How often was boxing televised?

[BennyST]

I started watching boxing in the late 80s. I was wondering how often big fights were televised during the 80s, 70s, 60s, 50s, and when ppv came into effect? I have heard that in the 50s all the big fights were on every Friday night, is this true? If that is the case it would have been great for the fans.

During the 50's, 60's, 70's and 80's it was on free TV a couple of times a week all year 'round. There was a great boxing show called TV Ringside which was the main weekly boxing show and was one of the biggest weekly sporting shows in Aus for decades. My dad and his whole family (which was the norm for the majority of Aussies then) used to watch it every week. They also had smaller shows on each week too, but TV Ringside was the big one.

It was literally one of the national TV shows that was like a weekly institution during the 60's and 70's and many great fighters had great fame from that show alone. Families across Aus would all sit down and watch it every week. It died out during the 80's though with the advent of modern programming. During the 60's and 70's though there were some real classics on national free TV with some of the greatest fighters to ever lace 'em up and whole families across the country would be sitting down to watch it each week. You hear people going crazy today about the popularity of some fighters and yet there are fighters back then who were just as popular in each country with more people because whole families saw them all the time and their fights were just part of the national sporting culture in that era. The top boxing fights were seen by everyone across the country, much as Pac's fights are seen by all Filipino's today.

Carruthers, Rose, Famo etc were national sporting heroes back then and were known by face by everyone young and old. That's just in Aus and it would have been the same the world over. It's all very different today and yet people are amazed at what they consider to be something completely unique. Boxing was just ten times, and more, the size of what it is today. It will never again reach the heights of popularity, skill, national and international exposure that it had then. The numbers alone verify this as boxing gyms, trainers and registered pro boxer numbers don't even come slightly close to what they were in the 40s, 50s, 60s and 70s. I had an article which had the numbers of registered pros, gyms etc from that time to a few years (early 2000's or late 90's I think it was) and from memory it was about 14 times the amount. You had the same amount of gyms in one state then that you have in the entire country now.

They used to show all the top national contenders/championship fights as well as the major international title fights, especially one in which an Aussie was fighting someone overseas, each week. I first saw Hector Thompson fight Antonio Cervantes and Roberto Duran on that show. Also saw the Famechon/Harada and Harada/Rose fights there as well as Famo/Legra, Toweel/Carruthers etc etc.

It would be like watching Pac/Margarito on free national TV now. Pity.

[BennyST]

Yeah, WWoS was fantastic. They would have a feature on all the big events. It was great.

[jose_palooka]

''I wonder in ppv is to blame in the decline of boxing more then anything else?''

Definitely. Back in those several TV networks presented fights on a weekly basis as was discussed above. In fact, radio networks used to present matches and the narrators were quite good in describing the action. Because of this pro boxers were household names all throughout the USA. I remember when the NY Daily News would include numerous photos of weekly fights on its back pages, the sports section, and even in the center fold. This newspaper used to be the most widely circulated paper in the USA back then. Millions of people saw those photos every day - this is why boxers, like baseball players, were household names back in the day.

Then, some money grubbing SOBs decided to take boxing out of TV and to put its best shows on cable network. It may surprise you to know that NYC was probably the last major urban area to have cable TV. As a result, many people missed out on many great fights. This definitely is the reason why boxing declined in popularity compared to its glory days.

I do not have cable TV and have not watched much pro boxing in recent years. However, I now watch the sport online. So, after a gap of about 20 years I am again watching boxing and enjoying every minute of it!

[jose_palooka]

''My dad and his whole family (which was the norm for the majority of Aussies then) used to watch it every week. ''

Excellent post!

You remind me of an old friend I had many moons ago - a fellow Puerto Rican who we used to call Mike the Cheater (we often played paddleball and he was known for trying to get the edge on everyone by either cheating, whining, or bad mouthing). While Mike had a bad temper (not entirely unusual in our tribe) he was generally known for being a good husband and father. In fact, he worshiped his wife and kids and always allowed them the run of his house.

But when Saturday came along (late 70s to mid 80s) and a boxing show was on, he would change - he would stuff some money in his wife's hand, order her and the kids to get out of the house (he would say, go to a restaurant, go shopping, or go to your mother's home), take the phone off the hook, put his feet up on the coffee table, take out a six pack of beer from the fridge, and pig out on pork rinds while enjoying the fights.

Nothing, and I mean NOTHING, was to interfere as he enjoyed those fights!

This is the type of enthusiasm folks like us used to have for boxing in those days. Ah, what a time it was!!!

[Anthony342]

I can answer this question with considerable expertise as I am an old man who grew up in Brooklyn during the 50s and 60s:

On Friday nights we used to have the Gilette Friday Night Fights Sports show and the Cavalcade show that featured other sports as well as boxing. The ABC Wide World of Sports often had fights as did CBS and NBC. Many of Muhammed Ali's fights were shown LIVE. What a treat that was!!

We also had fights from Los Angeles on Telemundo which was not a cable network in the 60s. The broadcast was in Spanish but the ring announcer was legendary Jimmy Lennon.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C6cyy_rziuk

I still sing the Gillette theme to myself every once in a while.

Today, boxers are no longer household names in the USA anymore. Back then everybody knew who Muhammed Ali, Sugar Ray Robinson, Floyd Patterson, and dozens of other fighters were. That's because they were on nationwide TV every week. How I wish we had that again today!!!

Me too palooka. Me too. Oh yeah and most younger fans would know the Gilette theme too, since it was also used in the Mike Tyson's Punch Out video game relased for the Nintendo console in 1987.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wkuMP...eature=related

[Anthony342]

True, I think this explains the decline in great boxers world wide.

I also blame tha fact that there used to only be one title belt in each weight class, maybe 2 later on, so fans would get to see unification bouts. There are so many alphabet titles, most casual fans are confused as to who the real champions and best boxers truly are and mostly only the hardcore fans really know anymore. Why boxing allowed all these corrupt sanctioning bodies to take over the sport I will never really understand. It really has complicated things. Some of these mandatory challengers shouldn't be getting title shots either. Most people don't even know who the heavyweight champion is anymore.

[Anthony342]

It wasn't just ABC either. Both CBS and NBC had their own Saturday sports shows that regularly had boxing on them. Back when I was a kid you could flick on free TV on Saturdays and see the likes of Duran, Arguello, Cervantes, ect. Think about that: On any given Saturday major title fights featuring the superstars of the sport for FREE. It boggles the mind!

Poet

It does today. I remember watching some of those. I'm reminded of them too with some of the career sets I've been watching with the likes of Larry Holmes, Roy Jones and Duran. It was Ferdie Pacheco and Marv Albert on NBC and Tim Ryan and Gil Clancy on CBS right?

[StarshipTrooper]

It does today. I remember watching some of those. I'm reminded of them too with some of the career sets I've been watching with the likes of Larry Holmes, Roy Jones and Duran. It was Ferdie Pacheco and Marv Albert on NBC and Tim Ryan and Gil Clancy on CBS right?

Yep! And Howard Cosell and a microphone on ABC :grin9:

Poet

[1SILVA]

Yep! And Howard Cosell and a microphone on ABC :grin9:

Poet

Yes and after Cosell quit after the Holmes-Cobb debacle, ABC used several announcers like Al Michaels, Don Chevrier, Keith Jackson and Chris Schenkel before Jim Lampley became their lead announcer. After Lampley left for HBO, Alex Wallau, a great boxing announcer, took over and was the announcer alongside Dan Dierdorff until the demise of boxing on ABC. Their last televised fight occurred on June 17,2000, with Jose Luis Castillo winning the WBC lightweight title over Stevie Johnston.

[Anthony342]

Yep! And Howard Cosell and a microphone on ABC :grin9:

Poet

Oh yeah. Not a big Cosell fan with commentary myself. I liked his pre and post fight coverage, along with his interviews though.