Boxing's Image and perception .. and other thoughts

imagine if a pro baseball team played a high school team for most of their games. aka what calzaghe does. this is why people don't like boxing.

Personally I don't find this sport that hard to follow. You've got 4 real Champions per division (IBF,IBO,WBC,WBO), sometimes less when they fight each other and unify. I find baseball much harder to follow. yeah with that 162 game regular season things can get pretty tedious .. I can't stand pro baseball for the record and agree if your just getting into the sport yeah it's kinda hard to understand at first with all the recognized champs and etc but again this is stuff that can be looked up and found via the internet or just asking other people online all the Alphabet organizations (WBO, WBA, WBC and IBF have websites as well) so the info is readily available and Intercontinental Champ?? uh that's in Pro Wrestling. **and you can't really compare Boxing to a sport that has a set league and season such as football or baseball of course it's easier to tell in a 16 game season who the better Football teams are because they play week in week out and just about every team plays each other ... in same conference at least where boxing like you said is all across the board with it's ranking system. but that's what kinda makes the sport so exciting. nothing's really set in stone so to speak.

I know i can get confused when discussing why someone is the Interm champ, True champ Lineal Champ, Super champ Intercontenetal champ and Champion emeriutus - What chance does the public at large have!?

People who ain't diehard followers could care less about the corruption and alphabet confusion so long as it don't affect the 1 or 2 fighters they enuf about to watch. This shit affects serious fans more cuz they're up on the happenings of the sport. Casual fans don't know enuf about the sanctionin fees and cherrypickin by top fighters to have a bad opinion on it. I'd say on the whole, boxing is closer to havin no image wit mainstream America than a bad image. My pops and some cats he knows talk the back in the day talk about how much better boxing used to be, but they love it too much to quit watchin completely. I don't personally know of anybody that used to be a diehard and is waitin for 1 good reason to get excited again, tho I'm sure there's a shitload of em out there. Personally I don't find this sport that hard to follow. You've got 4 real Champions per division (IBF,IBO,WBC,WBO), sometimes less when they fight each other and unify. I find baseball much harder to follow. I personally think it is pretty damn confusing to follow as a whole. Look at the most popular sport in the world, football or rather soccer. It's generally very clear to see whose ranked where and why. Whose better than who and why, and there's often a rough consensus. That cannot be said for boxing which has worsened in that sense over the past 20 years, during which it's also become less popular. That's no coincidence if you ask me. People become obsessed with football, golf, tennis stats when they can rely on them, support there man and assess quite clearly there definite rank and place within the sport. With boxing that can't be said hence instead of easily knowing whose champion, #1, why, you have numerous different champions and ranking systems, all of which vary, multiplying views and avoiding consensus of ranking. Terrible hindrance to someone who naturally wants to follow a logical simple sport, which boxing was and could be.

Personally I don't find this sport that hard to follow. You've got 4 real Champions per division (IBF,IBO,WBC,WBO), sometimes less when they fight each other and unify. I find baseball much harder to follow.

#1 - I don't care how the image of boxing is viewed by the mainstream media, or corporate network execs. I honestly don't care how anybody, aside from myself, views this sport. #2 - I view this is as the greatest sport in existence, and at the same time, the most heartbreaking.

People who ain't diehard followers could care less about the corruption and alphabet confusion so long as it don't affect the 1 or 2 fighters they enuf about to watch. This shit affects serious fans more cuz they're up on the happenings of the sport. Casual fans don't know enuf about the sanctionin fees and cherrypickin by top fighters to have a bad opinion on it. I'd say on the whole, boxing is closer to havin no image wit mainstream America than a bad image. My pops and some cats he knows talk the back in the day talk about how much better boxing used to be, but they love it too much to quit watchin completely. I don't personally know of anybody that used to be a diehard and is waitin for 1 good reason to get excited again, tho I'm sure there's a shitload of em out there. well I just feel like combat sports in general aren't wildly popular .. at least here in states. (kind of like pro Soccer and Hockey for example ... both sports aren't terribly popular in the US) and don't underestimate the corruption/alphabet confusion factor, because yeah average casual fans might not know the whole scoop behind it, but even reading an article on champions or etc the titles are brought up .. so even a fan who watches boxing once or twice a month might not know the exact "Alphabet title standings" but I'd think they would have SOME sort of idea. and I feel that again your underestimating how much the casual fan might know/not know .. as sure they dunno the sanctioning fees but finding out that Pro Boxing has 4 recognized Champs per weight division isn't exactly classified info .. so don't you think a casual fan that's even remotely interested about unifications, title eliminators and etc? hell me myself as a casual fan, back in the day that's how I found out. seeing a photo of Bernard Hopkins as Undisputed Champ .. but holding 4 titles .. I researched it .. etc don't you think curious fans could do the exact same thing I did? and I can't say I know anybody in the real world who follows boxing, but me personally I used to be a die hard fan, but I really can't find myself getting excited for too many big fights the way I used to 2-3 years back hate to say it but I find a lot of truth to Cotto's ''shows how much boxing has fallen'' although to be less dramatic Cotto shoulda added "off" as when compared to ''back in the day'' boxing today really has fallen off so to speak. at least how I see it.

People who ain't diehard followers could care less about the corruption and alphabet confusion so long as it don't affect the 1 or 2 fighters they enuf about to watch. This shit affects serious fans more cuz they're up on the happenings of the sport. Casual fans don't know enuf about the sanctionin fees and cherrypickin by top fighters to have a bad opinion on it. I'd say on the whole, boxing is closer to havin no image wit mainstream America than a bad image. My pops and some cats he knows talk the back in the day talk about how much better boxing used to be, but they love it too much to quit watchin completely. I don't personally know of anybody that used to be a diehard and is waitin for 1 good reason to get excited again, tho I'm sure there's a shitload of em out there.

Do you guys have any idea how many people there are out there, that used to be boxing fans and would LOOOOOOOOVE to come back? Not even exaggerating there are millions out there in America. Before i die, i am going to make a boxing league ************************************************* what turned those fans off of boxing? just curious, as I find myself gradually drifting away from the sport do it man.

The world at large don't care about boxing that much anymore. Sad but true. The sport don't got a bad image, it just don't have a prominent one either. As a diehard fan, I'd obviously want everybody to watch boxing and see it as the great sport and fun entertainment it is. boxing has a HORRIBLE image of curruption and deceipt to the mainstream fan. Something that could EASILY be corrected with a national commision and league, but creating that league seems near impossible since NOBODY of note seems interested in risking some money for the greater good of the sport

if boxing had a league, like WBL (world boxing league) or something, with one champ in a division, the fanbase would grow endlessly. The sport would be MUCH easier to follow. Do you guys have any idea how many people there are out there, that used to be boxing fans and would LOOOOOOOOVE to come back? Not even exaggerating there are millions out there in America. Before i die, i am going to make a boxing league

"The world at large don't care about boxing that much anymore." yeah I'd strongly agree with this statement, I mean for some reason boxing doesn't suck the fan's interest's in .. or captivate them a great deal boxing might not have a ''bad image'' .. but I don't think the corruption, lack of 1 Universal champ and PPV's for example give the sport a positive outlook take the above example as the viewpoint of say a standard regular Sports fan if there only a casual boxing fans .. what's the need for them to order so and so vs so and so for $49.95 on PPV when they can watch football, baseball or basketball on basic cable. too bad that fight sports haven't caught on I would really like them to expand .. but there kinda hard to market .. especially if they don't play out as slugfests.

The world at large don't care about boxing that much anymore. Sad but true. The sport don't got a bad image, it just don't have a prominent one either. As a diehard fan, I'd obviously want everybody to watch boxing and see it as the great sport and fun entertainment it is.