WASHINGTON — Thirty is a nice, round number, one that means a little more to Dusty Hernandez-Harrison than to most.
The 21-year-old boxer wore the number for his high school basketball team. Friday night, he can win his 30th fight in 30 tries if he can defeat Mike Dallas Jr. in the main event of Throne Boxing at the D.C. Armory. But it’s also the street he grew up on — that is, 30th Street in Southeast D.C., the neighborhood he still calls home.
“I moved a whole block away,” he laughed at a press event Wednesday. “I went from 30th Street to 31st.”
Hernandez-Harrison is the face of a growing trend in boxing, one that cuts against the model of the last generation. Where the boxing world used to revolve around the bright, glitzy sun of Las Vegas, home to every premier fight, it is adopting a more decentralized approach in the 21st century. Instead, it’s focusing on creating buzz around fighters in their hometowns first, such as Hernandez-Harrison right here in D.C.
“It’s much easier to build a star when you build them as a star in their hometown first,” said David Itskowitch, COO of Roc Nation Sports’ boxing division. “You’re a star on your block, and then you’re a star in your neighborhood, and then you’re a star in your city, and then you’re a star in your state, your region, your country.”
Events DC is helping to put on the fight, the fourth televised boxing event they’ve been a part of just since early March of this year. That doesn’t even count the nontelevised bouts they’ve supported.
Erik Moses, Events DC senior vice president and managing director, sees the same draw and ability to build out of a local athlete.
“It’s not dissimilar I think, in a lot of ways, to what you see with new music performers,” he said. “You build this following on social media, you’re selling records out of your trunk, or whatever. You’re building that following, and then you go to the label, because you are already bringing something with you.”
The comparison to the music industry is a fitting one for a fight presented by Roc Nation Sports, the professional sports wing of Jay Z’s corporate empire. The event will feature not only fighters with D.C. area roots all the way down the card but also a pair of musical acts signed to Roc Nation. And in addition to being aired live on BET, the three feature fights will also be streamed on Tidal, Jay Z’s online streaming service.
The dual broadcast is another sign of the times. BET represents an unconventional television partner, but fits within the Roc Nation Sports ethos of non-exclusivity (as Itskowitch says, “we’ll work with anyone; we’ll be televised by anyone”). The live stream attacks a different fan base, reaching three million subscribers. The multiplatform approach may look familiar to D.C. sports fans familiar with Monumental Sports and Entertainment’s continued push toward online content.
For the recent Roc Nation Sports-sponsored Cotto-Conelo fight, they decided to live stream workouts on Facebook and drew over a million viewers, during a workday.
“I think we’re, in general, in a transition period in the way people consume their entertainment,” Itskowitch said.
“I think transitioning from TV to online, I don’t think it’s something that you do overnight. A good way to do it first is to offer it by both platforms … Online consumption of entertainment is only going to get bigger and bigger.”
Hernandez-Harrison was one of the first wave of boxers the agency signed, back when he was only 17. He decided to forgo the traditional amateur route of building a career through the Olympics, taking a chance instead on the fledgling agency. He knew it was a leap of faith, but it’s been rewarded.
“The reason why I did it, honestly, was I felt like they could do more for me outside of boxing, outside the ring. And they have,” he said.
Those other things include sponsorships with apparel company Fila, a sponsorship proudly on display in Hernandez-Harrison’s wardrobe Friday as he rocked a red, white and blue quarter zip — D.C. sports colors with the trademark “F.” He’s also recently inked a partnership with GEICO, a brand well-known on the local sports scene for their Capitals and Nationals sponsorships, but now deciding to foray into boxing, betting on a local face in Hernandez-Harrison.
“They’re big on the fact that I was from D.C., too,” he said. “It’s actually in our contract that we do (charity work together) for people of D.C.”
Everywhere you look, that seems to be the hook.
“There are fight fans in this town who will find a fight, whether it’s in somebody’s backyard somewhere, because they love fights,” Moses said.
“To rise beyond that level, to get the somewhat casual fight fan or observer involved, there has to be some kind of hook.”
Just as teams build up loyalty and deep-seated connection through regionalism, everyone is betting that fighters like Hernandez-Harrison can as well. Moses is hoping that events such as Friday’s will set a precedent and create a platform for boxing in the District, especially at the soon-to-be-built campus at St. Elizabeth’s.
“We certainly hope so,” he said. “A big part of the programming that we have planned for the Entertainment and Sports Arena is going to be boxing.”
If there is a face for that push right now, it’s the soft- but well-spoken 21-year-old local boy made good. It’s why Moses is searching for a D.C. flag for him to enter the ring with, to literally wrap himself in the city’s colors.
“We sometimes don’t embrace ourselves as much as we should,” Moses said. “This is somebody we should support. We should, collectively, as a city, embrace this guy and want to see him successful and hold him up as an exemplar of what this city can produce.”
