..How Would You Run Boxing?...

[Dorian]

Make it 13 rounds, make exciting fights that the fans actually want to see and last but not least, I would BAN Valuev.

[THe TRiNiTY]

BOXERS:
- Any boxer who was willing to be apart of the promotion would have to pass tests on physical conditioning. Once that took place, you'd sign contracts based upon what we thought you could make, the fans you'd draw in and your style of fighting. Age, and talent also being factors. The contracts would stipulate what you'd make, so long as you were making your obligations with the company run smoothly. You'd get a signing bonus, the lowest being somewhere around 7,500 dollars, and possibly going up dramatically depending on the fighter of course.

- Once that happened, fights would be where you'd make your real money. You'd negociate to fight whoeever you chose, but it'd have to be a company fighter. We'd have about 40 to 50 fighters per division so you'd have a fairly large pool to choose from. Fighters would have careers before they'd sign with us, most of the time, so records might still be padded to an extent, but once they signed with us, the real fights would happen.

- The winners would get 1 percent of the other fighters purse unless stipulated otherwise.

TITLES:
- There would be only one title per division. The only time two titles would occur is when someone had won a title and then vacated the title. The reason for this would be so that you could have two different mini-tournements to see who gets each title. Which then sets up an action-packed unification bout between the two best fighters within that division. The title would then be unified, and would only be considered one title again.

- You would have to fight your number one contender and then you'd get a year from the day after that fight to make any other fights you so chose. HOWEVER, they would stil l have to be ranked top ten, unless the fighter was moving up. Then, the fight could take place but would be a non-title fight. If you happen to lose a non-title fight, he automatically becomes top ten, and you're ordered to have a rematch within the remainder of your year or be ordered to face your number one contender sooner.

- You could only lose a title in the ring, unless you vacate. In which case, the vacany stipulations would apply.

- No Sanctioning fees!

RULES:
- Title fights would be 13 rounds long. Non-title affairs would remain 10 rounds. Though contracts could stipulate that in the event of a draw, if you so choose, you can fight one extra round to settle the issue.

- No open scoring, ever.

- Fighters would need to test for steroids/illegal substances before AND after fights.

- Two suspentions for whatever reason would leave you out of the company for a year. A third one would give you a lifetime ban.

- Winning a year-end away such as "Fight Of The Year", that our fans would decide, would give you a winning bonus.

COMPANY GOALS:
- Have the live show be much more entertaining. Including something like a half-time show. Sexier ring card girls, and more lighting and effects to keep the event looking more vibrant and colorful.

- Get smaller endorsement deals for some of the more popular fighters within the country or even in smaller regions, simply to get names, the company and faces out there. Hopefully leading into other deals.

- Have less expensive ticket prices so real fans get to sit closer to ringside, but still allow the tickets to be worth nough to pull in a sizeable profit.

- Instead of our PPVs starting at 50 to 60 dollars, would would hope to bring you a quality PPV around 35 dollars, possibly 40 and stack the undercard with meaningful fights. Never showcases. One PPV per year would be our Superbowl/WrestleMania. It'd be called 'The Night Of Champions', where we'd try to have ATLEAST 4 meaningful title fights happen all on the same card. This particular PPV would probably go around the 50 to 60 range.

- Try to get on network television in a casual fan-friendly way, while still showing the essence of boxing.

- Also, PPVs would go on sale and be distributed much like the UFC and WWE.



That about sums it up, I'm sure I could think of more, but.... Ehh.

[hammerhiem]

prepare for a long post....

Firstly reorganise belt and ranking structure.

Two "main belts" for each division. call it WBA/WBC but frankly i don't care what it's called. each belt to have the following forms

World champion - top ten fighters to compete for
International champion - fighters ranked 10 - 30 to fight for.
Contintental champion (America's - European - Asian) belts for fighters below the two already named.
< Insert country here > Champion - for various journeymen not at world level.

Fighters to be contractually obliged to fight 3 times a year minimum injury aside.

Fights will take one of three forms:

Belt fights - for titles
Eliminators - for chance at belt fights
Ranking fights - for people losing elininators against the people in the tier below to secure ranking.
purse fights - a free fight allowing inter division figths or unifications.

I foresee a career structure that allows boxers to find their level and remain at it ensuring competitive fights for fans and boxers and filling undercards with genuinly interesting fights.

for example take Middleweight.

You could have say Pavlik and AA as your two belt holders, in the next twelve months they would both have to fight twice against winners of eliminators against the 3-10 fighters and one "purse" fight.

fighters 2-6 would face of in elininators on undercards of respective belt holders fighters 7-10 would face of in matches to decide who gets the next eliminator match.

Giving you:
Stumm Vs Griffon for a fight Vs Pavlik
Gevor Vs Sylvester for a fight with AA
on a unification undercard

Castillejo vs Aiskainen and Rubio Vs Geale deciding who fights John Duddy and N'Jikam for top ten ranking.


Losers of belt fights would automaticly get eliminators (i.e drop from 1 down to 3) losers of eliminators would automaticly get fights to get another eliminators, (i.e drop from 3 down to 7)

Fighters ranked 7-10 who lose would then fight internation champions to see who gets into/stay at that level of the division instead of a purse fight.

So you have from the above matchups

AA Vs Gevor with Griffon Vs Castillejo on the undercard
Pavlik Vs Strumm with Sylvester Vs Rubio on the undercard.

Geale vs Duddy and Aiskainen Vs N'Jikam fighting for top ten ranking.

A young fighter should be able to work up through the levels to reach continental champion in 3-4 years and have a solid grounding to move up to internation then championship level when he deserves it rather than pull a "Berto"

Example of career:

hammerhiem turns pro 2010 aged 21.

2010-12 fighting at British level and below. 4 figths a year -12 fights
2013, 3 fights against people ranked in the top 20 at continental level. - 19 fights
2014 fight for eliminator, elininator, belt fight. 21 fights
2015 defence, purse fight to get into International level, ranking fight at international 24 figths
2016 ranking fight, fight for elininator, eliminator - 27 fights
2017 belt fight, defence, purse fight for World level - 30
2018 ranking fight, fight for eliminator, eliminator -33
2019 World belt fight.

Those with real amature pedigree could slip in higher up the rankings and those being pushed could fight more times at the lower levels for more rapid progress while retaining the number of fights required to reach the world belt level.

Also for those clearly above the level of competition could be pushed through the lower continental and internation levels with fewer fights as necessary. but once you reach top 10 international level you should start earning your movement up the ranking rather than be given it.

[Kevin Malone]

I'm new to this forum, lurked for a while, and have only been really following boxing for a little over a year.

The main thing I would like to see changed in Boxing is the way it is broadcast. I would like to see the complete elimination of PPV boxing. Put those caliber of events on ABC, CBS, or NBC (No Fox, their sports are terrible). Put 2nd tier events on ESPN and VS. Also I would like to see a new cable television network (with subscription free/pay available streaming online) entirely devoted to boxing that would re-air the larger fights that were on network as well as ESPN and VS, lower end fights with prospects as well as local fights that don't get much airtime at all now that the channel itself would broadcast, and simulcast live fights only carried in other countries from Japan, Russia, England, Germany, Mexico, and other parts of the world, and finally re-broadcast old fights in their entirety. Eliminate the fights on HBO and Showtime but move those announcers to the large bouts on broadcast tv. I would also like to see the rights to past fights actually being used and the fights put on DVD by the owners of those rights, I hate the black market way fights are distributed right now.

The accessiblity of the sport would be great and I think the fans would be much more common if the main events were on free tv, and even the hardcore or future hardcore fan would only need to have basic cable to get the entire scoop and to see the future prospects boxing.

As far as the fights themselves I really don't have a problem with 12 rounds and the widely used unified rules of boxing.

I like some of the ideas people have as far as unifying the belts, and giving bonuses to fight of the year. Give people incentives.

And since this isn't reality I would like to see Don King, Bob Arum, and all the scum magically dissapearing from the world of boxing, as well as the entire dark, slimey part of boxing.

[JAB5239]

Cut the weight divisions from 17 down to 10. Less divisions means tougher competition.

Reinstitute same day weigh ins. Simply put, if a fighter can't safely make weight and fight the same day, he doesn't belong in that division.

1 champion per division. No super champion, champion emeritus etc, etc, etc. Interim champion could be a possibility, but only if the recognized champion cannot defend because of injury.

Other organizations champions would be ranked accordingly. How bogus is it now to look at any of the alphabet groups rankings and have them not even recognize a champion from another organization like he doesn't even exist? In my opinion that is no way to have an accurate account of the 10 best fighters in the world.

Lifetime medical and pension funds based directly on what a fighters career earnings were while fighting for this organization.

Random steriod testing for all top 10 fighters. To expensive to test everyone, so only test the elite. Penelties to be handled accordingly.

I could go on and on but its to late to think reasonably and seriously. The things I've listed though I consider important and something that could help boxing in a realistic way.

[gridiron]

I've been calling for an international ranking, like the 'Budweiser ratings' Bert Sugar and The Ring came up with in the 1980's. Votes from boxing experts/writers around the world were compiled for a monthly ranking.

There are independent ratings, run by credible panels, today too, but in a smaller scale. And, like the sanctioning bodies, they don't bother to co-operate (so in a way, they are hypocrites when criticizing these bodies).

If they worked together, forming a ranking based on a wider panel, this ranking would soon have a great impact, solving a lot of the troubles the alphabet boys force on the sport.

The world of boxing writers is rather small. Most of them know each other, if not personally so by name. Today, the internet hands the opportunity for them to easily work together. They should sharpen their pens and go to war against the sanctioning bodies.

[lefthook2daliva]

This is a fantasy, but in an ideal set of circumstances :

I would outlaw all current governing bodies and create 1 international governing body that lisences all personnel associated with the sport. Said bureaucracy would sanction and oversee 1 world championship for each weight class. Everything would operate pretty much as is, w/the exceptions that all fighters/judges/refs/trainers/promoters/doctors, etc. would be licensed by this body and all championships would occur under the direct supervision of said body. Failure to comply with regs created under the mandate of this governing body would incur catastrophic civil and criminal penalties.

I would anoint U.S. Senator John McCain to a single 10 year term in the temporary (10yrs) office of "Majestic Lord Supreme International Boxing Maximum Dictator Khan" to execute the above plan and secure it's omnipotent existence in perpetuity.

[S.G.]

PPV events would be fewer and further between, but would have much, MUCH stronger undercards

[Bad Boy Dazza]

I'd only have ONE belt for each weight class.

[Feint]

1. One belt per division.

2. One main sanctioning body that determines rankings with a published formula for who those rankings are determined.

3. Five judges per bout. Officials are honest people, but it is incredibly easy to miss the action in the ring depending on where you are sitting. Unfortunately for the judges the TV audience always has a better view than they do. Having five judges would help with this.

4. Promoters, managers, and other stakeholders would have to pass a background check to be involved in the sport.

5. Set up a voluntary retirement plan for the boxers and other stakeholders in the sport.