By Cliff Rold

Hold off the eulogies.

Bring quality product and quality results might follow.

After an often abysmal 2016, boxing has rebounded in a huge way this year. Last year we were talking about the cancellation of Tyson Fury-Wladimir Klitschko. This year we get Klitschko-Anthony Joshua. Last year, Canelo Alvarez announced he would fight Gennady Golovkin in 2017.

Well, it’s 2017, and there they are on Sports Center gearing up for a September.

The action in the ring, big fights and not so big, has been more consistent this year as has the quality of matchmaking. Crowds have been solid, some of them more than that, in the States and beyond.

It’s impossible to miss.

Something good is happening in the sweet science.

This week was case in point. After a building buzz, as originally reported by Ring’s Mike Coppinger, ESPN announced a new deal with Top Rank that will bring fights to their air once the purview of premium cable. Manny Pacquiao’s next bout will kick it off in July with rumors of Vasyl Lomachenko and Terence Crawford making appearances before the summer is out.

Unlike some of their boxing deals past, this is one ESPN has gotten behind, using platforms like First Take to promote the new endeavor. This is more than airtime. It’s an investment in boxing. The ESPN effect can’t be understated. While cable subscribers have dropped, and taken their numbers down with them. ESPN still reaches more sports fans than any other network on a daily basis. It’s not a free network but after free network television it’s still probably the next best thing.

Their reach, combined with the possibility of ABC for certain fights down the road, is huge.

This hasn’t happened in a vacuum. Some may be remiss to give it, but credit is due to the PBC experiment over the last couple years. Credit should also go to Main Events, which got some fights onto NBC before PBC, with a successful Tomasz Adamek-Steve Cunningham fight hinting at what could be done. While every PBC fight wasn’t a hit, the success of some of their best-built contests, particularly Keith Thurman’s fights with Shawn Porter and Danny Garcia on CBS, had to be eye opening.

The PBC’s willingness to come out of pocket was an investment in the sport. It’s hard to ignore the high points that may have influenced others getting their toe in the water.

Thurman-Garcia peaked at approximately five million viewers earlier this year, winning the night in prime time. That doesn’t include any households that may have DVR’d the fight and watched later. While not an NBA Finals number, it was more than most can hope for on a Saturday night. In a landscape where television-viewing metrics are changing every day, events that can draw eyes aren’t to be underrated.

Thurman-Garcia did those numbers with sustained build among boxing fans but less of the wall-to-wall coverage ESPN might be able to provide. If they invest for a long stretch in the game, it won’t just be good for Arum’s business. Sure, the direct investment will come first but already this week we’ve seen extra attention for Alvarez-Golovkin and one can be certain the Floyd Mayweather event in August will be played to maximum volume.

There is an old saying; a rising tide lifts all boats. The ESPN announcement this week was a piece of rising tide. It will force more of all of boxing to the front of the line.

The PBC/Al Haymon connection to Showtime isn’t going anywhere. One can assume there will be more fights on CBS alongside what we’re going to be seeing on ESPN. If this results in more coverage for those cards as well, everyone wins. If it forces all sides to compete even harder, playing towards a game of trying to top each other, everyone wins even more.

These are opportunities for new stars and new growth. Let’s hope it isn’t wasted. Top Rank has had strong network deals with various basic cable outlets before and the quality has not always been consistent (*cough* Tye Fields *cough*). We’re looking at a strong start but what we see a year from now will be of critical import.

For now, it’s enough to laugh once again at the idea of boxing’s deathbed. It is a place often assumed occupied but never quite making it to the undertaker. Boxing is always the next good deal, the next big fight, the next major star, away from a new chance at life.

The era of premium cable dominance in American boxing isn’t quite over, nor is the pay-per-view era. Those things don’t have to end. What does need to go on its way is premium cable being relied on as place where stars are formed and profited from. Before and even while they were on HBO, fighters like James Toney, Evander Holyfield, and Pernell Whitaker, little more than a generation ago, had major fights on broadcast TV.

It mattered just as much as it matters right now for a Thurman who has been seen in the last year by likely four times the audience Showtime or HBO could have delivered. It will matter for Lomachenko and Crawford when they get their turn.

In 2017, boxing is off life support. It might not be as healthy as it was in another era, but it’s nowhere near the grave.

Cliff Rold is the Managing Editor of BoxingScene, a founding member of the Transnational Boxing Rankings Board, and a member of the Boxing Writers Association of America.  He can be reached at roldboxing@hotmail.com