Influencer Boxing: Authenticity and the Quest for Redemption

The chapter addresses the phenomenon of influencer boxing, focusing on the recruitment of the shared narrative resources of boxing as a legitimising practice. Using the celebrity capital lifecycle framework proposed by François Carrillat and Jasmina Ilicic, the chapter examines the role traditional boxing is playing in its own evolution. It raises questions about the formation of narrative identity, specifically who can lay claim to a boxing identity and when. Influencer boxing has a potentially significant impact on how narrative identity is performed and legitimised, particularly as it pertains to the relationship between the recruitment of shared narrative resources and habitual, repeated, and rehearsed physical practices. The chapter argues for greater consideration of the relationship between shared narrative resources and physical actions associated with identity work to better understand how identities are formed and legitimised. The chapter raises the potential that access to powerful and persuasive narrative resources could expediate individual ontological journeys and narrative identity formation, providing individuals with access to the identity rewards sooner than might otherwise be expected.