Boxing is at an all time low

Why place so much emphasis on a fighter's ability to collect four corrupt sanctioning body belts? Quality of opposition is more important. Plus in nearly all of those so-called "undisputed" scenarios there were secondary belt holders active in the weight class, so the only thing clarified was sanctioning body greed. yeah if someone gets all the belts i will give them credit but i dont fault anyone for not being undisputed, the ABCs make it impossible and if they really dont want a guy to get all the belts they can easily do that. Crawford - striped him of a belt like 1 month after unifying and gave away his belt to Boots, congrats crawford you were undisputed champion for a month even though you never lost a fight.... Bivol - after canelo fought him for his belt at 175, told him that if he rematches Canelo at 168 that the WBC belt wont be on the line so if he wins he wouldnt be undisputed, canelo could lose and still be a champion. some lame excuse about the russia-ukraine war which has been the new excuse for ABCs to pick and choose when they wanted to make belts available. Benevidez- David is the 168 wbc mandatory but sulaimon is already making comments, excuses and plans for how canelo isnt going to be striped for not fighting david and is trying to get him up to 175 to go fight for that belt.

atleast we are getting unification fights. there was a long time where 175 was just roy jones fighting bums. there wasnt anyone there who could challenge him it was a weak division. and him and hopkins would argue about split for the rematch for almost 20 years. then 168 was usually pretty weak and filled with eurobums. calzaghe era was him vs the eurobums, post calzaghe they had super 6 then ward fought 1 bum a year for 5 years. so canelos run unifying the division in a year before he pussied out against david was cool. then early 2000s when don king still had power him and lennox would not do business because he always wanted to get lennox under a multi fight deal to face a bum like john ruiz and lennox wasnt falling for that nonsense, so the titles were split and lennox would never unify with a ruiz or byrd, when he dominated that era and could have been undisputed but all the boxing politics gets in the way.

Well we have the face of the sport canelo refusing to defend against the best opponents in his weightclass the heavyweights turning the division into a joke, fury being yhe worst culprit Social media crybabies like garcia and shakur throeing their toys out of the pram. The best rarely fighting the best Charlo is ment to be the best at middle but gets to avoid defending his belt for over 2 years Wbc silly belts, wba secondary belts. Could list more to be honest, some of the eastern europeans like usyk , bivol and beterbiev seem to be doing the sport justice as are some of the asian fighters like nakatani and inoue. But even those guys probably are too inactive The sports definitely seen better days

For me, over the past five years or so the UFC has really shone a light on just how pitiful the sport of boxing has become. It feels like promoters - and boxers themselves - are mugging off the fans more so than ever. One thing I really like about the UFC is that you often end up getting to know the fighters and following their careers in a natural, organic way without even trying to simply because you remember them from previous fights. I don't read or watch any promotional material aside from when they advertise upcoming cards on a broadcast, the fights themselves do the talking. It's amazing how much more easily invested you become when everyone is matched competitively. Boxers stay inactive then blame their promoters for doing a poor job marketing them. Just get in the ring! The best promotion you can get is the self-promotion when you fight. The inactivity and all the BS it takes to get a fight on just kills it for me these days, it's really getting harder and harder to care.

the limelight/spotlight effect really affected how everything turned out I can't imagine those fighters in the 20s or 30s that fought with a couple of photographers on site And their faces are probably not even the newspapers, just their name. I think society tend to underestimate how smartphones really gave every individual a platform and how it inflated individuality. Now everyone has their side. Everyone has their story. Demands increased. The need for egos to be stroked. It really was simple before all this. Yes simple and better the 70s was a great time, it wasn't as material or as ego-driven, the internet has allowed egos to run wild like a runaway freight train, and it wasn't as easy to sell a lie in the old days as it is today, I don't know where it's all heading but it's not a good place and it is going there fast.

the 2000s lol I was in the late 60s , the internet and social media has changed the world in a very big way, back in the day you were at a bar to watch a fight and fans were present if you wanted to talk the sht they do in here you are laying down hands, your only source of boxing news came in magazines there was no youtube or blogs all spinning a narrative, this new age behaviour is all about giving every idiot a voice, most of it is so fake and plastic is evolving, fakes propagating fakes and the people today swallow it all like big mouth Bass hitting a lure, its amazing to have seen it all unfold and youth have no clue to the mess it's all in, its not just boxing its everything. the limelight/spotlight effect really affected how everything turned out I can't imagine those fighters in the 20s or 30s that fought with a couple of photographers on site And their faces are probably not even the newspapers, just their name. I think society tend to underestimate how smartphones really gave every individual a platform and how it inflated individuality. Now everyone has their side. Everyone has their story. Demands increased. The need for egos to be stroked. It really was simple before all this.

this. social media wasn't really a thing in the past. when did twitter/instagram really took off? 2015? im telling you. this new age behavior is really. just. new. many folks here who remember the entire 2000s can remember the pace of how often fighters fight. and it's just incredible relative to now. the 2000s lol I was in the late 60s , the internet and social media has changed the world in a very big way, back in the day you were at a bar to watch a fight and fans were present if you wanted to talk the sht they do in here you are laying down hands, your only source of boxing news came in magazines there was no youtube or blogs all spinning a narrative, this new age behaviour is all about giving every idiot a voice, most of it is so fake and plastic is evolving, fakes propagating fakes and the people today swallow it all like big mouth Bass hitting a lure, its amazing to have seen it all unfold and youth have no clue to the mess it's all in, its not just boxing its everything.

Ryan is a social media hype job who emphasises part of boxing's current problem. Meanwhile, a lot of the actual top fighters in terms of ability are inactive and filling that time with social media use. It's not stuck in the past to prefer activity and substance over inactivity and confected events (e.g. Fury - Ngannou). this. social media wasn't really a thing in the past. when did twitter/instagram really took off? 2015? im telling you. this new age behavior is really. just. new. many folks here who remember the entire 2000s can remember the pace of how often fighters fight. and it's just incredible relative to now.

I know this was a main story a week ago, but now when I look at 168 you see all these undefeated names, each with a claim at fighting Canelo, and yet they're all in a holding pattern trying to look pretty as they beg Canelo to pick them. We have David Benavidez leading the pack with a clear claim to fight for the WBC belt, David Morrell has emerged as a strong contender and in a similar situation as Benavidez, Mbilli is ranked #1 in the WBA, Munguia is ranked #1 in the WBC and WBO, William Scull (who?) is #1 at IBF, Diego Pacheko is green but still in the top 5 of 3 orgs, and Berlanga has the weakest claim but national rivalries gives him a bump and Charlo is also in the mix. It's crazy, 8 undefeated fighters not fighting each other, and until recently it was 9 with Andrade until Benavidez took him out of the picture. Ideally Canelo should just retire and have the orgs and everyone make a Super 8 tourney.

There's a few things working against boxing right now. 1. HBO leaving was a huge loss. Sure HBO used to pump out a lot of American hype jobs but they really helped a lot of fighters build a following, and HBO events felt like big events. ESPN feel like WCW shows if you watched wrestling in the 90s you'll know what I mean. Cheap knockoff. 2. The fact eastern euros are becoming more and more dominant. Lets be honest here these guys don't have fans, Oleksandyr Usyk doesn't have "fans" he has Tyson Fury haters, it is what it is but the majority of western audiences don't get super invested in these guys. 3. Not many exciting fighters. Probably the only exciting "name" fighter right now is Tank, that's it. Fury - boring and never fights, Usyk - boring, AJ fell off and has been boring for years, canelo, plodding and boring, Haney, boring, Shakur, boring. People want action not guarenteed 12 rounders most of these guys provide.

Fights like Tsyzu-Thurman, Cruz-Rollie and Tank-Martin will be on HBO boxing after dark undercards and now those type of fights are PPV. The main source of boxing fans are being turned away every year with this sub par product. used to be a time I would be glued to my couch watching 4-5 title fights on a Saturday night on 2 different channels and Friday nights were to see upcoming prospects make a name for themselves on ESPN against decent competition. Now I’m not that interested when I know some “mega” boxing star is fighting a worn out faded smaller fighter for millions of $$

Guess where boxing is on this list of top 20 world sports? https://sportsbrief.com/other-sports/16715-revealed-top-popular-sports-world/

Everyone has complaints, but the facts is; Boxing is red hot all over the world. It also remains the ONLY sport ever to spend more than just a few short decades as one of the top 5 professional sports in the United States, where (nearly) half the world's money is, AND outside the US, where the other half of the money lives. Soccer, Cricket, Baseball, American Football, Basketball, Hockey, Rugby, Tennis, Golf, MMA can't say that.

Last year was great tho. That Spence/Crawford fight made that year not so awful Would've been better if Spence put up a better fight or Bud fought another fight after that This year, all the fights are on social media. Boxing journalists are out of jobs because all the fights on social media 2024 gonna suck Canelo the supposed face is not fighting real fights Bud is in limbo Inoue no real opponents Tank avoiding his contemporaries

That run was crazy !! every intro Eye of the Tiger :headbang: In a span of two years from 2007 to 2009, he fought 6 fights. 5 of the 6, would end up being hall of famers. against five hall of famers in two years, in four weight classes. I will probably never see something like that again. I just looked that up to verify He would've beaten 6 hall of famers in that span if David Diaz hadn't robbed Morales (many at that time believed morales was indeed robbed) and had Pac beaten Morales in a 4th fight at lightweight Amazing...

That run was crazy !! every intro Eye of the Tiger :headbang: In a span of two years from 2007 to 2009, he fought 6 fights. 5 of the 6, would end up being hall of famers. against five hall of famers in two years, in four weight classes. I will probably never see something like that again. Man, I wish Inoue's base weight is a lil bit higher. He's chronically stuck fighting ledwaba-tier opps like the tapaleses of the world Inoue will probably only have Donaire as his hall of fame scalp.

Bro all yall in this thread are clearly stuck in the past, Boxing has been booming lately we got a lot of classic fights last year and we getting more fan wanted fights this year like Ryan vs Haney is coming up real soon. So I dont understand why everybody keep saying boxing is at a low point when its really not.

Last year was great tho.

wish Pacquiao was still active... boxing aint been the same... them 24/7 hbo boxing leading up to the fight used to lit!! Yes he is the last of the Mohicans in that regard Pacquiao's run through the divisions was a great time to be alive. That run was crazy !! every intro Eye of the Tiger :headbang: In a span of two years from 2007 to 2009, he fought 6 fights. 5 of the 6, would end up being hall of famers. against five hall of famers in two years, in four weight classes. I will probably never see something like that again.

People have short memories. We have upcoming undisputed title fights at heavyweight and. light heavyweight. We have reigning undisputed champions at super middleweight and super bantamweight. We have recently had undisputed champions at bantamweight, lightweight, super lightweight, welterweight, super welterweight, and cruiserweight. Before Crawford did it we had zero undisputed champions since 2006. We went almost a decade without one.