What's killing boxing?

[ManUtd626]

I don't know about killing boxing but lack of network television exposure is definately hurting boxing. The general public never gets to see upper echelon fighters on regular tv channels. All of the upper echelon fights happen on either showtime/hbo or ppv, that doesn't really give enough exposure to boxing or fighters. The sports media also does a poor job of covering boxing. Espn only covers mayweather vs pacquiao nonfight even when these fighters are fighting other fighters. Imagine if the superbowl was ppv how much would the ratings drop? Now imagine if a superfight was on network television how much would viewership be improved?

[PAC-BOY]

Floyd Mayweather

[damit305]

The question is how to fix it? **** trickles from the top down on to the most deserving- up and comers, prospects, and eventually ends up on the fans.

[hhs661]

Another aspect, outside of the ones already mentioned, is the fact that there's no personal attachment from their amateur days. In football, basketball and baseball we see guys from high school on espn here in America. We watch them play on national tv and see the "love for the game" mentality that they bring to the table. It's not prospects or future first round picks negotiating the terms. We follow them, know their backstory and keep tabs on them in the pros.

In boxing we get home of that. Corruption in the amateurs is a part of it. No national coverage of the world championships or pan am games to go with it. To top it off, we really don't know who these guys are til we see them fight a household name, which is very minimal nowadays

[damit305]

Another aspect, outside of the ones already mentioned, is the fact that there's no personal attachment from their amateur days. In football, basketball and baseball we see guys from high school on espn here in America. We watch them play on national tv and see the "love for the game" mentality that they bring to the table. It's not prospects or future first round picks negotiating the terms. We follow them, know their backstory and keep tabs on them in the pros.

In boxing we get home of that. Corruption in the amateurs is a part of it. No national coverage of the world championships or pan am games to go with it. To top it off, we really don't know who these guys are til we see them fight a household name, which is very minimal nowadays

To be fair those who follow certain amateurs into pro boxing can
acquaint for certain fighters on a pro level.

A great fcuking post though.

[Vasyl’s dad]

Boxing is dying again eh? For the 7th decade now.

[Em1]

Honestly there are a lot of factors.

I don't like the fact that once a fighter reaches the pinnacle of the sport it cost almost $80 to see him fight (Floyd and Manny). These two bring the most exposure to the sport. We need some freebies once in a while. It also hurts that there is no heavyweight superstar.

Cold War between Golden Boy and Top Rank. This cost us the biggest fight of the decade and many other great fights (Donaire vs Mares).

Bad judging- We had a fight party at my friends house for Pacman vs. Bradley. It was his 1st time watching/paying for a PPV event. No need to continue. Boxing is like the only sport dumb enough to rob the superstar.

Too many belts and then some of the sanctioning bodies don't want unification bouts. But of course that only applies to some fighters.

And that leads us to corruption. There's so much corruption in boxing its shameful. The judges, promoters, sanctioning bodies, dirty fighters etc....

Bumped for how on point this is.


On the too many belt issues, catchweights are one thing and understandable to the common fan. But there needs to be one, 1, uno, just ONE guy per division who you can point to and say "HEY THAT MOTHER-EFFER RIGHT THERE he's the G-damn man. I know that because he beat the guy who used to be the man", instead there are all these f'n belts and then we need unification bouts, etc. It's a headache. I love and follow boxing and have zero interest in caring who has what belt.

[$mannyFresh]

Greed. Greedy promoters, greedy sanctioning bodies, greedy fighters.

[TGD]

I wouldn't say boxing is dying exactly but, as others have said, there are many factors as to why we aren't seeing the best fights possible on a consistent basis. For me it all comes back to greed.

[hhs661]

To be fair those who follow certain amateurs into pro boxing can
acquaint for certain fighters on a pro level.

A great fcuking post though.

Very true, but with those other sports we see the Under Armor & McDonald's high school All American games. We see nationally televised high school football and basketball games on espn2, espn & espnu. The little league world series and college world series tournaments.

There's all sorts of avenues for other sports. The country followed a guy like Tim Tebow because they connected with the person, no matter how horrible his mechanics were. They got attached to him and rooted him on. Not saying boxing is dead or dying, just wanted to give my opinion on this topic, but the sport could market itself a little better with amateurs, as well as established pros.