Why is BOXING so low on the Totem pole in AMERICA?

[neils7147933]

Yeah, well, at least the #2 spot is normally occupied by a good sport. Who watches ****ing NASCAR, though? Honestly.

I wish boxing was a bit more mainstream. I'd like to be able to talk to people around where I live about boxing sometimes, rather than basically lecturing people on boxing. An actual discussion would be nice. The few people I know who like boxing don't know what they're talking about, or are so ****ing biased it's sick.

Bombardier has some good points, but a slight insurgence of casual fans would also bring in some more hardcore fans. If they aren't even watching the sport then they'll never be able to appreciate it.

And, to be honest, it doesn't bother me that morons go off about this team or that team. I just ignore it if they're ******. I only talk to people who really know the sport about the sport.

Lots of rural, suburban, and small-town white people...

[BmoreBrawler]

99% of fights are extremely boring and do not seem to involve any sort of combat whatsoever.

[hotshoes]

im ok with wnba higher than boxing but wwe? cmon man thats a sick joke right? even baseball which i find boring is in number 1

[StackMo]

As others have touched on many reasons.

Boxing used to be a part of daily American vocabulary and now it's not.

1)pay per view - what if the Superbowl, MLB Finals and Final four were pay per view? Would they do as well? Hell no. With the signifcant and undeniable decline in the heavyweight American population there's no one for people in America to relate to: old Holyfield, washout Shannon Briggs, retina torn Brewster. The Klitschkos sure haven't warmed too many American hearts either. Let's be honest the average casual fan likes heavies, to them if there aren't any decent heavy weights there is no decent boxing.

2)Difficult to follow - With world titles being alphabet souped to death and chammpions seldom fighting champions it should come to no shock boxing is a mess to rank, follow and figure out contendership for. Some world title bouts aren't even broadcasted in the United States. Casual fans cannot be bothered and why should they be? Honestly it's only hardcore fans who actually read what Dan Rafael and the better boxing pundits who accidentally discovered Monshipour v Sithchatchawal and that should have truly have been FOTY 2006.

3)Influx of MMA - ON free TV with easily relatable personalities and high marketing. Now boxing is putting little in the way of marketing and packing cards with fights pay per view buyers and casual fans want to see for the very reason that champions avoid one another. Granted they also don't go through sanctioing bodies or have very high paying purses. Cheap to put together and hyped properly.

[mrpain81]

As others have touched on many reasons.

Boxing used to be a part of daily American vocabulary and now it's not.

1)pay per view - what if the Superbowl, MLB Finals and Final four were pay per view? Would they do as well? Hell no. With the signifcant and undeniable decline in the heavyweight American population there's no one for people in America to relate to: old Holyfield, washout Shannon Briggs, retina torn Brewster. The Klitschkos sure haven't warmed too many American hearts either. Let's be honest the average casual fan likes heavies, to them if there aren't any decent heavy weights there is no decent boxing.

2)Difficult to follow - With world titles being alphabet souped to death and chammpions seldom fighting champions it should come to no shock boxing is a mess to rank, follow and figure out contendership for. Some world title bouts aren't even broadcasted in the United States. Casual fans cannot be bothered and why should they be? Honestly it's only hardcore fans who actually read what Dan Rafael and the better boxing pundits who accidentally discovered Monshipour v Sithchatchawal and that should have truly have been FOTY 2006.

3)Influx of MMA - ON free TV with easily relatable personalities and high marketing. Now boxing is putting little in the way of marketing and packing cards with fights pay per view buyers and casual fans want to see for the very reason that champions avoid one another. Granted they also don't go through sanctioing bodies or have very high paying purses. Cheap to put together and hyped properly.

HAHAHA@ MMA

Come on man u made good points then u go and say "MMA is killing boxinng"

Reason #2 hard to follow is dead on, to be a boxing fan u gotta be very well educated on all the sanctioning bodies and 17 weight divisiions.

also "Money" its very expensive being a boxing fan, especially if u dont stream fights. Check it HBO, Showtime, Basic cable, PPV I think the average boxing fan spends almost 70-100 on Just cable and PPV's, We are the most loyal of sport fans and get taken advantage way too much.

[Banderivets]

Because there are no big American stars...is it really that hard to understand?

No country will take interest in a sport that they do not represent well. I mean last word cup, I saw enough **** on CNN just because the Americans got so far, and should I even mention the whole Beckham thing? From MTV to CNN it was all about that.
If Americans were great at the sport then it wouldnt be a "***gy gay **** sport" now would it?



Right now, through this service online I have 5 ukrainian chanels, they show boxing at 10:00AM on a Sunday on a free to air chanel. And its not some Russian or Ukrainian guy, they were showing some Ponce De Leon fight the other day lol

They have Klitschkos in beer commercials, and they make the news by doing charity work in the country for the kids (a way to get on TV, does Mayweather do that?)

And I dont know about that guy "Dude" here in Canada at my work a german tourist came by to fix something on his laptop, he asked me my background I said ukrainian his response "oh cool cool, Klitschko, cool"...a german tourist in Canada, and he still knew something about boxing...

[FightNight 2007]

LOL WNBA is higher than boxing, that's ****ed up.

LOL boxing is in a state of crisis

[StackMo]

HAHAHA@ MMA

Come on man u made good points then u go and say "MMA is killing boxinng"

Reason #2 hard to follow is dead on, to be a boxing fan u gotta be very well educated on all the sanctioning bodies and 17 weight divisiions.

also "Money" its very expensive being a boxing fan, especially if u dont stream fights. Check it HBO, Showtime, Basic cable, PPV I think the average boxing fan spends almost 70-100 on Just cable and PPV's, We are the most loyal of sport fans and get taken advantage way too much.

MMA is in a sad way doing it and credibility sadly has nothing to do with it. MMA's not killing boxing but a theory goes that there is only so many fight fnas around and new growth seldom happens with fans. So MMA is tapping into a pool of fans of the most casual kind. Boxing is not any more. Boxing used to be part of the daily. MMA is easily digestible and press fed for waiting masses.

I should say also it is the purest folly to assume in any way that boxing is 'dying'. Boxing will never die so long as too guys put on gloves and fight with only their fists.

[mrpain81]

LOL WNBA is higher than boxing, that's ****ed up.

LOL boxing is in a state of crisis

Why are u at a boxing forum spewing ****** comment after ****** comment? Why dont u stay at sherdog and forget about boxing, Nobody would miss a troll which is what you are.

[mrpain81]

MMA is in a sad way doing it and credibility sadly has nothing to do with it. MMA's not killing boxing but a theory goes that there is only so many fight fnas around and new growth seldom happens with fans. So MMA is tapping into a pool of fans of the most casual kind. Boxing is not any more. Boxing used to be part of the daily. MMA is easily digestible and press fed for waiting masses.

I should say also it is the purest folly to assume in any way that boxing is 'dying'. Boxing will never die so long as too guys put on gloves and fight with only their fists.

Thats your opinion but I dont agree with you, I acctually believe MMA is helping boxing, Alot of the new MMA fans used to be Wrastling fans. And never gave boxing a chance, Now that they become "Combat sport" fans and are getting more educated, They will start to appreciate the sweet science. This is going to be the biggest money making year for boxing ever.