<<<<<Marketing and the fall of Boxing>>>>>

[Guest]

Boxing is doing good for an underground sport.

Some fighters still make millions and even the midgets can clear 100k in a fight.

Sure it could be more popular, but I am relatively pleased.
To me it's not like the 80's or 90's when you'd see closed circuit fights on a Monday and a loaded undercard on a PPV, but then what sport really is?

And the good thing is, now because of the internet we can now watch fights we could only dream of seeing back then.

Back then it was a VHS tape sent through the mail from a fellow fan in a foreign land.

[Equilibrium]

Pay per view. If boxing was show on network television people would follow boxing a lot more than they do now. Nobody wants to pay 50$ for 1-2 weak undercard fights and a potentially short/boring main event.

Only the biggest fans buy the ppv, and even then, i have been following boxing all my life and spending 50$ on fights i dont really want to see is something i dont want to do.

I know a couple of other places do it, but here in canada they show most of the popular local fighters for free on tv, Diaconnu, Molitor, Demers, Lucian Bute, ect ect. And boxing hasnever been more popular over here.

[KingArthur]

Boxing is doing good for an underground sport.

Some fighters still make millions and even the midgets can clear 100k in a fight.

Sure it could be more popular, but I am relatively pleased.
To me it's not like the 80's or 90's when you'd see closed circuit fights on a Monday and a loaded undercard on a PPV, but then what sport really is?
And the good thing is, now because of the internet we can now watch fights we could only dream of seeing back then.

Back then it was a VHS tape sent through the mail from a fellow fan in a foreign land.

I believe a bunch of sports have grown since the 80's and 90's.
The NFL, College Football, College basketball, and the UFC. I know the UFC got a little popular in the late 90's but what it has grown 10x's as popular right now

[Soda Popinski]

I believe a bunch of sports have grown since the 80's and 90's.
The NFL, College Football, College basketball, and the UFC. I know the UFC got a little popular in the late 90's but what it has grown 10x's as popular right now

And what has been the catalyst for the dramatic popularity increase has been the reality series on SpykeTV. Now granted it's a reality show, but they show at least one fight every single week, and the finalists compete in a full fledged UFC event that's free on Spyke as well. Increasing access to the sport has helped the UFC grow by leaps and bounds. It seems like boxing is trying to do the same with The Contender (new episodes start next week ), but without structure after the show it seems like they just get thrown into the sprawling conundrum that it's become.

[Zocalo]

The problem has always been the downfall of the heavyweight division and the movement towards Casinos. It used to be that boxing was an event and now it is just something that Casinos buy up to give to their high rollers to get comped.

It also don't help that you have to pay significantly to see the best fights. If boxing was shown at least once every three months on a network TV, I would venture to say that its popularity would expolde, but no network is interested in seeing a Kim like event on national tv.

[Allucard]

I often sit and ask myself why, why does the sport I love fail to attract the audience (and the revenue that comes with it) other sports attract? Why does Boxing no longer have the following it once had? I began to think it was a generation situation, where the current generation much rather see a 5 minute toe-to-toe, barbaric brawl (I’m referring to the UFC) with much more enthusiasm rather than a 12 round tactical battle. I quickly realized that not all UFC (which is our sports biggest competition) fights are only five minutes long as well as action packed and not every boxing match is a 12 round jab-fest which is oh so painful to watch. I than came to realization that the masterful marketing job done by the UFC has creating this fantasy. This belief that every single UFC fight is a must see because we just don’t know what will happen or when and how it will end and ONLY the UFC can offer that. That belief and fantasy is just that…….a fantasy. Boxing offers the same atmosphere and situation, it just hasn’t been marketed as such.

When it comes to mainstream Boxing offers a couple of superstars. Oscar De La Hoya and Floyd Mayweather fought and the world watched. That fight was mainstream and it broke PPV records as well as gate records, this was boxings chance to show the world what our sports is made of and it struck out. We showed the world a boring, 12 rounds of jabbing and moving, minimal action fight. Now I want you to imagine if the same audience that come out and watched the Oscar De La Hoya vs. Floyd Mayweather fight came out and watched the Margarito vs. Cotto fight or the Mijares vs. Darchinyan fight or any one of the Marquez vs. Vasquez fights, how would they view the sport of boxing? If anything Boxing would become a mainstream sport again because viewer would see its real value. Everything involved in a boxing fight, whether it be training for the fight or fighting the actual fight, is viewed by me as one of the hardest things in this entire world. Jim Lampley had a great quote during Morales vs. Paquiao where he said “There's nowhere else in sports you'll find greater passion, greater courage, greater sheer guts than what this guys are showing you, this is boxing at its best” and yes indeed it was boxing at it’s best, only if our audience was large enough to see exactly what Boxing has to offer. Frank Bruno once said “Boxing is just show business with blood” except boxing needs to put those two back together for right now, Boxing is EITHER show business or blood.

The thing about mma (UFC IS NOT A SPORT LIKE WBC DOES NOT MEAN "BOXING") is there is true competition there, no fights have announced winners due to the nature of the sport and the good competition driven matchmaking. For announced winners and "make me look good" types of fights people have the WWE and Boxing, sad to say. Everyone and their mother is a ATG or an "hall of famer". The p4p number 2 guy in boxing has beaten NO ONE for 12 years or so, beats 2 over 40 fighters and calls himself a ATG. Fighter in boxing don't need to face the champions, they can be ATG fighters in a parallel road, and people are ok with it. I don't like most people involved in boxing because they are hypocrites in that way. For me it should be only one ORG and only one belt for each division. That would fix it but it ain't happening, because everyone wants to have their "champion" you know what i mean? They could care less if he's a product or the real deal. Example: the Germans loved Sven Ottke he he was the champion in their eyes, unbeaten = unbeatable for them and mass confusion was generated around the world. This drive sport fans away and only bloodthirsty fanatics, all types of haters and old school true fans have remained. If you take notice you have all these in NBS.

[Pullcounter]

I often sit and ask myself why, why does the sport I love fail to attract the audience (and the revenue that comes with it) other sports attract? Why does Boxing no longer have the following it once had? I began to think it was a generation situation, where the current generation much rather see a 5 minute toe-to-toe, barbaric brawl (I’m referring to the UFC) with much more enthusiasm rather than a 12 round tactical battle. I quickly realized that not all UFC (which is our sports biggest competition) fights are only five minutes long as well as action packed and not every boxing match is a 12 round jab-fest which is oh so painful to watch. I than came to realization that the masterful marketing job done by the UFC has creating this fantasy. This belief that every single UFC fight is a must see because we just don’t know what will happen or when and how it will end and ONLY the UFC can offer that. That belief and fantasy is just that…….a fantasy. Boxing offers the same atmosphere and situation, it just hasn’t been marketed as such.

When it comes to mainstream Boxing offers a couple of superstars. Oscar De La Hoya and Floyd Mayweather fought and the world watched. That fight was mainstream and it broke PPV records as well as gate records, this was boxings chance to show the world what our sports is made of and it struck out. We showed the world a boring, 12 rounds of jabbing and moving, minimal action fight. Now I want you to imagine if the same audience that come out and watched the Oscar De La Hoya vs. Floyd Mayweather fight came out and watched the Margarito vs. Cotto fight or the Mijares vs. Darchinyan fight or any one of the Marquez vs. Vasquez fights, how would they view the sport of boxing? If anything Boxing would become a mainstream sport again because viewer would see its real value. Everything involved in a boxing fight, whether it be training for the fight or fighting the actual fight, is viewed by me as one of the hardest things in this entire world. Jim Lampley had a great quote during Morales vs. Paquiao where he said “There's nowhere else in sports you'll find greater passion, greater courage, greater sheer guts than what this guys are showing you, this is boxing at its best” and yes indeed it was boxing at it’s best, only if our audience was large enough to see exactly what Boxing has to offer. Frank Bruno once said “Boxing is just show business with blood” except boxing needs to put those two back together for right now, Boxing is EITHER show business or blood.

marketing is the problem. when there is no single boxing entity to deal with, promoters simply rely on marketing fights along ethnic, nationalistic lines... its never about a great fight, and its always about rivalries.

[KingArthur]

marketing is the problem. when there is no single boxing entity to deal with, promoters simply rely on marketing fights along ethnic, nationalistic lines... its never about a great fight, and its always about rivalries.

Like I said it USED to be "Show business with Blood" now its either only Show Business (ie "The Dream Match" DLH vs Pacquaio) or Blood (Margarito v Cotto, Marquez v Vasquez, Mijares v Darchi) We need to put those "Blood" type battles on our big stage and turn those ATG Battles into our show business

[Pullcounter]

yeah, but there's lots of blood type fights that are not fought on the elite level.

[KingArthur]

yeah, but there's lots of blood type fights that are not fought on the elite level.

exactly and IF we as hardcore boxing fans do not dig to find the fight, whether it be some kind of internet stream or etc., even WE dont get to see those fights