Comments Thread For: Peterson: Black Fighters Get Little Support From Black Fans

[V.WEBB]

Average black guy: Is Timothy Bradley a cage fighter? Imma change the channel to football.

Where are you guys getting this non-sense from?

[jvsnypes]

I think that Prize Fight Promotions is doing a great job with Fernando Guerrero. He fights very often in his hometown of Salisbury. He sells the place out every time.His fights are televised on ShowTime and ESPN Friday Night Fights.He needs to beat a couple of contenders in the top 10 and then call out Sergio Martinez. I think it would make a big fight in Atlantic City.Fernando is not really African American, he's from the Dominican Republic.But , he's still a black fighter and gets support from blacks and whites. He's a crossover sensation in Salisbury.Its up to him to keep winning and winning big. The sky is the limit for this guy. I think part of the problem with supporting black fighters is the fact they are content with going the distance and showcasing their skills.I love watching a skilled fighter display his talents, but to get my moneys worth, I want him to make a serious attempt to get his opponent out of there. I don't think these newer trainers preach the importance of pleasing the fans. If you listen to Emmanuel Steward, he wants his fighters to go for the KO. I think that's very important.when you start seeing this out of black fighters, they'll get more support.BECAUSE EVERYONE LOVES BRUTALITY AND BLOOD!

[-Spinal-]

That is obvious when top fighters like Dawson, Bradley, Williams, Cunningham, etc can only sell 5 tickets per fight.

I mean Mayweather sells tickets, Alexander had 10k fans in his fight against Kotelnik in St Luis. But that's about it. Hopkins can't exactly sell out an arena either.

Ticket sellers or not, I don't care, my favorite fighter from that list, Chad Dawson can't even sell out tickets in his own house and I still watch him fight. It never bothered me how many people liked something. I am not a follower. If you can only like a fighter by the way he sells tickets then all you are is a follower, you can't like your own fighter for own personal reasons, you have to like a fighter who every one else likes.

[2501]

This statement by Peterson is so so so very true.There are so many talented black fighters out right now, but they just don't get the support from their own people or the media attention. In order to do that, it seems like they have to act like *******s in the media to get any attention. Who cared about "Pretty Boy" Floyd when he was low key and somewhat humble. Now that he's "Money"Mayweather and ****y and flaunts his belongings, he's the talk of boxing. This is a man that only fights once a year,and may never fight again, but the media keeps his name alive. It was the same way with Mike Tyson. The crazier he act, the more we loved him and supported him. As a black fighter, you have to crossover to be successful,because you'll never achieve it waiting on the support of your own people.

What you're saying is ridiculously ******. You're saying in order for a black fighter to be supported by you, they have to act ******, ignorant, obscene and then you guys will "love him". If thats true, thats ****ing sad.

All it takes is being entertaining in the ring and sure, a little charisma never hurts because if someone is just loud outside of the ring and ****ing boring inside, the only thing they are is just hated.

[tredh]

the ones that i know that are black posters are mostly floyd fans. of course there are posters that are floyd fans but don't want to reveal whether they're black or not. i know you're a floyd fan...are you black?

Dude do you really not understand how ****ing ignorant it is of you to make a generalization about black people based on internet boxing forums? Seriously?!?!?!

[JBell11]

I can understand where Lamont is coming from, but the real issue is with the sport of boxing and the niche (market) communities that follow the sport. From an economic stand point, at least in the U.S, the consumer (regardless of ethnicity) has access to any and all types of sports that are available on cable network/regular networks. Sports like Basketball, Baseball, and Football have a huge following because of the availability to watch in a consistent, cyclical basis providing any person (with a preference) the ability to follow an athlete (Terrel Owens, Ochocinco, Mark Sanchez, D.Wade, L. James) . More specifically, many "**********" (i.e., Black, Hispanic, Non-white) follow those sports because ease of access. My theory is simply this, because the sport of boxing is offered in premium channels and is further exclusive with PPV for higher end fights, many people outside of the niche sport won't invest time (and money). Demand for the sport is inelastic.

To Lamont's point, People won't follow anyone else outside of the mainstream of boxing "Mayweather", instead they will follow other individuals in other sports.

[V.WEBB]

Dude do you really not understand how ****ing ignorant it is of you to make a generalization about black people based on internet boxing forums? Seriously?!?!?!

He just went on my ignore list.

[BTL]

Black people are so athletic where they have to choose any sport they want.. Where us mexicans have boxing or maybe soccer.. Shoot for all we know some of the best boxers are probably in the NBA or NFL... Man idk

[Heru]

No secret... Lamont is one of the first fighters to try actually touch on the subject publicly and he's right.

It took Mayweather 7-8 years of being a top 10 P4P fighter, #1 in 2 divisions, fighting Corrales and Castillo (2x), years on HBO, and an undefeated record before he fought he got some attention outside of the hardcore fans against Gatti and Judah. Floyd couldn't even draw 3K in Michigan against Ndou a year before.

Mayweather's style was "too boring"? What changed? He's still the same fighter, but with less knockouts.

The prototype for Peterson's argument is Mosley... Look at the fights after he became the first to clearly win against De La Hoya. He still had to fight Vernon Forrest in the small room at MSG and that was #1 vs. #2 at 147. Fast forward and you have Cotto drawing twice as much against Mayorga in Las Vegas than he did in Southern California.

[BesWorldChamp]

The article mentions Shane as a draw, which, to my knowledge, he never has been.