Serious Question. How do we get boxing back to it's golden years when everyone cared?

[Mmann2e]

Boxing is dangerous. It gives little financial benefit to the majority of athletes who box... yet people love it, and there is still a pipeline of potentially talented fighters. The promoters have destroyed boxing. No one is really willing to expose talented fighters to casual fans, promoters have taught boxers to wait on fights instead of develop. IMO the heavyweight division is the straw that stirs the drink here, with that in mind, here is what we get: Overweight lackluster fighters with relatively minor skills compared to their predacessors... And fans who are clue less about what a talented heavyweight even looks like. Then fans are suprised that there are few good fights...

The talent is potentially there if guys fought 3 to 4 times a year coming up, didn't care about "winning" so much as developing tangible assets in the ring. Arum is perhaps the worse. The greedy bstard does not even need the money, yet he has systematically destroyed the fight game with staggering fights.

I will say this... and there is good reason to tolerate the likes of Sid knee when he goes on a battle rant because of this... British fans are a relative light in the darkness of the boxing landscape. They are passionate, follow home grown talent, and are in general, like real fans are supposed to be... Opinionated from watchng fights, and willing to take the time to follow the sport.

Don King was horrible to fighters and I make no caveats regarding this issue when I say, he put on good cards. There needs to be a happy medium here where fighters are supported, fights are made, and fans are exposed to fighters.

Finally. I also think that because fighters are being pushed along, they are using the plodding, amateur style, only eventually going to a gym with a great trainer to unlearn some of the mistakes in that approach. But we are getting untalented fighters with no head movement, no foot movement, who clinch/cannot fight inside, etc. And then when a guy like Wardly actually makes an appearance and shows the type of skills fighters like Fury have (from training at an early age) and fighters of old had to develop... fans do not even recognize it! So fans have to also educate themselves as well.

In America you have to prove you're good enough to win otherwise you're an also ran. What's happening to Wilder happened to Paul Williams and James Kirkland and will happen to Bud or Spence when they lose the public will lose respect and interest. Is it unfair sure but the United States requires a winner or you're garbage waiting to be picked up. Add that to Wilder, Williams and Kirkland's fanbase who do watch do not have money so when they lose it becomes a potential career ender. Adrien Broner has been put to the pasture, PBC doesn't really want him, the few black boxing fans there are can't afford or are divided and American fans don't have a strong liking to him. So for American boxing to do well it will have to be a white fighter who's charismatic to pretty much get the interest back. And he'll have to do to Wilder what Marciano did to Louis just more spectacularly and with more disrespect.

[paulf]

Boxing in the early 2000s boxing transitioned from an America-centric sport, where everyone had to come here, to a truly word-wide sport.

UFC is kicking boxing's ass because 1) it's a better product 2) they have worldwide events, but the USA is the center of the MMA universe. All roads lead to Las Vegas. The power and quality of the brand propagates names like Mcgregor and Silva to the far corners of the world from here.

Everyone in the boxing business knows all this, which is why all the major promoters have been trying to find the right angle to become the major league of boxing in the USA. PBC and DAZN recently, but GBP made a play too in the Schaefer era. If a boxing promoter becomes the MLB/NFL of boxing in America, they can do the work in quality control/product development to get boxing back on the front page.

If that does not happen, boxing will continue to struggle here. It's just not a good product worth peoples time in 2021 and that's the truth.

[billeau2]

In America you have to prove you're good enough to win otherwise you're an also ran. What's happening to Wilder happened to Paul Williams and James Kirkland and will happen to Bud or Spence when they lose the public will lose respect and interest. Is it unfair sure but the United States requires a winner or you're garbage waiting to be picked up. Add that to Wilder, Williams and Kirkland's fanbase who do watch do not have money so when they lose it becomes a potential career ender. Adrien Broner has been put to the pasture, PBC doesn't really want him, the few black boxing fans there are can't afford or are divided and American fans don't have a strong liking to him. So for American boxing to do well it will have to be a white fighter who's charismatic to pretty much get the interest back. And he'll have to do to Wilder what Marciano did to Louis just more spectacularly and with more disrespect.

Someone is responsible for this ethic of "win = success unconditionally." When Ricky Hatton beat Zoo he was a fantastic fighter... His father got involved with his training, they put him on a program to make sure he did not lose a fight... He became a horrid humping machine in the process, and was never near the fighter he was when he went in "b a l l s first" against Zoo. Broner's own misguided attempt to pick up belts, and to neglect obvious problems down the road, was probably as much a problem for him, as a lack of focus. Broner is a heel, which is a technical term, it is how Floyd started before he left horrid Bob Arum, and fought De La Hoya.

Good enough to win is one thing, but developing talent is how you win. Look at one of my favorite fighters, Derrick Chisora. Chisora lost plenty, and got plenty of opportunities to fight for a championsip. He was never very talented compared to the top heavies, but he got good enough to be competative and keep better fighters honest.

The financial comment you make I agree with 100%. Its also the Mexican fans BTW. You used to be able to go into a bar in San Francisco and the bar owner could get the fight. I watched Tyson Douglas in a sports bar on Haight Street... I watched Trinidad Quartey in a mexican bar in the Mission district. I don't think it is race in boxing that makes for misguided programs. I think it has to do with promoters and the perpetual low hanging fruit: Today a talented kid in the heavyweight division could easily go pretty far up the ladder with nothing but God given talent and a boxing primer; look at Wilder for example. It has to do with the lack of skills and development IMO. Wilder has tremendous talent but it is hard to imgine him getting far in a division like the 70's. Fans have to demand more than creepy Bob Arum. You know what? Fans could directly set up fights on the internet through a go fund me type system, raising the purse, telling the promoters to go fck themselves and pay fighters directly. Lol.

[boogbx]

You can never go back to the good ol days, change is inevitable.

you work with what you got.

hip Hop huge example.

hip Hop used to persnonify alpha male, street individuals with respect and a gift of gab.


jay-z, Tupac, Scarface, bone etc

Now you have children that look like women, rap like they can’t read and look like they can’t fight to quote Ruck of Heltah Skeltah

you still have dope mcs, they just underground.

same with boxing.

estrada vs Gonzalez 2 > MMA’s entire existence and catalog

but more people watch dry humping. More people like to gossip like women and be in their emotions.
Most people especially men that do this should be wiped off the planet for the sake of humanity.

[just the facts]

Shut’cho Dorito and Cheetos snatching ass up! Canelo is the HNIC! Canelo is more important than rap music, blunts, and codeine combined! It’s the law of the land!

You really are in love. Someone mentions Canelo and your ears turn into pistol grips, Vaseline squirts out of your nose and back go those retractable garage door teeth of yours.

[meat_abstract]

1. Combat sports athletes should unionize. They should have a mandatory pension plan, and a right to be released from their contact if they don't get a fight for 9 months.

2. Congress should pass strong national anti-corruption laws for combat sports, and create a national body to enforce them.

With their profit margins thusly reduced, promoters will be forced to make good fights more often if they want to make money.

It won't happen, but it's my answer to the OP question.

[6ixsidesniper]

Boxing died when Floyd made having no losses a requirement for being a star. It’s ****** because when 2 people fight, 1 person has to lose (save for a draw), there’s no other way around it, the sport is literally about 2 people fighting but you’re not allowed to lose.

Boxing also doesn’t have consistent fights. UFC is literally on every single weekend, a UFC champion can fight 4 times in a year, top UFC fighters are constantly being pitted against the best, there’s no grooming or developing a lossless golden-horse in the sport.

the poster that said boxers see themselves bigger then the sport is correct. In the UFC, Dana White has made it a point that the organization is bigger then any single fighter. Of course he has his Connor McGregors and Khabibs but Connor is washed and barely fights, Khabib is retired and the sport just keeps chugging along, and more stars are born based on their skills and not based on cherry-picking matchmaking.

I love boxing, and will always prefer a good boxing card to a MMA card, but good boxing cards come once in a blue moon. Once the pay for MMA fighters catches up to boxing, boxing will have nothing left over MMA.

[F l i c k e r]

It's the promoters not the fighters.

Mainly Arum at that.

He doesn't let his guys fight anyone and when he does, it's just to milk them by feeding them easy wins.

Most boxers aren't afraid. Some legitimately are worried about fights. Like Khan with Brook for all those years. But these guys make a living by getting punched in the face.

The problem is the money that keeps guys from fighting the best, all the time and the slice of the pie that their promoters will get.

[meat_abstract]

It's the promoters not the fighters.

Mainly Arum at that.

He doesn't let his guys fight anyone and when he does, it's just to milk them by feeding them easy wins.

Most boxers aren't afraid. Some legitimately are worried about fights. Like Khan with Brook for all those years. But these guys make a living by getting punched in the face.

The problem is the money that keeps guys from fighting the best, all the time and the slice of the pie that their promoters will get.

Deontay Wilder is a great example of how the current system can actually destroy an otherwise entertaining and marketable fighter. The deterioration of his skills over the years he was fighting cans was remarkable. This guy was once a good enough boxer to win a bronze medal at the olympics! But then, by depriving him of any challenge or need to improve for years on end, he a) became a one-trick pony because he didn't need anything but his big right to KO taxi drivers, and b) developed confidence problems and an inferiority complex because if all you're ever given is easy fights, you start thinking "I'm not good enough to win hard fights".

Why wasn't he fighting better guys? Because corruption, and because he had no leverage over the promoter.

[Eff Pandas]

Boxing makes no fooking sense is the issue. And it was even the issue when the top guys were fighting each other more often. Boxing needs to become one ent^ty. Or basically operate like every other sport in the world to one degree or another.