The state of boxing in 2012, part one
By Kevin Iole, Yahoo! Sports
Dec 23, 3:40 pm EST
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Editor’s note: This is the first of a two-part feature. Read Part 2 here.
Todd duBoef likes to refer to himself as “a boxing evangelist,” an odd choice of words for a low-key man who prefers to shun the spotlight. He’s an impeccably dressed 44-year-old who looks as if he’s stepped out of a Wall Street board room. He comes from a prominent Las Vegas family and could work in virtually any business he chose. He’s not promoting boxing because he needs to do something to pay the bills.
He’s willing to stake his future, though, on the health of a business that is often shunned by the media and derided by its customers.
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As long as Floyd Mayweather is drawing nine figures when he fights, you can't truthfully say boxing is in trouble.
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He is evangelizing a sport that many say is dead, which one rival promoter terms “deathly ill” and which hasn’t been regarded as a top-tier sport for years.
Yet, the normally low-key Top Rank president displays a messianic zeal for the fight game and scoffs at a suggestion from fellow promoter Lou DiBella that boxing “is deathly ill and getting sicker by the day.”
From a global perspective, duBoef said, it has been a long time since the boxing business has been as robust. In Mexico, boxing does a booming business and the highest-rated network television program in 2011 thus far is the Manny Pacquiao-Juan Manuel Marquez fight from Nov. 12. That match did a 30.2 rating and attracted almost 40 million viewers on the free over-the-air network TV Azteca.
“It was the highest-rated program of everything for the year: The Academy Awards, the World Cup, everything,” duBoef said.
one of the most popular sports in the world based on what exactly??? The success of a select few??? Like I said originally....you're talking about less than 1% of the athletes within a sport and using them as a representation of the sport as a whole. So what if floyd and pac set ratings records??? One could just as easily point out any number of fighters that struggle to fill high school gyms despite being a world champion as proof that boxing is dying.
Are you just trying to be difficult?
Basically Soccer and Boxing reach more people than any other sport on Earth does that is what I am basing Boxing's popularity off.
one of the most popular sports in the world based on what exactly??? The success of a select few??? Like I said originally....you're talking about less than 1% of the athletes within a sport and using them as a representation of the sport as a whole. So what if floyd and pac set ratings records??? One could just as easily point out any number of fighters that struggle to fill high school gyms despite being a world champion as proof that boxing is dying.
But that's because boxing is different than all the other mainstream sports, there can only be a handful of boxing stars in one country at the same time, that's just how it works. As soon as those guys fall off, they're immediately replaced. Name me another sport besides soccer that draws as many people in as many different countries? Boxers sell out arenas in USA, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Canada, UK, Ireland, Japan, Germany, Russia, Philippines, Australia, Thailand, Denmark, Romania, Kazakhstan.
Boxing doesn't work like that, income is proportional to popularity not rankings. Doesn't change the fact that boxing is one of the most popular sports in the world which is the point of this thread.
one of the most popular sports in the world based on what exactly??? The success of a select few??? Like I said originally....you're talking about less than 1% of the athletes within a sport and using them as a representation of the sport as a whole. So what if floyd and pac set ratings records??? One could just as easily point out any number of fighters that struggle to fill high school gyms despite being a world champion as proof that boxing is dying.
Boxing is dead now though compare to before, it is what it is
examples ok?
Hagler Hearns ? in 85
MADE THE FRONT PAGE of at least half the major newspapers in the states. My uncle from the US even saved the Philadelphia news the day after the fight and it was all over the front pages
Mayweather Cotto will be lucky if they even get a section
Ali Frazier. the world stopped to watch and talk about them. School kids everyone
Benn Eubank in the UK was like 3 superbowls put together
Ali Foreman had an entire continent chanting.
Sugar Ray Tommy Hearns and Sugar Ray Hagler were not boxing matches
they were events
These days are over. Will they come again? Yes because that is how boxing usually is
it goes up it goes down etc
but it sure as hell aint the way it was now
mayweather/pacquiao can reach that level
Boxing doesn't work like that, income is proportional to popularity not rankings. Doesn't change the fact that boxing is one of the most popular sports in the world which is the point of this thread.
Thank you :headbang::headbang:
Boxing is dead now though compare to before, it is what it is
examples ok?
Hagler Hearns ? in 85
MADE THE FRONT PAGE of at least half the major newspapers in the states. My uncle from the US even saved the Philadelphia news the day after the fight and it was all over the front pages
Mayweather Cotto will be lucky if they even get a section
Ali Frazier. the world stopped to watch and talk about them. School kids everyone
Benn Eubank in the UK was like 3 superbowls put together
Ali Foreman had an entire continent chanting.
Sugar Ray Tommy Hearns and Sugar Ray Hagler were not boxing matches
they were events
These days are over. Will they come again? Yes because that is how boxing usually is
it goes up it goes down etc
but it sure as hell aint the way it was now
Pacquiao/Marquez III was the most watched fight in Mexican tv history with 43.2 million viewers.
De la hoya vs. Mayweather was the biggest PPV Event of all-time with 2.48 million PPV buys grossing over $123 million.
Rich man, poor man's game is irrelevant. Point is if the fighters in the opening article are truly representative of the success of boxing as a sport then similarly ranked fighters should enjoy similarly proportional success but its just not the case. Even within the same division. Amir khan for example would be able to draw close to 100,000 people in england while tim bradley would be lucky to sell 2 and a half tickets in his hometown even though they enjoy the same level of professional success.
Boxing doesn't work like that, income is proportional to popularity not rankings. Doesn't change the fact that boxing is one of the most popular sports in the world which is the point of this thread.
Rich man, poor man's game is irrelevant. Point is if the fighters in the opening article are truly representative of the success of boxing as a sport then similarly ranked fighters should enjoy similarly proportional success but its just not the case. Even within the same division. Amir khan for example would be able to draw close to 100,000 people in england while tim bradley would be lucky to sell 2 and a half tickets in his hometown even though they enjoy the same level of professional success.
That is exactly feeding into my point. Amir Khan has been very entreprenural in building up his fanbase while Bradley has not and therefore remains relatively unknown for now considering once he fights Pacquiao everybody will know him.
Because Boxing is much more of an entrepreneur sport unlike any other. This is a very good video discussion of Boxing that I think explains a lot of what we have talked about in this thread.
Although Boxing and Golf are both individual sports they have polar opposite participants. Boxing is a poor mans game.
Rich man, poor man's game is irrelevant. Point is if the fighters in the opening article are truly representative of the success of boxing as a sport then similarly ranked fighters should enjoy similarly proportional success but its just not the case. Even within the same division. Amir khan for example would be able to draw close to 100,000 people in england while tim bradley would be lucky to sell 2 and a half tickets in his hometown even though they enjoy the same level of professional success.
The top 100 of any other individual sport's income is going to be relatively proportional to rhe ranking. Not so in boxing.
In golf a golfer can finish an event 52nd and still take home more than elite fighters like calderon or chris john have ever made in any given fight.
Because Boxing is much more of an entrepreneur sport unlike any other. This is a very good video discussion of Boxing that I think explains a lot of what we have talked about in this thread.
Although Boxing and Golf are both individual sports they have polar opposite participants. Boxing is a poor mans game.
You can argue the same for every sport just replace boxers with teams. A lot of Boxers have a big fan base it is just regional.
Mexico- Chavez Jr., Alvarez, Morales, Arce, Juan Manuel Marquez and many others
Japan-Kameda bros, Kazuto Ioka, Toshiaki Nishioka
Germany- Klitschko brothers, Felix Sturm, Arthur Abraham, Robert Stieglitz
Philippines- Manny Pacquiao, Nonito Donaire, Mercito Gesta, Gerry Penalosa
Any individual sport is going to have just a select few enjoy enormous success because that is the point of individual sports no teammates. Golf is the same.
The top 100 of any other individual sport's income is going to be relatively proportional to rhe ranking. Not so in boxing.
In golf a golfer can finish an event 52nd and still take home more than elite fighters like calderon or chris john have ever made in any given fight.
Well that's 5 fighters that enjoy massive success. Problem is....how many boxers are there??? You're talking about less than 1% of athletes within a sport being representative of the overall success of the sport as a whole.
You can argue the same for every sport just replace boxers with teams. A lot of Boxers have a big fan base it is just regional.
Mexico- Chavez Jr., Alvarez, Morales, Arce, Juan Manuel Marquez and many others
Japan-Kameda bros, Kazuto Ioka, Toshiaki Nishioka
Germany- Klitschko brothers, Felix Sturm, Arthur Abraham, Robert Stieglitz
Philippines- Manny Pacquiao, Nonito Donaire, Mercito Gesta, Gerry Penalosa
Any individual sport is going to have just a select few enjoy enormous success because that is the point of individual sports no teammates. Golf is the same.
I agree but those global figures are truly startling and the only other sport that can do better than those is Soccer.
Well that's 5 fighters that enjoy massive success. Problem is....how many boxers are there??? You're talking about less than 1% of athletes within a sport being representative of the overall success of the sport as a whole.
Even though they're telling the truth in this case, promoters are supposed to say positive things about boxing so their opinion is always gonna be biased.
I agree but those global figures are truly startling and the only other sport that can do better than those is Soccer.
Even though they're telling the truth in this case, promoters are supposed to say positive things about boxing so their opinion is always gonna be biased.
He’s not alone in his belief in the sport’s health, despite plenty of skepticism from outsiders. Golden Boy CEO Richard Schaefer said he’s “never been more bullish” about the sport’s future. Golden Boy staged 104 shows in 2011 and Schaefer said the appetite for it has yet to be quenched.
Kathy Duva of Main Events laughed at suggestions that boxing will die once Mayweather and Pacquiao retire. The Duva family has been involved in boxing for many decades and have been one of the sport’s leading promoters for more than 35 years.
She has heard the cries of boxing’s impending doom for much of that time.
“Change the name Manny Pacquiao to Muhammad Ali and people were saying the exact same thing 30 years ago,” she said, laughing. “I can remember we were doing shows and people would say to us, ‘Why are you staying in this business? When Ali retires, it’s done.’ Well, Ali retired, and Mike Tyson retired, and Oscar retired and, guess what? Boxing is still around.”
14y ago
This article completely kills the whole "Boxing is Dead" saying | BoxingScene Community