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With the news this week of GBP seeming to be trying to put all of boxing under the GBP banner. It got me thinking.
I have always felt that, in the right hands of course, boxing could benifit by being controlled by one governing body.
My question to you is, if lets say this happens. What changes would you like to see made to make boxing more popular and to bring the sport back to being the biggest in the world, as it was in the 70's and 80's.
There has to be a way of doing away with alphabet straps and having one world title in each weight.
Having all those different titles alienates the casual fan. Maybe spending some cash promoting the 'Ring title' for instance could be the answer. This could be done by making it a more visual title, fighters mentioning it in interviews, having papers covering fights mentioning it more and making casual fans aware of its importance.
Smaller gloves, or at least scrapping plans to make gloves bigger.
I think that bigger and heavier gloves will lead to more head concussion injuries and tragedies. It will also significantly reduce the number of KO's in a fight (think how hard it is to KO someone wearing 16oz'ers). In a perverse way, more knockouts will make the sport safer. The fights last a shorter time, so the fighter receives less concussive blows. As Freddie Pacheco said to Larry Holmes "Nobody gets hurt by taking someone out in the 1st round"
As a result, as fans, not only are the fighters safer but the fights are more exciting. More KO's means more fan interest too. I also think we would see less Klitschko-ibragimov type fights as the risk in each shot would be greater.
The Mayweather, DLH, Hatton type purses needn't be as high. It creates a bottleneck type system in the sport which exists at the moment, where there is only a select few making the really big money. The sport cant sustain these kind of figures at the moment. Money needs to be pumped into the grassroots of the game. Pay grassroots coaches a wage of some sort. Build acadamies and centres of excellence. I am concerned, because when the current crop of stars retire (a fair few of them this year) I cant see where the next group is coming from
Cards need to be the event rather than the one fight in the Main event
Making a bigger deal of undercards and making the undercards a bigger deal opens the publics eyes to up and comers and dispels the problem I talked about at the end of my last point. In fairness GBP undercards are usually pretty good so it seems they are on top of this. The UFC does this very well and fans sometimes have more interest in one of the undercard fights than the main event
I also would work harder on marketing. A mate of mine picked up a Boxing magazine of mine recently and pointed of a one page advertisment for HBO. It was an awesome picture of Cotto in sepia tone against a black backround with the caption HE IS COMING...
Awesome promo shot, but these need to be sold to national newspapers, not boxing magazines, whose readers are already aware of who Cotto is.
The public relates differantly to fighters than other athletes. Everyone can relate to boxing. If you are squared up to in a bar, you are not thinking "I can throw/kick a football further than this guy" you are thinking "Can I beat his ass" . The public are hungry for ferocious good fighters and it sickens me that Joe Public does not know who Cotto for example is!
I've got more to say but I'll see what people say
I have always felt that, in the right hands of course, boxing could benifit by being controlled by one governing body.
My question to you is, if lets say this happens. What changes would you like to see made to make boxing more popular and to bring the sport back to being the biggest in the world, as it was in the 70's and 80's.
There has to be a way of doing away with alphabet straps and having one world title in each weight.
Having all those different titles alienates the casual fan. Maybe spending some cash promoting the 'Ring title' for instance could be the answer. This could be done by making it a more visual title, fighters mentioning it in interviews, having papers covering fights mentioning it more and making casual fans aware of its importance.
Smaller gloves, or at least scrapping plans to make gloves bigger.
I think that bigger and heavier gloves will lead to more head concussion injuries and tragedies. It will also significantly reduce the number of KO's in a fight (think how hard it is to KO someone wearing 16oz'ers). In a perverse way, more knockouts will make the sport safer. The fights last a shorter time, so the fighter receives less concussive blows. As Freddie Pacheco said to Larry Holmes "Nobody gets hurt by taking someone out in the 1st round"
As a result, as fans, not only are the fighters safer but the fights are more exciting. More KO's means more fan interest too. I also think we would see less Klitschko-ibragimov type fights as the risk in each shot would be greater.
The Mayweather, DLH, Hatton type purses needn't be as high. It creates a bottleneck type system in the sport which exists at the moment, where there is only a select few making the really big money. The sport cant sustain these kind of figures at the moment. Money needs to be pumped into the grassroots of the game. Pay grassroots coaches a wage of some sort. Build acadamies and centres of excellence. I am concerned, because when the current crop of stars retire (a fair few of them this year) I cant see where the next group is coming from
Cards need to be the event rather than the one fight in the Main event
Making a bigger deal of undercards and making the undercards a bigger deal opens the publics eyes to up and comers and dispels the problem I talked about at the end of my last point. In fairness GBP undercards are usually pretty good so it seems they are on top of this. The UFC does this very well and fans sometimes have more interest in one of the undercard fights than the main event
I also would work harder on marketing. A mate of mine picked up a Boxing magazine of mine recently and pointed of a one page advertisment for HBO. It was an awesome picture of Cotto in sepia tone against a black backround with the caption HE IS COMING...
Awesome promo shot, but these need to be sold to national newspapers, not boxing magazines, whose readers are already aware of who Cotto is.
The public relates differantly to fighters than other athletes. Everyone can relate to boxing. If you are squared up to in a bar, you are not thinking "I can throw/kick a football further than this guy" you are thinking "Can I beat his ass" . The public are hungry for ferocious good fighters and it sickens me that Joe Public does not know who Cotto for example is!
I've got more to say but I'll see what people say
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