Comments Thread For: Brackets and Boxing: A Brief History of Professional Pugilism's Experimentation With Tournaments

[BoxingUpdates]

It's one hell of a trick that the NCAA pulls off every year with "March Madness." From November through February, only the hardcore college hoops fans care about the sport. Then all of a sudden, we hit mid-March and college basketball becomes the absolute center of the American sports universe. People who couldn't have named three active players one week before are dropping everything to watch Western Kentucky face Marquette in the middle of the afternoon on a weekday. It's a testament, in large part, to the power of brackets. Throw a bunch of competitors in a single-elimination grid, and people are instantly intrigued. Add the opportunity to gamble on the outcomes, and those observers go from intrigued to invested. But even without the money and the office pools, there's something universal and timeless about the "win or go home" urgency and beauty of 64 becoming 32 ... and 32 becoming 16 ... and so on, until a single champion is left standing.
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[PittyPat]

Good read, and this line made me wheeze:

It’s a formula boxing can’t easily replicate – because a field of 64 is preposterous in a business that often struggles pathetically to arrange a field of two.

One tournament was missing, though: the Heavyweight Unification Series in 1986–87.

Nice to see BScene producing quality articles again. It's been enjoyable.

[Rockin']

Didn't Don King have a Heavyweight tournament in the 80s?

Ofcourse he funked it all up with his corrupt doings doe.................Rockin'

[Eff Pandas]

It'd be cool if tournaments were a bigger part of boxing. I think you could do smaller scale ones waaaaaaaay more often then they do. The Forum used to do them all the time. They do Rookie tournaments in Japan. Prizefighter is cool I just dont like the one night angle, but get how that makes sense to them. Probox did that 140 tournament last year.

Smaller tournanents allow unknown guys to make a name quicker than they otherwise would or gives known guys a little post prime boost. I'd argue the US should do a regional tournament that leads into a national tournament the next year to better grow talented guys.

Bigger tournaments are more problematic cuz we are all more invested in ppl coming in as close to 100% as possible so there are bound to be issues with doing it in a timely matter or without subs that ppl have less interest in seeing. The bigger names are also in a business more than a sport so its harder to get some of the best guys involved in a multifight deal with no opponent options besides the guys in your bracket that win. I'd like to see it more but there are a lot more hurdles to clear making it difficult.

[Slip jab]

Brackets don’t work for boxing. The duration is too long to keep people’s interest.

[ShoulderRoll]

The alphabet groups should periodically order a single elimination tournament of their top 10 ranked fighters to shake things up. Maybe do it once every 4 years like the World Cup.