NFL Player Ray Edwards Turning To Boxing Could Be Great For The Sport

[Come∂ian]

How Ray Edwards and the NFL Lockout Can Help Boxing Get Back to the Big Time

I am one of the biggest football fans you will ever find, but I am also one of the biggest boxing fans you will ever find. A year without the NFL would be torture to many fans but it could be great for boxing fans.

Two things make me feel optimistic that a boxing network revival could happen without the NFL on Sundays. The first is there is a now an obvious gap of programming on Sundays.

The NFL is on CBS every Sunday and it just so happens that Bob Arum just inked a deal with CBS/Showtime to show boxing.

I would assume that CBS would want to replace sports with sports so that makes boxing the perfect fit. Arum has many of the top fighters in the world and could put on compelling cards for the networks.

Top Rank fighters currently include established stars like Steve Molitor, Joshua Clottey, Miguel Cotto, Nonito Donaire, Yuriorkis Gamboa and Juan Manuel Lopez just to name a few.

When you include up-and-comers like Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. (a big draw), Jose Benavidez, Miguel Garcia, Omar Henry and Vanes Martirosyan you can make many interesting cards.

He also has a lot of good mid-card/journeymen type of fighters that can fill out a card.

I wasn’t alive for either NFL strike that took place in 1982 and 1987, but according to a blog post by Chris Chase of Yahoo! Sports, the networks carried a lot of live boxing during the 1982 strike.

This is a sign that bodes well for boxing and Arum in particular. He was around when boxing was on the networks and has a chance to bring it back.

Rarely do things work out in boxing but it seems like the stars may be aligning for the networks (or at least CBS) to bring boxing back into the fold.

Although boxing doesn’t have the mainstream fan base it used to have it still isn’t a totally niche sport, is better than showing UFL or CFL football games and is better than showing something that isn’t sports.

The second thing that could make this happen is the fact that some football players will want to try their hand at boxing as some of them do boxing training to stay in shape in the offseason.

Ray Edwards is one football player who has already said he is strongly considering turning pro if the NFL does indeed strike.

Edwards is a 26 year old, 6’5” tall 268 pound defensive end for the Minnesota Vikings. He said that he has been training since September in anticipation of a lockout.

He also said he plans to fight in the beginning of April and will start his own promotional company. Now he won’t become a top tier heavyweight but he will bring more fans.

If he has some success he could convince other players to turn to boxing and bring in even more fans. If you’re an NFL fan you can’t watch him play football so why not watch your favorite player fight?

Many boxing purists would have problems with this but I am not one as long as it does not take away a sport from a legitimate fighter.

Opening a card with Edwards would be fine but not if it meant keeping someone like Matt Remillard off the card. The draw would be keeping your best fighters on the card while sneaking a football player on it.

There is a lot of ifs in this scenario, but it could be the perfect time for boxing to make a big time comeback, even if it is for a very short time while the NFL is gone.

[BigStereotype]

This is a good way to look at it. Do you mind if I repost this on facebook? I really think it's interesting.

[Steak]

none of the NFL players will do anything in boxing.

BUT...it will bring a little more attention back to the sport(in America at least).
and thats a good thing.

[Heru]

I've been hearing rumors of Brandon Jacobs facing another NFL player if there is a lockout, but I remember it being a Baltimore Raven, not a Viking, could be wrong though.

I heard it would be on an undercard in Meadowlands Stadium, so it could be Cotto-Margarito or some other possible card.

[Come∂ian]

This is a good way to look at it. Do you mind if I repost this on facebook? I really think it's interesting.

I copied it from an articule I saw earlier today, so feel free homie

[BattleHardened]

Nobody knows who the **** he is, and I doubt it would be good for the sport, and besides he wouldn't make it anyways.

That's like him saying he could go be great in the NBA.

[ShoulderRoll]

He's got the size and athleticism, but he would have had to start young in the sport.

[Heru]

It would be good for the sport, not because of the opponents they'd be fighting (even though fighting players from other teams would make it that much bigger), but because with the void of the NFL on the CBS schedule, what do you think they would turn to to fill that void?

How about Top Rank fighters and NFL players? Especially after they get they get a taste of what Pacquiao brings.

[Sweet Jesus]

That would be awesome. Too bad Brian Urlacher didn't grow up to be a boxer. Bye bye Wladimir.

[PandaKilla]

People think athletes can become good boxers. It doesn't matter iif you are strong, or fast on your feet or even have a great body.

Athletes soon realise how tougj boxing is if they need to make weight, run at 4 am alone, get hit, train their ass off everyday, and that the sport is ultimately lonely.

When boxing fans say oh. Ut our stars are in football or basketball, hell no. What about the lower weights?

Hitting a speed bag fluidly isn't easy.

Anyone who boxes and spars knows that you end up lookig like an amatuer, that timing goes all wrong, your head doesn't do what you thi k, that your stamina gets hit when you take shots, that it hurts, thay throwing 100 punches at pads is a lot easier than doing 500.

People don't realise that it takes someone really special to be at the top of boxing, and that being athletic or good at one sports does not mean you can be good at boxing.

The fight game is not a ball, but you're playing with a man who wants to hurt you to feed his family.

In boxing, there is no teammto help you when you're not at your best, or to fight for you when you're injured.

Who even knows these guys can trow a world class punch or take a punch on the chin.

All I know is, I have mad respect for boxers.