Boxing is too inconsistant to be a mainstream sport.

[MJ406]

It has seriously become a frustrating sport to be a fan of!

It's hard to be mainstream when all of your important fights are on pay channels.

agreed, hell your not even talking about the PPV fights, but true HBO and Showtime do show a good portion of the fights that are not on ESPN, telemundo, Versus or PPV.

heck this came up on here already, but I'll agree with the original post as Pavlik-Hopkins isn't a fight that I care for all that match, considering it is at a catchweight and on PPV.

*and I didn't know PPV costs reached $60 yet, I thought the highest they got to was $54.95. (am I forgetting High Def costing more?)

[Spiegelo]

Man cmon, this has been a ****ing amazing year in boxing. We had Pac-Marquez, Vazquez-Marquez, Cotto-Margs, Katsidis-Cas, Campbell-Diaz, Pac-Diaz, and plenty less mainstream fights that ended up being classics. We still got an amazing 2nd half to come. Amazing lightweight champion matchups, unsettled welterweight rematches to come, plus the unlimited potential from up and coming fighters like Juanma Lopez, Linares, and Gamboa.

[MJ406]

the first half of the year was strong ... agreed with the Pacquiao vs Marquez and Cotto vs Margarito fights being 2 of the bigger, plus the ones you named

but as it sits right now

Katsidis vs Diaz
Campbell vs Guzman
Andrade vs Bute
Taylor vs Lacy
and Hatton vs Malignaggi

is all im looking forward to. the Pavlik-Hopkins and potential DLH-Pacquiao fights are real downers IMO that kinda "kill the momentum"

heck look how long this Oscar fight has been dragged out .. when'll he announce an opponent, the middle of October?

[deevel79]

Even now, we spend 6 months talking about a potential fight that "might" happen sometime late next year. Its kind've pathetic.

[deevel79]

Not to mention most of the up and coming fighters who want that golden ticket fight so they fight bums for 30 or so fights until/and or if they get the shot. Boxing should be fought in an elimination tournament style.

If this were the case, it would be the most popular sport on earth!

[jessielinkin]

I don’t totally agree that boxing can’t be mainstream because it’s inconsistent. Plenty of sports have weird judging or unpredictable results and they still draw huge audiences. Look at cricket in India for example—people still follow every match like crazy even with controversial decisions. And the betting culture around it proves how massive the audience is. Platforms and comparison guides like https://topbettingapps.org/ipl-betting-apps/ show just how big the IPL betting market is here. That site reviews IPL betting apps in India, testing real deposits in INR and withdrawals through UPI while placing live bets during matches. If fans care enough to bet every game, the sport is clearly mainstream.

[elfag]

Boxing fans forget why a fight like Jake Paul vs Tyson was so appealing in the first place to the general public: they actually know who the two fighters are

With boxers only fighting twice a year it would take several years before someone is converted to a full fan and actually feels like they know who these people even are

And boxing is so scattered across multiple platforms it's not like old days with only showtime and HBO and they used to do those 24/7 high production mininseries that told you about the fighters lives so you actually care who wins or loses

[elfag]

why does everybody fight 1 or 2 times a year now? do they not know how short a boxing career can be? well at least a prime boxing career. nobody wants to be great nomore? then you got oldtimers like bernard and roy who are regreting not being busier early on in their careers.

The pay varies so wildly

If you fought 4 times a year but had 2 losses you will probably make less than fighting 2 times a year against carefully matched opponents. They are super afraid of their pay going down after a loss. For some reason it's such a big deal, it didn't use to be in the old days and its not in the UFC

[elfag]

I'm concerned dana white will eventually get his way, especially with him hiring lobbyists to change the ali act and his alignment with the saudis

He will probably pay the first few guys well and once he gets control of the sport then pay will drop dramatically

Outside of pay we seen his behavior in the past look at he whole mighty mouse situation where he intentionally under promoted one of his top 5 most skilled fighters and openly said he wanted to shut down that weight division that is the kind of **** you get with a monopoly

Look at his current strategy he seems to be trying to take over the cruiserweight division, it's an easy target and he can do it pretty cheaply as the top 10 really aren't getting paid much there. Benavidez is the biggest draw there and he ain't even fought there yet. Dana could easily sign most of the top 12 fighters over pay them and own the entire division

[RockyKO]

It's going be difficult for boxing to become mainstream when most sports fans don't know what DAZN is and aren't aware that Prime video has boxing. I've said this before and boxing really does have an exposure problem. This is why it's vital that Top Rank goes back to espn because at least then people will see it. PPVs should be about $25 -$50 not $75 or $79.99 most people can't afford that.

I agree that we aren't getting the big fights. Even my normie friends paid for the Pacquiao - Mayweather fight about 10 years ago. When boxing gets the BIG fights then everyone will notice. Unfortunately, Crawford would have to come back for it to fruition.