What is stopping boxing from being as popular as it was in the 50's and 60's?

[I3C727]

more 24-7s made and presented on espn.

[F l i c k e r]

Heavyweight class of the same calibur in the 50s-60s.

[JAWH8R]

I agree with the thoughts about too many "titles" or belts. Also, I've had it with lame, obviously bribed judges. I'm not naive enough to think it hasn't always gone on to a certain extent; but it's so bad now that I'm having a hard time even watching it anymore... after 35 years as a fight fan. Until they just wipe them all out, and start over from scratch, it's going to be difficult to enjoy good fights. The robberies just make me sick. It might be nice to see champs and contenders fight a little more often than just once in a while, too.

[Low Blow Armo]

Boxing wasn't popular in the sixties. In fact it was one of its darkest decades. However, you can blame GBP for the decline in mainstream interest in boxing today.

[FreshPrince]

It sucks how the media has so much control on what popular. If ABC did a 24/7 on Pacman-Hatton and showed the fight on the network, a good 30-50 million people would see the fight and boxing would immediatly be front page news again. There would be demand for another fight on free tv and boxing would be "back."

[Libido Sanchez]

A lot of people said the same thing so I won't quote everybody, but lack of mainstream media outlets is a big reason. Only ESPN covering boxing on a regular basis is not enough. National and local TV, including the news, should cover boxing more. I mean we hear from every news source that Tom Brady married a supermodel and that Favre is old now, but we hardly hear about boxing in the mainstream news, even when it was a great fight like last Saturday's showdown.

Then there's money and legal technicalities. Just showing clips of devasting KOs/action from good fights on the news sometimes isn't possible because those fights were on PPV and premium cable channels. I bet if they showed 30 seconds of a great fight (and not just photos) on the news frequently it would boost interest amongst casual fans.

You also got to think about boxing hurting itself for many years. Scandals like Tyson biting Holyfield's ear, Marg handwraps, etc. don't help to promote boxing as a sport. Corruption is to blame too. Bad judging ("robberies") ruins it for most fans.

I also think if boxing became really popular again, there would be watchdog groups that would want to tear it down when injuries happen in the ring. Some people don't watch boxing because they think it's too violent. (And, sooner or later, all the racial stuff that's brought into boxing would probably hurt it as well. Some fans love to spout racist remarks. The media would cover that aspect in a second.)

And here's one for people to think about (take or leave it): Extreme Nuthuggers have the potential to **** **** up. For example, say there's a great fight and people talk about it. A nuthugger (who acts as a part-time hater) will descredit one of the fighters because of their sick devotion to their own fighter. They could possibly convince casual fans that a great victory was "easy" or "over rated." They could influence somebody that doesn't really follow boxing to think that match-ups are unfair or not competitive.