ESPN article. Boxing lacks black superstars.

[deanrw]

I believe the issue is due to Boxing losing popularity in North America as a whole. I'm old enough to remember the excitement it had in the 70's and 80's. It was a golden era for sure. Something then happened that started a transition. Team sports were getting more popular and marketed big time. All the television revenue followed them and all the media outlets followed the course as well.

If you look at the team sport salaries, and how they really started jumping in the 80's in an unnatural way, you will see how big business started putting their money into team sports as an investment. Boxing started receiving less and less attention. Then when you add in events such as the world series, Superbowl etc are still on free TV because they are just so hyped and marketed, while Boxing is limited to cable and PPV, you will see how little exposure boxing gets.

You now see EliteFC or whatever it is called on free TV. It will make MMA more popular, just give it time. The Arums/Don Kings of the world do not care about free TV as it cannot generate enough money for them, they just keep targeting us, instead of investing in the sport for the future.

The sport will eventually hit rock bottom, where selling a PPV will be an impossible task. It will then start to rebuild from the ashes as the new fighters will not expect huge salaries for a fight. When it does, regular TV may be able to afford to show the fights and then the rebuild can begin.

[Luciano]

They mention guys like Toney and Rahman, but not Paul Williams?? Maybe having somebody who actually comprehends boxing would help.e

[MJ406]

They mention guys like Toney and Rahman, but not Paul Williams?? Maybe having somebody who actually comprehends boxing would help.e

Toney and Rahman are much more established and more household names then Paul Williams.

who maybe a top fighter right now, but he's still relatively un known.

hell he's never headlined a PPV and has only had a handful of his fights on HBO/Showtime.

[Luciano]

Toney and Rahman are much more established and more household names then Paul Williams.

who maybe a top fighter right now, but he's still relatively un known.

hell he's never headlined a PPV and has only had a handful of his fights on HBO/Showtime.

Yeah but he's really young. The article is talking about up and coming black superstars. Paul Williams is the biggest name there is pretty much. And it doesn't even mention him. I wonder why the public doesn't know about guys like him and Berto.

[El 7 Mares]

To say that boxing is lacking black superstars is a bit misleading. Yeah, Boxing just lost Floyd Mayweather, ok and greats like Hopkins and Jones are almost out the door. What I mean is, superstars are few to begin with, and currently Boxing itself is lacking Superstars period. So the day after Oscar retires, the general medial is gonna probably say, Boxing is lacking Hispanic superstars, he's really the only one that the general public knows of. The general sports media will always report inaccurate, misleading information about our beloved sport. They don't know enough about it and only cover the large events which only happen a couple times a year. And when they do cover it, so much of the information they report is wrong, i.e., records, ages, where fighters are from, stats, etc. Screw ESPN.

[El Jesus]

I believe the issue is due to Boxing losing popularity in North America as a whole. I'm old enough to remember the excitement it had in the 70's and 80's. It was a golden era for sure. Something then happened that started a transition. Team sports were getting more popular and marketed big time. All the television revenue followed them and all the media outlets followed the course as well.

If you look at the team sport salaries, and how they really started jumping in the 80's in an unnatural way, you will see how big business started putting their money into team sports as an investment. Boxing started receiving less and less attention. Then when you add in events such as the world series, Superbowl etc are still on free TV because they are just so hyped and marketed, while Boxing is limited to cable and PPV, you will see how little exposure boxing gets.

You now see EliteFC or whatever it is called on free TV. It will make MMA more popular, just give it time. The Arums/Don Kings of the world do not care about free TV as it cannot generate enough money for them, they just keep targeting us, instead of investing in the sport for the future.

The sport will eventually hit rock bottom, where selling a PPV will be an impossible task. It will then start to rebuild from the ashes as the new fighters will not expect huge salaries for a fight. When it does, regular TV may be able to afford to show the fights and then the rebuild can begin.

This is pretty much how i see it as well.

[Da Hammer]

man i could careless how many of each type of race there is in boxing. the only thing thats important is that whoever is a pro that they bring the skill and excitement to the ring everytime they come out to fight! besides i really dont see anyone complaining that there isnt enough white NBA players or enough hispanic NFL players, etc. Sadly there will probably never be a day while we are all on this earth that nobody pays attention to the color of someones skin which really is the least important aspect of any person...

[Darkstar]

I dont buy the NFL thing. Just because Ray Lewis is big and black doesnt mean he would have the skill of a young Mike Tyson.

Also to ever said MLB is latin or whatever. MLB is 8% black, 45% Latin and 47% white.

[El Jesus]

I dont buy the NFL thing. Just because Ray Lewis is big and black doesnt mean he would have the skill of a young Mike Tyson.

Also to ever said MLB is latin or whatever. MLB is 8% black, 45% Latin and 47% white.

the thing is, blacks from latin america are not considered black, black seems to only apply to black americans, even more funny is places like dominican republic and brazil who have very large black populations would still be considered latin, even if they are black as hell.

[kayjay]

the same argument does not work in reverse cause eastern europeans have never dominated football and basketball in the first place

and lets not say the best individuals "are never black anymore". because last time i checked tiger woods and the williams sisters took a dump on two sports that were almost completely white. the nfl/nba are mostly black and the best pound for pound fighter right now is #1 cause a black man retired

Europeans beat black Americans at basketball, and have been doing so for a decade.

And there isn't more than one or two blacks among today's pound-for-pound top twenty.

Blacks did excel in sports for a long time, but those days seem to have ended a number of years ago.