or something close in the near future?
So far, I still see some talented boxers(mostly in the Lightweight and Welterweight division) in today's era that are either constantly overlooked by promoters or the promoters don't bother promoting these boxers enough for fans to be aware of. We still have many of these pointless multiple world title belts in each weight classes being shoved down our throats by corrupt and greedy sanctioning bodies and promoters, thus diminishing the meaning of what a World Champion and #1 Contender is.
On top of that, with all of these alphabet world title belts in all weight classes, many world class boxers that have only one of the alphabet world titles(WBO, WBA, IBF, WBC, etc.) in their weight class, can avoid the best available competition while the greedy promoters pimp out these boxers as the best, despite not facing the all the competition.
If only boxing can go back to only having one World title belt for each weight class(so they can force the world class boxers to actually be more competitive) and if they can find some talented heavyweights to add to that competition anytime soon, then boxing would hopefully be great again soon.
I think it can reach another golden age with the amount of investment being pumped back into the sport. DAZN is committing a billion dollars into the sport. ESPN gave Top Rank a 7 year deal and FOX just picked up the PBC. Then the sport is growing in other countries around the world. I think this can result in a boom for the sport.
Cable TV is dying, and sports seem to be the only things that still worth value. Cable networks are throwing money at boxing in order to get live viewers/sponsors while streaming services want to become the "Netflix of Sports".
It’s not impossible like if there were multiple tournaments set up like WBSS and everybody fights everybody..
But i highly doubt it due to all the politics.
I started following boxing in the late 80s and the sport has regressed alot. Im not gonna say it sucks cuz im still a hardcore but definitely it’s no the same.
This is a golden age , MOST fans dont know when their in one until a certain time period is over .
Boxing fans do one thing best and thats criticise their own sport .
I was around in the entire 90's era and the fans were calling that era dead and boring , just stupid (not as bad as this era ) ppl .
When you look back throughout boxing history most eras were not great but anyone who actually knows boxing would this . juggernaut666 I suppose you do have a point. I think one of the real reasons why many boxing fans constantly criticize this current boxing generation is because Americans/The US doesn't dominate the sport(with only a very few world class boxers coming from the US) like they used to anymore(now it's dominated mostly by Europeans in the heavier weight classes) and many boxing fans you see out on the internet and social media happen to be American.
The promoters really juiced the fans for all they had, causing the sport to lose popularity. I think there would either have to be a successful push for boxing on free TV, or a cultural change that would make it cool again. Where it sits currently, it's crippled by greedy promoters who put short term profit over the long term longevity of the sport.
No chance in the world that it'll go back to having one world title belt.
There's been a lot of fragmentation what with the multiple belts and adding all the new weight classes, but it's not all bad, and I don't think that is what has caused boxing to be what it is today. Seems to me it's in grand part a result of waning public interest, there are still excellent fights happening semi-regularly but not as many people watch them.
We all want the best to fight the best but politics gets in the way, I don't think that's a new phenomenon. And there have always been corrupt and greedy promoters.
Not sure how you define a "golden age" or if you'll ever know you are in one as it is happening, but we've had some really great fights in 2018 so far and things look promising for the rest of the year so I'll take what I can get! Not much we can do to change things.
When people think of the golden age of boxing, they think of the 1970s-1980s which is during the days of Ali, Frazier, Foreman, Duran, Leonard, Hearns, Holmes, and Hagler.
I'm sure there are plenty of other talented boxers that I may have missed out on, along with many other fights. I'm just hoping that the least boxing(as a sport) can do as of right now is concentrate more on The Ring world title belts and the lineal champions(to bring back the actual meaning of the word "Champion") and actually try to give many of these talented new generation of boxers more public exposure.
For instance, I think Mikey Garcia deserves the most credit and public exposure(in the same or similar level to Pacquiao and Mayweather) to the fans since he's pretty talented, has a good undefeated record and is actually ambitiously trying to fight the best competition available by trying to move up to Welterweight to challenge the top Welterweight fighters(Spence and Lomachenko) after he fights Richard Commey.
I'm actually enjoying this era of boxing quite a bit. I wish the divisions were a bit more consistent in terms of star power but what can you do.
The WBSS gives us great fights and we have an assortment of very talented fighters.
Bantam has a great tournament which I think will make Inoue a star.
Loma and Mikey keep embarassing their opponents.
Crawford and Spence carry the Welterweight division can make some interesting fights with the other fighters before having a big unification.
Usyk became unified and dances as well as Carlton.
I almost feel like wbss is creating another golden age oddly enough
Yeah but until the top popular fighters get involved in a tournament it doesn't really mean anything to the casual fan. You would never see Joshua, or Canelo or GGG in the WBSS.
No chance in the world that it'll go back to having one world title belt.
There's been a lot of fragmentation what with the multiple belts and adding all the new weight classes, but it's not all bad, and I don't think that is what has caused boxing to be what it is today. Seems to me it's in grand part a result of waning public interest, there are still excellent fights happening semi-regularly but not as many people watch them.
We all want the best to fight the best but politics gets in the way, I don't think that's a new phenomenon. And there have always been corrupt and greedy promoters.
Not sure how you define a "golden age" or if you'll ever know you are in one as it is happening, but we've had some really great fights in 2018 so far and things look promising for the rest of the year so I'll take what I can get! Not much we can do to change things.