, Ont., and trains at the West End Athletic Club, one win away from becoming the first undisputed champion in Canadian history.<\/p>\n

But Bailey the business person simply seeks to break even. <\/p>\n

Where Terence Crawford and Saul \u201cCanelo\u201d Alvarez split a reported US$200-million to headline last Saturday\u2019s blockbuster boxing card in Las Vegas, elite women\u2019s boxers live a different reality. Smaller crowds. Smaller payouts. Self-funded training camps.<\/p>\n

Bailey, who won a world title in just her fourth pro bout, knows she faces a long, steep path to profitability, and tackles it with an old school strategy: Sell tickets and build from there.<\/p>\n

By Tuesday afternoon, only about 100 seats remained in a theatre set up to accommodate 1,300 people. Earlier that day, TSN+ signed on as the event\u2019s streaming partner.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m trying to make history. In the long run, it\u2019s going to be worth it,\u201d says Bailey, the WBA champion. \u201cI\u2019m trying to make my name as big as possible. I\u2019m not here to box forever.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Bailey carries a perfect 6-0 record into Saturday’s fight with Bermudez.Jalani Morgan\/The Globe and Mail<\/p>\n

Saturday\u2019s fight card is the first in Ottawa since 1987, when Toronto\u2019s Shawn O\u2019Sullivan, the Olympic silver medalist, slugged out a 10-round decision over a tough guy named Denis Sigouin, from across the river in Hull, Que. <\/p>\n

The main event pits Bermudez (21-1-1, 7 KO), a forward-moving slugger from Argentina, against Bailey (6-0, 0 KO) a slick technician who grew up in North Vancouver, B.C. Bermudez enters Saturday with two belts \u2013 from the IBF and WBO \u2013 and will earn a bigger share of the purse. She will also pocket the proceeds from Argentine broadcast rights, concessions Bailey made to lure her to Canada.<\/p>\n

If boxing is a business to Bailey and her husband Stevie, her trainer and manager, then they measure their payoff not just in dollars but in wins and accolades. They might have grossed more fighting in Argentina, but they prioritized home-field advantage, and more lucrative future fights.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe biggest payday out there for Sara is probably a $200,000 or $300,000 fight, but by the time you get there you\u2019ve probably spent a million dollars,\u201d says Stevie Bailey, Sara\u2019s coach since 2014. \u201cI\u2019m not going to be sad years from now if there\u2019s 50-grand less in my bank account, but I\u2019m going to be really happy if I have all four belts on my table.\u201d<\/p>\n

Domestic boxing hasn\u2019t had a regular presence on English-language airwaves since the late 2000s, when Sarnia, Ont. native Steve Molitor held the IBF super bantamweight crown, and his title defences aired live. Bailey\u2019s promoter, Tyler Buxton, hopes the streaming deal will introduce Bailey to a national audience, but says her power as a local attraction that fills mid-sized Ontario venues sets her apart. <\/p>\n

\u201cUntil you get the TV element of it, you\u2019ve gotta start with tickets. Who\u2019s pushing numbers?\u201d says Buxton, who is head of United Promotions. \u201cFighters are their own brand. Whether they move tickets or pay-per-view numbers will change what their purses are.\u201d<\/p>\n

Elsewhere in the boxing industry, seismic changes are jolting a once-dormant sport into action. <\/p>\n

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Terence Crawford, left, beat Canelo Alvarez last Saturday in front of 70,482 spectators at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas, with another 41 million viewers tuning in to watch the fight on Netflix.David Becker\/The Associated Press<\/p>\n

On the men\u2019s side, the sideshow novelty bouts generate attention and revenue, if not long-term interest in boxing. Last year 108 million people logged on to Netflix to watch Jake Paul, the YouTuber-turned-boxer, defeat a then-58-year-old Mike Tyson over eight dreary rounds. In November, Paul will box in an exhibition against lightweight champion Gervonta \u201cTank\u201d Davis, whom he\u2019ll outweigh by 60 pounds. Meanwhile, Tyson is slated to face retired welterweight champion Floyd Mayweather in a springtime exhibition.<\/p>\n

Among competitive bouts, the biggest money now flows toward mega-events that are funded by Saudi Arabia\u2019s General Entertainment Authority, and achieve mixed results. Alvarez\u2019s win over William Scull last May set a record for fewest punches thrown in a 12-round fight. But his dramatic loss to Crawford drew 70,482 spectators to Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas, and another 41 million viewers to Netflix.<\/p>\n

Industry veteran Mark Taffet, who ran HBO\u2019s now-defunct pay-per-view programming, says streaming services like Netflix and Amazon Prime combine network TV\u2019s reach with premium cable\u2019s prestige, lending heft to boxing broadcasts.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey have the ability to \u2026 treat big boxing events like one-night original programs, and actually present them to the broadest audiences possible, and achieve tremendous growth in subscriber volume,\u201d said Taffet, now the head of global events at CSI, the group behind the Tyson-Mayweather exhibition. \u201cIt\u2019s actually preferential to the model of pay-per-view, which says, \u2018Take the most money from the fewest people possible.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, women\u2019s boxing has seen Paul\u2019s company, Most Valuable Promotions (MVP), embark on an extended, aggressive signing spree. Last winter it signed Canadian Olympian Tammara Thibeault, and last month it acquired former world champion Kim Clavel. Both boxers will compete on an MVP event in Montreal on Sept. 27.<\/p>\n

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

‘The biggest payday out there for Sara is probably a $200,000 or $300,000 fight,’ says her coach, manager and husband, Stevie Bailey, left. ‘But by the time you get there you\u2019ve probably spent a million dollars.’Jalani Morgan\/The Globe and Mail<\/p>\n

Bailey headlined MVP\u2019s first Canadian show in March. She says the company offered her a contract, but she reasoned that the bump in up-front pay doesn\u2019t outweigh the benefits of being the featured fighter on cards closer to home.<\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone keeps asking when I\u2019m going to fight in the States, but why would I?\u201d Bailey says. \u201cI have so much control here. I don\u2019t want to give up control.\u201d<\/p>\n

The setup is expensive<\/p>\n

For a world champion like Bailey, finding the right sparring partners often requires flying them in, covering their travel, plus compensating them for lost wages on their day jobs. <\/p>\n

Last month, she travelled to support Lucas Bahdi, a stablemate fighting on an MVP card in Orlando. From there, she and Stevie drove to Miami to spar with a contender named Taylah Robertson, whose style mimics that of Bermudez.<\/p>\n

They paid all their own expenses.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019d rack up debt, pay it off. We\u2019d rack up debt, we\u2019d pay it off,\u201d Stevie Bailey says. \u201cWe didn\u2019t really care, per se, about making money in her pro career. We wanted legacy.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: Canadian boxer Sara Bailey with her WBA light-flyweight title belt at the West…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":153644,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[447],"tags":[901,888,902,703,879,877,903,49,48,876,895,896,891,878,875,46,549,295,894,887,914,880,881,893,889,890,884,904,885,909,910,912,907,911,905,908,882,898,899,714,897,906,82,865,61,900,892,886,883,913],"class_list":["post-153643","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-alberta","tag-arts-news","tag-bc","tag-boxing","tag-breaking-news","tag-breaking-news-video","tag-british-columbia","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-canada-news","tag-canada-sports","tag-canada-sports-news","tag-canada-trafficcanada-weather","tag-canadian-breaking-news","tag-canadian-news","tag-economy","tag-education","tag-environment","tag-federal-government","tag-foreign-news","tag-globe-and-mail","tag-globe-and-mail-breaking-news","tag-globe-and-mail-canada-news","tag-government","tag-life-news","tag-lifestyle","tag-local-news","tag-manitoba","tag-national-news","tag-new-brunswick","tag-newfoundland-and-labrador","tag-northwest-territories","tag-nova-scotia","tag-nunavut","tag-ontario","tag-pei","tag-photos","tag-political-news","tag-political-opinion","tag-politics","tag-politics-news","tag-quebec","tag-sports","tag-sports-news","tag-technology","tag-travel","tag-trudeau","tag-us-news","tag-world-news","tag-yukon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153643","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=153643"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153643\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/153644"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=153643"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=153643"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=153643"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}