Are PPVS ruining boxing?

It's all been said in this thread. Fighters, especially the heavyweight champ, were once very popular athletes. The heavyweight champ was the most popular athlete in the world. Now, the average person has never heard of the Kshitko brothers. Muhammad Ali was a phenomenon who had crossover fans. People heard of Tyson and he was champ as the sport went into decline. Ironically, Tyson could demand big PPV dollars and this reduced the overall number of viewers (as compared to fights on free broadcast TV). Pretty soon, there were NO fights on network TV. This was the end result of the big PPV's. Why would a fighter go on free TV for small purses when they can get PPV dollars? Networks couldn't get the interesting fights, so they cut and run. Only diehard boxing fans pay for PPV's. The casual fan may be able to see a PPV fight at a friends house. How the heck are young fans going to get excited about this sport? PPV's are good for the few fighters than can generate a PPV audience. Guys like DLH can generate huge $'s for themselves. PPV's are bad for the long term health of the sport. If it wasn't for ESPN and Fox showing fights, the sport would be in terminal decline. Eventually a better compromise will be reached. I say that because there is still huge money involved, and it's in nobodys interest to see the pie keep getting smaller and smaller. When the old fossils are out of the way (Don King, Bob Arum, etc.) the younger crowd may be able to see the bigger picture and work to enlarge the pie. Getting back on network TV is a MUST. The elite fighters need to fight more often and for less per fight, still making the $'s when it's all added up. I'm not sure that the fighters themselves can see that the current trend is going to put them below Ultimate Fighting and clones before long. There is no strong single commission to chart a prosperous future for boxing (as there is for the NBA, NFL, Nascar, ...). I hate to see where boxing is heading, 'cuase I love it.

As a fan of course nobody would prefer the way it is now, that every good fight costs 50$ to the way it used to be when all boxing was free on network televisoin.

I dont know why you people talk so much smack on King sure he might run the heavyweight division but as putrid as it is none of the fighters are stand outs. Also King brings the best ppv cards around if you go to a Don King card you are going at a fair price and going to see a card stacked with world titles. Don King has ruined nothing it is the west coast promoters who feed the latino garbage to every mexican fan with a pulse and that is sickening.

Don King isn't "runing" boxing... he spoiled it many years ago. PPV's aren't as large of a problem as getting fights in general are. There are a handful of great fights a year at best. THat simply isn't enough to grab the attention of random sport's fans who want entertainment. I agree with that... maybe if there was more activity they wouldnt make a small fight so BIG

Don King isn't "runing" boxing... he spoiled it many years ago. PPV's aren't as large of a problem as getting fights in general are. There are a handful of great fights a year at best. THat simply isn't enough to grab the attention of random sport's fans who want entertainment.

The only recent ppvs that were worth the money were Barrera-Morales III Pacquiao-Morales Trinidad-Mayorga Delahoya-Hopkins wasnt supposed to be exciting but it was a BIG fight so I don't blame them...

Don King is ruining boxing!

true, the worst are early knockouts, like golota brewster, or jones tarver II, its just a waste of money

yea i agree with ppv is ruining boxing ..and plus u got to pay to watch the shit and some of the fights arent as good as u expected and u proly just wassted like 50$

ppv's are ruining boxing, attracting new fans is nearly impossible, someone who is starting to get interested in boxing is not going to pay 50 dollars for a couple matches. that is why less and less people are becoming boxing fans, because they cant see the fights

Ppv are a symptom of boxing today. In the '50's and '60's boxing was a popular as baseball. Not so today. Back in the day, fighters fought more than once a year in a trumped up over hyped match. Fighters in the day fought better competition as in, the top guys fought the top guys. Now fighters only want to fight once a year and make a killing each time. The general public has little knowledge of boxing today. There are may reasons for this. Screwy decisions, poor matches, out of shape fighters, inactive fighters etc. The public isn't aware of boxing even like it was in the '80's. EVERYONE was talking about Hagler, Hearns, Leonard etc. Too many weight divisions with 3 or 4 different "champions" in each hasn't helped either. What boxing needs is a national commission with fewer weight classes, only one champ and regularly scheduled fights. Then maybe and it's a big maybe, boxing could get a t.v. deal like baseball or football. Heck NBC gave 6 BILLION for a few years of football. Now if Don King and Bob Arum are out of the picture that would be more than enough to go around.

I do kinda agree with you that I would rather buy the fight on dvd rather than buy it on ppv....Why pay $49.99 for a fight on ppv if you can buy it for $20 or maybe even $15 to buy it on dvd....plus you can watch it over and over.. If you are paying 15-20 bucks for a fight on dvd you are getting jipped.

I do kinda agree with you that I would rather buy the fight on dvd rather than buy it on ppv....Why pay $49.99 for a fight on ppv if you can buy it for $20 or maybe even $15 to buy it on dvd....plus you can watch it over and over..

Good prospects are on Espn2 Boxing on Tues and Fri... But also that is really the main exposure for people to view boxing and espn shows a lot of shitty fights as well. If they would kick back the start time to 8 and end at 10 instead of 9 or 10 and run to almost midnight more people would be interested. Most people will tune in and see the undercard and turn the channel immediately and dont look back.

i dont think they are ruining boxing, but they are definatly hurting boxing. cmon, $50? are u TRYING to make me hate boxing? the only ppv i bought that was really worth it was morales/pacquiao. other than that one, i also saw trinidad/mayorga, gatti/mayweather, klitschko/williams, delahoya/hopkins among others on showtime. if HBO and SHOwtime are charging me $50 for every ppv, then they must really be trying to lose my faith in them.

Good prospects are on Espn2 Boxing on Tues and Fri...

People do have a chance to watch boxing but alot choose not to. I'm not a big fan of ppv but that's the way it is and the way it's going to be for a long time. If you're a boxing fan then you have to expect to pay some ppv charges. I didn't ask how long it's gonna be like that.. quit being so fucking stupid... I said all the half decent fights are going ppv now.... I asked if their ruining boxing, yes it is...a lot of people have the chance maybe if they pay $50, but what if they wanna watch it for free

It's time to switch to Pride FC ppv events :D Boxing PPV events are overated and not worth the money. Well some are but I'd say 90% of ppv's that air in a given year are bogus. I like mma but I would choose boxing over that anyday.

Yes it is killing boxing

It's time to switch to Pride FC ppv events :D Boxing PPV events are overated and not worth the money. Well some are but I'd say 90% of ppv's that air in a given year are bogus.