For two months now the world has been trying to adapt to the coronavirus pandemic. It’s put a kibosh on everything. The worldwide plague means there have been no spectator sports, at the pro level, college level, or high school level.

It’s crushed the sport of boxing.

Though, it doesn’t mean fight fans, boxing media, and the boxing community can’t get their boxing fix.

Eric Bottjer, Matchroom Boxing’s matchmaker and a boxing historian, came up with a thought a few months ago that’s growing: “Boxing Jeopardy” on Zoom.

As the coronavirus quarantine continues, with no firm indication when it will end, “Boxing Jeopardy” has provided an outlet to at least talk boxing with other boxing people.

The idea came about rather easy.

When Bottjer used to be in the company of boxing people, whether they were promoters, managers, trainers, media, matchmakers or fans, an impromptu game of boxing trivia would break out just to pass the time.

“It kind of came from that,” Bottjer said. “With the virus going on, and here at Matchroom, we still have full workdays catching up with paperwork, I noticed conference calls on Zoom, so I thought it would be fun to do something for a half hour. Even the people that don’t play, they can watch.

“We’ve been getting between 40 and 50 people an episode watching. They all have fun with it.”

At 4 p.m. EST/9 p.m. Europe/1 p.m. PST today (details below if you would like to tune in) will be the second championship round, but it will crown the first “Boxing Jeopardy” champion, since the first round produced a three-way tie (The final Jeopardy question no one got right was: Aside from Rocky Marciano, what two past heavyweight champions defeated every opponent that they faced? Answer below.).

Bottjer is looking to continue “Boxing Jeopardy,” possibly crowning an ultimate champion in the future.

Has Bottjer been surprised by the response, and the growing interest by people in the boxing community to the weekly contest?

“I figured a lot of people, even if they didn’t like to play, would like to watch,” Bottjer said. “I know people that watch ‘Jeopardy’ on a regular basis and I thought it would be interesting to do that with boxing.

“It doesn’t take a long time. It doesn’t cost anything. Everyone in the room pretty much knows each other. It’s a friendly game.”

It takes Bottjer roughly two hours to put together a full game. Like the TV game show “Jeopardy,” there are two rounds for “Boxing Jeopardy,” a first round followed by a second for double points, followed by a final question.

Some of the subjects have covered boxing nicknames, Olympic boxing, Mike Tyson and Larry Holmes.

Bottjer has a long list of boxing people who are interested in playing—and he likes the idea of including boxing fans in the future, after they’ve answered a few questions to gauge their knowledge.

Today’s winner will receive a bottle of One With Life Organic Tequila (OWL Tequila). Today’s contestants are boxing publicist Marc Abrams, boxing promoter Bobby Hitz and boxing attorney Alex Dombroff.

In the past, Bottjer has had on Hall of Famers Steve Farhood and J Russell Peltz, noted boxing historian, Boxing Hall of Fame committee member Don Majeski and CompuBox guru and Ring writer Lee Groves.

Bottjer even lowered the bar considerably to include a Ring writer who is the President of the Boxing Writers Association of America in one of his contests (who’s still kicking himself for not remembering Bennie Briscoe and Johnny Ort).

“I’m not pushing ‘Boxing Jeopardy’ on anyone, but if someone approached me about putting this on a large streaming platform, obviously the DAZN would have first choice,” Bottjer said. “Right now, we’re having fun with it and boxing people can play along.”

Today’s show info:

Topic: My Meeting

Time: May 14, 2020 04:00 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada)

Join Zoom Meeting

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87375173034?pwd=cFpUTVFnM2xndDVWdlhLUVMrOHdadz09

Meeting ID: 873 7517 3034

Password: 6Efy5M

The Final Jeopardy answer: Ingemar Johansson and Lennox Lewis (Riddick Bowe had a no-contest against Buster Mathis Jr. on August 13, 1994).

Joseph Santoliquito is an award-winning sportswriter who has been working for Ring Magazine/RingTV.com since October 1997 and is the president of the Boxing Writers Association of America. He can be followed on twitter @JSantoliquito.

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