Why are the best fights in boxing not happening?

[al-Xander]

Any upcoming big fight equivalent to Thurman vs Porter from PBC?

[Fetta]

Any upcoming big fight equivalent to Thurman vs Porter from PBC?

Santa Cruz/Frampton just happened.

The only big fight coming up on any platform is Ward/Kov and thats more of a boxing fans fight but i love it

[soul_survivor]

I agree. Its sad..

Politics
Money
Greed
Cowards
Scared
Protecting their 0s
Promotion companies having beef


Disgusting actually. Then you have clowns agreeing with Garcia and Bruner turning down millions to fight the legendary Pac

This pretty much sums it all up, should be end of thread here.

Do really want to see Spence vs Thurman, but it could be too soon for him. If he took a hard KO loss, could really ruin his development/potential and Thurman wouldn't get credit.

Garcia's a decent bridge to that fight for Spence though. Thoroughly proven fighter that wouldn't destroy him if he lost.

You're the type of boxing fan which not only endorses but encourages cowardice among modern fighters.

[Butt stuff]

This pretty much sums it all up, should be end of thread here.



You're the type of boxing fan which not only endorses but encourages cowardice among modern fighters.

I think thats an overreaction. I already stated I do really want to see this fight. But I only knew Spence had beaten one OK opponent in Algieri. I think he needs one more fight against a top, strong guy in the division before taking on the hardest punching welter who I rate no.1 in the division.

I also think that would prove his stock, and that he deserves the fight. Which would in turn validate a win over Spence for Thurman. As a boxing fan I think you should earn fights, not just get whatever you want because you're hyped. ACTUAL cowardice is Canelo dropping his title because he didn't want to fight the true middleweight champion.

[soul_survivor]

I think thats an overreaction. I already stated I do really want to see this fight. But I only knew Spence had beaten one OK opponent in Algieri. I think he needs one more fight against a top, strong guy in the division before taking on the hardest punching welter who I rate no.1 in the division.

I also think that would prove his stock, and that he deserves the fight. Which would in turn validate a win over Spence for Thurman. As a boxing fan I think you should earn fights, not just get whatever you want because you're hyped. ACTUAL cowardice is Canelo dropping his title because he didn't want to fight the true middleweight champion.

Who else is Spence supposed to fight? He is a fringe contender who should be looking to fight the best available fighters in his division. I regard 147 as a division without a true champ, until Pac returns and/or Bradley beats another top welter.

Lets be honest, Thurman, Vargas even brook with is bum of the month club, holding trinkets are nothing more than contenders to Pacs thrown. Spence fighting Thurman isn't a fight against a legit world champ, it's a fight against another contender.

However, I understand your reasoning and I probably jumped the gun.

[al-Xander]

My two cents is that boxing needs a financial crash. The business landscape needs levelling. This might mean PBC going bust, or HBO withdrawing for good, or anything that sucks tens of millions out off the game. A big external shock is needed to bring all the players back to the same table again.

These dudes (1) have to be forced to work together to make money again, and (2) have to be forced to innovate. Both those things need to happen for boxing to move forward. A big financial shock is the surest way to bring it about. When these guys are desperately trying to put a series of multi-promoter tournaments together in order to make some dough, then you'll know we're going somewhere.

Boxing needs a total blackout for at least 2 years.

[Eff Pandas]

Its sorta unfair to compare boxing to the UFC as far as matchmaking goes. The UFC is a dictatorship like the NFL, NBA & MLB & other successful sports leagues are more or less.

Boxing is a f#cking circus of boxers, managers, promoters, commissions, alphabet groups & networks all pushing & pulling things in different directions at different times.

You will NEVER see the top fights in boxing on a regular basis until boxing adopts a similar strategy as virtually every other sport & creates an elite league of boxers that insures the best fight the best on a regular basis & in general more competitive fights are happening all the time at all levels.

[Eff Pandas]

If you look at it logically, the reason is that it's too easy to avoid them. For both the fighters and the promoters. Until it becomes too difficult for fighters to make money any other way than fighting top competition, they will continue to avoid fighting top competition.

It's easy to blame this promoter or that promoter, but they all have a hand in it. They're all part of the same fu*ked up system. The promoters don't design the incentives, they just live by them. Granted guys like Arum and Haymon are far more responsible for this than smaller promoters because they have more power. But they are operating under the established logic of the sport as well, build stars up soft and match them even softer unless there's a truckload of money parked outside.

The biggest problem is that it's hard for anyone to make long term investment in the future of the sport when they might not survive long enough to see the return from it. So it's all about making money now, bleeding whatever you can get out of the game while you have the chance.

The balance is all out of whack in the sport. That philosophy is extremely destructive and has been eating away at the sport for decades. The promotional cold war is obviously very bad for the sport as a whole, but for a while at least, it was working out ok for the players.

And if you're a smaller player, forget about it. When you're trying to keep the lights on you're not going to gamble away the one or two stars you have because it's the 'right thing to do for the sport'. You're going to hold them close until you get a satisfactory return on your investment.

My two cents is that boxing needs a financial crash. The business landscape needs levelling. This might mean PBC going bust, or HBO withdrawing for good, or anything that sucks tens of millions out off the game. A big external shock is needed to bring all the players back to the same table again.

These dudes (1) have to be forced to work together to make money again, and (2) have to be forced to innovate. Both those things need to happen for boxing to move forward. A big financial shock is the surest way to bring it about. When these guys are desperately trying to put a series of multi-promoter tournaments together in order to make some dough, then you'll know we're going somewhere.

Great post & I tend to agree with everything said.

The bottom line to me is that as far as working together & innovation is those things will need to become a mainstay of the sport before boxing can truly get to its rightful place in the sports world. Boxing will need to develop an elite boxer league before the best will fight the best on the reg. There are too many hands in the cookie jar & there needs to be major changes to how boxing works to get to a point where there aren't so many hands in the cookie jar.

[BrometheusBob.]

Thurman vs Spence- Because Spence went the IBF route in order to face the Ring #1 rated welterweight

Broner vs Garcia- Broner just moved back up to welterweight and hasn't earned a shot at the WBC welterweight tilt

Ortiz vs Joshua- Ortiz is set to fight Ustinov for the WBA elminator and he'll get to fight the winner of Klitschko vs. Fury

Joshua vs Wilder- Wilder is out for the year after injuring his hand. He didn't fight Joshua before that because Wilder had a mandatory with Povetkin which ended up getting canceled

Wilder vs Fury- Fury has a rematch clause he has to fulfill.

Jacobs vs GGG-Bidness decisions

Pacquiao vs Crawford- Crawford is trying to unify 140. Pacquiao is a welterweight

Rigo vs Loma- Loma is two weight classes higher than Rigo. Rigo won't even move up one weight class.

Canelo vs GGG- Bidness decisions and Canelo has dropped down to 154

Crawford vs Broner- Crawford has an exclusive contract with HBO. HBO can't afford to pay Broner what the fight would fetch in an open competitive market.

Canelo vs Andrade- Canelo is fighting Liam Smith for the 154 lb title. Andrade doesn't have a title so Canelo isn't fighting him

Beterbiev vs Stevenson- Stevenson has a mandatory defense

Spence vs Garcia-See my first answer
Spence vs Broner-See my first answer

I wish more of these guys would take the Floyd Mayweather business model and face tough competition and earn their way onto a PPV. Brone has done nothing to earn a PPV slot but people were mad he turned down Pacquiao.

Bold reasons don't feel satisfactory to me

The first three bolds can be translated to "ducking". Truth is Pacquiao and team don't feel like he could beat Crawford right now, and Jacobs and Canelo both don't feel like they could beat GGG right now.

Also Andrade is a better fight than Smith, title or no title. Canelo had other title holders as options that would have been more intriguing fights to make too.

[al-Xander]

What exactly is Haymon waiting for?

Just look at some of the fights I listed in the other thread:

Thurman vs Garcia, Thurman vs Spence, Thurman vs Broner, Thurman vs Brook, Garcia vs Porter, Garcia vs Broner, Garcia vs Spence, Spence vs Porter, Spence vs Broner, Spence vs Peterson, Broner vs Peterson, Broner vs Berto, Broner vs Guerrero, Porter vs Berto, Porter vs Guerrero, Porter vs Peterson, Brook vs Garcia, Brook vs Broner, Brook vs Spence, Lara vs Andrade, Lara vs Williams, Lara vs Charlos, Lara vs Quillin, Lara vs Jacobs, and so on... more than 20 possible fights.

Are you telling me he can only make one or two of these per year?