Consensus - Does the Demographic thing still matter in Boxing???

[Willow The Wisp]

Its a sad commentary perhaps, on how we might, consciously or unconsciously select the athletes we root for...but I pause to wonder; as long as boxers such as Joe Smith, Caleb Plant, David Lemeaux, Chris Algieri, Joe Cusamano, Trey Lippe....etc keep on failing to get to the top and stay there awhile in boxing, will the sport ever return to full mainstream status amongst white folks in North America??

Team sports identify by host city. Personal characteristics are secondary. A team in Leeds, Madrid or Cincinnati will be embraced in those places even if none roster a player who is actually from Leeds, Madrid or Cincinnati- a different thing. Individual sports tend to promote individuals.

Any thoughts on this hypothesis?

[War Room]

Its a sad commentary perhaps, on how we might, consciously or unconsciously select the athletes we root for...but I pause to wonder; as long as boxers such as Joe Smith, Caleb Plant, David Lemeaux, Chris Algieri, Joe Cusamano, Trey Lippe....etc keep on failing to get to the top and stay there awhile in boxing, will the sport ever return to full mainstream status amongst white folks in North America??

Team sports identify by host city. Personal characteristics are secondary. A team in Leeds, Madrid or Cincinnati will be embraced in those places even if none roster a player who is actually from Leeds, Madrid or Cincinnati- a different thing. Individual sports tend to promote individuals.

Any thoughts on this hypothesis?

I'm not sure what you're asking and demographic is almost always used in reference to age. Smith, Lemieux, Algieri are fringe fighters. Plant is green and those other two guys I never heard of them. If they were better they would have more fans.

Of course to be a popular sport, you need stars and boxing doesn't have many. Nobody liked Mayweather for his personality, age, location, or race but they watched him because he was the best, beat everybody, and never lost. Most people hated him. Gorgeous George exposed that bit of pshychology, then Ali did it, Howard Stern did it, Tyson did it, then Floyd. Everybody loves to hate the villian, it's in our DNA. Now you got Canelo, but the media is destroying him with cherry-picking articles and he got caught doping.

Boxing is pretty popular right now, but it's the under 40 market that's watching. The bigger sports are culuture and family events. Go to a football game, tailgate, bring your son, have a nice day outside. Boxing is violence and chances are it's going to stay in it's lane until the end of time, especially with all the snowflakes out there now.

[Clegg]

Boxing has a lot of racism in its history, and a lot of current boxing fans show favouritism. So the lack of white American stars may be a factor. But all the paper titles, the best fighters avoiding each other and instead facing guys outside the top 10, elite fighters only fighting twice per year, lack of drug testing, robberies, network/promotional divides are bigger issues.

[War Room]

Boxing has a lot of racism in its history, and a lot of current boxing fans show favouritism. So the lack of white American stars may be a factor. But all the paper titles, the best fighters avoiding each other and instead facing guys outside the top 10, elite fighters only fighting twice per year, lack of drug testing, robberies, network/promotional divides are bigger issues.

White Americans seem to support NFL, NBA despite most players being non-white.

Canelo is white and boxing's biggest stars hisgorically are black. Race never stopped any of it.

Your secodanry point about avoidance, I agree with you on that. Fighters avoiding big fights most definitely hurts viewership.

[HeadShots]

the sport can only be as big as the individual star


sport was biggest when Dempsey was dominating. he was bigger than the superbowl, more popular than US president.

sport was big when Ali was dominating. he was massive.

sport was big when Tyson was dominating. His personal life is Shakespearean tragedy along with his life in the ring.

Sport was big when Floyd was at the top but his style turned a lot of casuals off of boxing for life. Floyd destroyed the enthusiasm for American boxing.


sport is with Canelo now. It is not as popular as it was back then because he does not resonate with American people to the same extent as his predecessors.

[Madison Boxing]

huh? mayweather was the biggest mainstream attraction and he was black. hardly as if likes of joe smith etc had some hardcore backing who jumped ship when he lost. pretty much all biggest mainstream stars in boxing history werent white

[KillaMane26]

the sport can only be as big as the individual star


sport was biggest when Dempsey was dominating. he was bigger than the superbowl, more popular than US president.

sport was big when Ali was dominating. he was massive.

sport was big when Tyson was dominating. His personal life is Shakespearean tragedy along with his life in the ring.

Sport was big when Floyd was at the top but his style turned a lot of casuals off of boxing for life. Floyd destroyed the enthusiasm for American boxing.


sport is with Canelo now. It is not as popular as it was back then because he does not resonate with American people to the same extent as his predecessors.

You forgot Joe Louis his fight with that Russian guy was massive