Boxing: The Best Show You're Not Watching

[BIGPOPPAPUMP]

By Jake Donovan - At least once per year, TV Guide and various entertainment magazines often run a list of the best 5 or 10 shows you're not watching. I pay attention to these things only because my all-time favorite show "The Wire" is always on such lists.

If ticket sales in Rosemont, IL and Hidalgo, TX last weekend are any indication, then it's apparent that my all-time favorite sport deserves a spot near the top of the list as well.

While Major League Baseball spent last weekend registering one milestone after another, boxing was busy offering Fight of the Year candidates in the aforementioned locations. The 9,735 on hand at the Allstate Arena in Rosemont, IL believed they witnessed something along the line of the year's best fight when David Diaz barely outlasted Erik Morales in their punishing twelve-round battle. [details]

[Verstyle]

I aint reading all what he said. But if they dont have consistent kos that are ko of the year worthy all the time.Then casual fans wont give a ****. And of course this doesnt happen.

[deliveryman]

I aint reading all what he said. But if they dont have consistent kos that are ko of the year worthy all the time.Then casual fans wont give a ****. And of course this doesnt happen.

Do you read anything?

Do you even know how to read?

[Verstyle]

Do you read anything?

Do you even know how to read?

Oh God.........

[juggernautburn]

Do you read anything?

Do you even know how to read?

deliveryman, do you know how to read?

[neils7147933]

He left out that 14,000 plus came to Allstate Arena for the card with Valuev-Barrett, Adamek-Briggs II, & Campbell-Zegan, with a number of Polish fans in attendance again. It's too bad Briggs didn't win the second fight (he did on my scorecard) so that the rubbermatch could be a BAD live from Chicago...

[Kball15]

PEOPLE DONT WATCH BOXING CAUSE THEY DONT KNOW THERES A GOOD FIGHT HAPPENING!!!! THEY DONT KNOW NAMES!!!!

Monday Morning on June 11th and i went to work to talk about the big Judah-Cotto fight i attented two nights earlier.

First i was a bit taken back by the fact that not a single soul watched the fight, but what oddly eased the pain was the fact that every single one of them admitted that they had no clue a fight had occured.

I told them it sold out madison square garden, and they ask me, "Boxing did?"

I had to show them pictures and mini video clips i took on my digital camera to show them how insane it was.

I brought in my co-worker/friend that was with me at the fight. He was not a boxing fan prior to it, but after calling it the single greatest event (ignoring the fight itself) he'd ever been to, he became one.

And then it struck me that nobody is watching good fights, because they are not aware that a fight is even taking place!!!

FACT: Every fight featured on Sportscenter does much better in the ratings, the PPV sales, everything. Why? Cause it reaches your everyman sportsfan.

HBO fights cannot hit a large audience by just advertising in between shows. Nobody stays for that anyway. And its much smaller amount of people then those who watch Sportcenter.

ISRAEL VAZQUEZ vs RAFAEL MARQUEZ II was the perfect example. A near half empty arena showed up! I just read an article that said the promoters were not to blame. I disagree. I think Promoters are NOT using anywhere near all the resources available to them.

Why not pay a little money to have a ADVERTISEMENT video featured on YOUTUBE. Or a Banner at the top of its page. UFC does it and it works very well for them.

Why not pay the ESPN people to do a segment on the fight? Surely a 20 minute segment on Sportscenter, replayed everyday throughout the week leading up the fight, will do more good then an 11 city press tour that only fans aware of the fight will attend?

Why not pay Busses in the town the fight is taking place in, to sport Logos of the fight on there sides? Surely ticket sales would go up, and how much could it cost?

Why not hold outdoor workouts and press conferences days before the fight to boost ticket sales? They did it for Cotto-Judah, and considering the masses of people that arrived for the outdoor events AND the sold out arena, it was a massive success.

Why not pay Sports Radio stations to mention the fight? Not just have it in the ad section that nobody listens to, but actually have the hosts give the fight a quick shoutout before the commercial breaks?

Why not pay ESPN.com and YAHOO.com to feature the fight on their front page the day before and the day of the fight? Surely it can't cost to much, and the results would great?

Hell, Why not do all of that for a fight that promises to live up to every bit of hype. Like Vazquez-Marquez III, or Pavlik-Taylor, or Cotto-Mosley?

If more people know that there is a fight that will give them the thrills that no other sport can, SURELY they would tune in?

Unfotunetly nobody even knows when there is a good fight on, let alone one they may remember for years, and maybe will brag to there children that they saw it live!

[snake]

Boxing needs to stop crying "racism" when a ppv fails or no one watches a fight. Athletes like Mike Tyson, Evander Holyfield, Michael Jordan, Larry Bird, Magic Johnson, they were crossover stars with fans from all walks of life. It is the athlete, not the skin color, that determines if people watch or not. Did the racist Gringos have problems watching Roberto Duran or Chavez fight? Maybe boxing needs to look at what the sport itself is doing wrong before pointing fingers at the white devils. Do not bawl and whine "racism" when corrupt sanctioning bodies and boxing promoters have driven boxing into the dirt with their greed. Want to blame someone, blame the Alphabets and promoters, don't cry like a kid about racism. Why is boxing the only sport that constantly whines racism all the damn time when a fight fails to sell?

Was it the BET audience that accounted for the 1 million+ ppv buys that Evander Holyfield vs. Mike Tyson II netted? Who bought the 2 million+ ppv's to watch a hispanic and black man fight in Oscar vs. PBF? Was it the racist gringos that bought all those?

But all sarcasm aside - what can be expected when 2 million people (including racist gringos) buy a ppv with not a white man on the card, and for their fifty bucks they got a white collar sparring session between two businessmen which was about on par with what we saw in New York's white collar amateur fights? When all eyes were on boxing, imagine if the fight was like how Pavlik-Miranda went, all action and a KO?

Boxing wants to blame anything and everything except for itself.

[neils7147933]

Good posts, kball and snake. Karma when I can... I've noticed folks I work with who aren't even boxing fans who know that I am one will know when there is a fight on Fox Sports Net because they watch Best Damn Sports Show Period and will ask me about it. BDSSP will bring the fighters on as guests.

Top Rank has that show on VS. How about a nearly immediate replay of a big PPV? Like within the month...

Is it because promoters/networks/fighters argue over rights that we don't see DVD releases of boxing cards? How about promoters having ******* pages? How about getting these world champions on Jay Leno and Conan O'Brien?

And with the "their people aren't represented" argument, that's ridiculous. Boxing fans shouldn't tend to be racist, just because of the diversity of the fighters (obviously we have examples against that on the board, though lol). My first live fight was during the Indianapolis Black Expo and I've attended fights at the Aragon Ballroom in Chicago and Allstate Arena in Rosemont where the majority of the audience was Hispanic American and didn't really think much of it - we're there to watch boxing, and regardless of age, sex, race, etc. attendees to a live event from what I observed don't care who you are - if you're willing to listen or engage in conversation, it adds to the atmosphere...