How to get boxing back in the mainstream?

[ИATAS]

What are some ideas?
What are the reasons why boxing isn't on networks like ABC anymore? Is it strictly because of PPV and HBO/Showtime contracts? Is it purely because of money/greed?

If organizations, lets say the WBA for example, can set up mandatory matches from time to time, for example, belt holder vs. #1 contender, then whats holding them back from making a deal with lets say ABC and have mandatory fights on primetime television? They could do something like every 3rd or 4th title fight has to be non-PPV and this will still allow for the greed factor. If they did this with every weight class, you could have a championship title match just about every month.

This will allow the public to see big name, title fights for free, as well as expose unheard of names and create new stars. I'm sure you could still rank in a lot of cash with sponsors, advertising.

This would make the entire sport grow tremendously.

I don't fully understand why the various boxing organizations fail to see the big picture. Boxing could really be huge again if it were brought to the masses.

Thoughts?

[gigogreco]

its mission impossible..

the thing is, that we as people want to be entertained..

the sport of boxing, and sport in general isnt just sports its apart of tne entertainment business, and when its not that entertaining, what do people do.. they switch channel, they watch football, nfl, basketball, handball, hockey, k-1, ufc, formel 1, cycling or go to the movies and i could continue..

they all compete for the peoples attention,but in a modern society, the amount of attention is minimized.. there is alot of other things to do ot watch..

in the world of today, the options to pick and choose are just to big..

at times, we will se the same buzz surrounding pbf vs dlh, but not likely to happen anytime soon..

just to prove my point, which other fighters could give the mainstream fans such interest, which other fighters could create such hype..???

to do it reverse, we have just seen, 2 american top 5 p4p fighters in action, but it couldnt sell out the arena..

[msagrain]

have just 1 or 2 championship belts not 1000s of them

[cupcrazy01]

The big fights are on PPV because it's the only way the promoters can make a profit on those fights. Think about it, it's tough to make a profit on a card that is paying the main event guys several million dollars and even a great live gate couldn't offset that, so you have to get the money from PPV subscriptions.

Now, if boxing regained its former popularity, they could sell ads on the networks at a high price to help pay for the event, but to get back there someone has to be willing to stage a huge event like DLH-PBF on free TV and take a bath losing money for the sake of boxing. In other words, you aren't getting the mainstream attention back without going back to networks and you aren't going back to networks without losing alot of money with no guarantee that it will even work out in the end.

DLH-PBF on network TV would have done great ratings, no doubt, but where would be the next step? DLH can't fight every month...of course he fights once a year, maybe twice next year if we're lucky. Boxing just doesn't have the stars and to get the stars you have to start from scratch or take a huge plunge by putting a huge fight on free TV and hoping you can dupe advertisers into paying enough to make it worthwhile.

It can't happen in the US right now, not with the mainstream media proclaiming boxing's death at every possible moment. Imagine if DLH and PBF tested positive for roids like Sean Sherk and his opponent did. But did UFC get alot of negative press...of course not, because UFC is 'hot' and 'now'. Sheesh. If it happened in a big fight, boxing would be vilified and left for dead.

[ИATAS]

just to prove my point, which other fighters could give the mainstream fans such interest, which other fighters could create such hype..???

to do it reverse, we have just seen, 2 american top 5 p4p fighters in action, but it couldnt sell out the arena..

But don't you think this is because boxing has been long removed from mainstream television? People aren't exited about boxing because most people don't know who any fighters are, besides a few names like de la hoya, mayweather, Mike Tyson.

If boxing were on mainstream TV, people would slowly learn about fighters and become fans, and there would be more of a buzz.

Now, if boxing regained its former popularity, they could sell ads on the networks at a high price to help pay for the event, but to get back there someone has to be willing to stage a huge event like DLH-PBF on free TV and take a bath losing money for the sake of boxing. In other words, you aren't getting the mainstream attention back without going back to networks and you aren't going back to networks without losing alot of money with no guarantee that it will even work out in the end.

This is where my idea would come in - mandatory fights on mainstream television. This will still allow for PPV matches so big name fighters could still make big paychecks, only the difference is every 3rd or 4th title fight is must be on mainstream network, like ABC or something.

The thing is though, in the long run it would allow for boxers to make more money because more people would be interested in boxing again.

[cupcrazy01]

If boxing were on mainstream TV, people would slowly learn about fighters and become fans, and there would be more of a buzz.



This is where my idea would come in - mandatory fights on mainstream television. This will still allow for PPV matches so big name fighters could still make big paychecks, only the difference is every 3rd or 4th title fight is must be on mainstream network, like ABC or something.

The thing is though, in the long run it would allow for boxers to make more money because more people would be interested in boxing again.

I agree but no fighter is going to fight a serious, competitive fight without major compensation, and they wouldn't be able to get that fighting on network TV unless their promoter is willing to eat a big loss, and we all know there is no promoter out there who is going to throw millions into a very, very risky investment. There is no guarantee that even if you put Taylor-Pavlik, Cotto-Mosley and Hatton-Mayweather all on network TV that boxing would be back even close to where it was...and of course that would be a best-case scenario, huge fights with big stakes on free TV.

Would it be healthier? Of course, but it would not be competing with the big three professional sports leagues in the US.

[cupcrazy01]

BTW--Props to Joe DeGuardia for attempting to put Tarver-Muriqi on ABC before that deal fell through. He was going to buy the air time from ABC and sell ads himself...this seems like the only realistic way for relevant fights to get back on free TV...and hopefully another promoter tries this soon with a good fight.

[Spontaneous]

It can't happen in the US right now, not with the mainstream media proclaiming boxing's death at every possible moment. Imagine if DLH and PBF tested positive for roids like Sean Sherk and his opponent did. But did UFC get alot of negative press...of course not, because UFC is 'hot' and 'now'. Sheesh. If it happened in a big fight, boxing would be vilified and left for dead.

Why are you making an attempt to discredit the UFC? Steroid busts will never bring a sport down. Look at the NFL, MLB, NBA and every other sport that has steroid busts.

[small_warrior]

Sure in germany, fights are not so exiting like much fights in the Us. But nearly all the fights are free on free TV (Abraham, sturm, klitschkos...). So all the people can watch. and on a fight night there are so many people who watch. that's why these fighter become very popular in germany

[Steelhammer86]

The discrediting of boxers and the bitching about the "state of the heavyweight division" (when it's actually fine, just no American titleholders) should stop, it has the effect of turning people away from watching boxing.

We should hype Wlad and other current champions, the same way as we used to hype Ali and Tyson, instead of bitching and focusing on the negative.