im gonna say it............

[MuscleBobBuffPants]

my brother is the only one i can really talk boxing with and he s gone travelling for the year. even the guys in my boxing club know jack **** about the pro game but im always enthusiastic when an outsider shows any interest

thank god for internet message boards though

[Rockin']

The popularity of boxing began its decline shortly after the television came out. Before that the club shows, being boxings training grounds for young boxers, thrived from public attendance and gate reciepts. After a while the public just figured, Hey why would I spend $10 on a fight ticket when I can now watch boxing for free on television 3 nights a week.

During this time an organization called the I.B.C was heavily involved in boxing and even more so on the television. They held control over many of the big fight venues, the fighters, as well as royaltys from the television transmission.

Then somebody had the brilliant idea of closed circuit broadcastings from movie houses and theatres acrossed the country. We'll talk about that another time.

Well, at this time the I.B.C was brought down for monopolistic practices by John Q law and it was brought out in the open for everybody to see that the mob was definately heavily involved with the sport. Through many court hearings and depositions the world found out about the workings of the game from the back side and no longer felt comfortable sitting ring side to be seen with mob members and the such.

That was boxings first black eye and that eye is still swollen today. While a Muhammad Ali or an Oscar Delahoya may come around every so often to again get the general publics attention, boxing will always be in the rut that it is in unless something is done to revive the local shows. There is no fight to be seen like a live fight, there is just no comparison between stting in front of your television or sitting 15 rows back getting hit with the occasional bead of flying sweat. But the people choose to sit in the comfort of their own homes instead of helping fund the club show.

Until the club show boxing can be fully revived we will not see the qauntity of good fighters again. Back in the 40's and 50's a fighter could make a living because there were so many boxing clubs and shows to work with, there was a large cicuit. Today there might be 1 or 2 shows a month in areas other than LasVegas, Newyork, and Florida.

Television killed most of the boxing stars..............Rockin'