Today, I was watching First Take and they were (surprise, surprise) talking about Manny. Now that is not bad if they were analyzing his fight with Rios but they weren't. Instead, they were talking about how he might run for president and how this might affect a future fight with Floyd. These guys are not fighting in the near future. Get over it. Why not cover the great card that took place last saturday or the upcoming fights between Marquez v Bradley, Pacquiao v Rios, Mayweather v Canelo, or Matthysse v Garcia? They spend whole segments talking about some college quarterback's attitude, but can't have a boxing related story that does not revolve around Mayweather AND Pacquiao. These guys are not joined at the hip, if you mention one fighter without saying the other guy's name the world will not end.
Of course, the discussion soon became a Mayweather v Pacquiao arguement. Smith mocked Manny's KO and kept repeating how Mayweather is the p4p atg. While Skip kept saying that Manny bounced up from the KO and was playing chess 30min after the fight. No actual boxing was analyzed. And their discussion sounded more like something you can read on this forum, not something you would expect from "professionals".
How can one expect the general public to care about boxing when the "analyst" shows such a lack of understanding about boxing?
(I fully expect and somewhat deserve the :bottle::bottle::bottle: )
Rant Over.
no it really wasn't. boxing was the most popular sport up until the 80's when football and basketball took over. there's tons more money in those sports now. would you rather do the most popular sport and make millions or a fringe sport like boxing or badminton?
Football was popular in the 70's and 80's. Not as popular as it is now,but to say it wasn't is ridiculous.
I would rather box than play football because I hate it and its boring as hell. Run for 6 seconds stop for 40. Repeat.
You can still make a **** ton of money boxing.
Yeah see I don't really buy the whole "all American Heavyweights are playing football"
Football was really popular back in the 70's and 80's too. I doubt all the great HW champs could have played in the NFL back then. I don't think Joe Frazier would have been able to play LB for the Steelers make an NFL roster.
no it really wasn't. boxing was the most popular sport up until the 80's when football and basketball took over. there's tons more money in those sports now. would you rather do the most popular sport and make millions or a fringe sport like boxing or badminton?
Klits aint killing the division,,, They are actually propping it up,, remember before the klits we had the god awful,, ruiz-byrd heavyweight era,,, nobody cared about the division then....
The thing that hurts Heavyweight division is american heavyweights are now going to become power forwards in the NBA or linebacker in NFL,, alot of money and stardom being in nfl or nba,,, not so much in boxing,,,,,, As boxing as drifted off TV and into premium channels and ppv, kids dont see guys when growing up,, their idols are now kobe, lebron, peyton manning, etc
in the 60's and 70's ALi was an idol to the youth
Klits at least have had major fights like the david haye, and now the poketkin,,
Not wlad's fault that haye ran scared in the biggest heavy fight in years..
Yeah see I don't really buy the whole "all American Heavyweights are playing football"
Football was really popular back in the 70's and 80's too. I doubt all the great HW champs could have played in the NFL back then. I don't think Joe Frazier would have been able to play LB for the Steelers make an NFL roster.
Espn deportes always covers boxing related topics. The reason why Hispanics own ppv numbers across the globe. ESPN regular doesn't do jack for boxing and If they do like TS said they cover non in depth analysis of the most stupidest ****.
The thing that hurts Heavyweight division is american heavyweights are now going to become power forwards in the NBA or linebacker in NFL,, alot of money and stardom being in nfl or nba,,, not so much in boxing
This is it right here.
As far as ESPN, First take is the worst show on an idiot network. ESPN programming, outside of FNF imo, is expertly tailored to appeal to the lowest common denominator of the North American male population, which is pretty ****in' low.
I guess the thing that pisses me off the most is that they act like they are avid fans/analysts. Skip always says something like, "...I know boxing because I covered the Ali v Frazier." And Smith always says "... boxing is my second love after basketball." Then they proceed to scream at each other Skip says "Floyd was scared of Manny," while Smith laughs and says, "44 have tried, 44 have failed..." And I want to throw my tv out the window.
Boxing is having one of the greatest years in a long time and no one even knows. ESPN has done a piss poor job with boxing coverage for a long time now. It only caters to casual fans.
Boxing needs to increase its availability as well. Almost all of the good fights are either on premium cable channels or PPV. It goes hand and hand. If casual fans don't watch boxing, it won't be on ESPN.
Right its all going downhill, now its even competing with gayass mma.
you forgot to add the klitkos killing boxing premier division
Klits aint killing the division,,, They are actually propping it up,, remember before the klits we had the god awful,, ruiz-byrd heavyweight era,,, nobody cared about the division then....
The thing that hurts Heavyweight division is american heavyweights are now going to become power forwards in the NBA or linebacker in NFL,, alot of money and stardom being in nfl or nba,,, not so much in boxing,,,,,, As boxing as drifted off TV and into premium channels and ppv, kids dont see guys when growing up,, their idols are now kobe, lebron, peyton manning, etc
in the 60's and 70's ALi was an idol to the youth
Klits at least have had major fights like the david haye, and now the poketkin,,
Not wlad's fault that haye ran scared in the biggest heavy fight in years..
Because ESPN focuses on casual fans and a much wider audience,,,,
Boxing has ruined itself over the last 25 years in terms of mainstream media....
Fights only being on ppv,, or premium channels.
belts all over the place,, 4 champs per division is a joke, compared to other sports
bribery, crooked judges and officials,
Bowe dodging lewis was the begining of the end for heavyweight boxing
prospects fighting bums to pad a record to 28-0
Superstars fighting cherrypicks ala roy jones
fights on regular tv being horrible, thus drawing no ratings, thus no more tv coverage
Fighters not fighting,, tito-oscar 2, manny-floyd, etc
That is why boxing gets no respect from mainstream media,,,
Boxing only has itself to blame...
Right its all going downhill, now its even competing with gayass mma.
you forgot to add the klitkos killing boxing premier division
Because ESPN focuses on casual fans and a much wider audience,,,,
Boxing has ruined itself over the last 25 years in terms of mainstream media....
Fights only being on ppv,, or premium channels.
belts all over the place,, 4 champs per division is a joke, compared to other sports
bribery, crooked judges and officials,
Bowe dodging lewis was the begining of the end for heavyweight boxing
prospects fighting bums to pad a record to 28-0
Superstars fighting cherrypicks ala roy jones
fights on regular tv being horrible, thus drawing no ratings, thus no more tv coverage
Fighters not fighting,, tito-oscar 2, manny-floyd, etc
That is why boxing gets no respect from mainstream media,,,
Boxing only has itself to blame...
Hate to say it but boxing isn't big to Americans. It gains the occasional hype but how many times have you heard whens tyson coming back from a casual trting to talk to you about boxing? I have more than 10 times in the last 2 years. I think a man would be slapped 30 years ago if the asked when's Patterson coming back.
Well First Take is not really a sports news show it is a sports gossip show where the one who yells the loudest thinks they win the debate.
That show is not good for the sports they actually know a bit about like football and basketball but for the sports they know little abut it is unbearable listening to them talk like they know the deal and boxing is probably their worst subject so yea.
the spanish espn boxing show fridays with jmm is pretty good
they talk about previous weekend result, current fight news, they hit almost all the weight ins for big fights.
I think its because the numbers show more of the target age group (18-35 yr old males) are not high on boxing.
ESPN or ESPN2 should definitely have a weekly boxing show with their #1 boxing analyst fat dan nd teddy atlas after FNF.