Is boxing killing die hard fans?

[JAB5239]

Boxing has taken a big hit in America because "boxing" was always synonymous with the heavyweight division, and until the last decade or so that division was always owned by Americans. That ended with Lewis and the K-Bros. So naturally now that the division is no longer under American ownership and doesn't look like it will be for some time, if ever again, the sport is having troubles there. Nobody likes giving up something they thought was theirs and only theirs, least of all Americans.

To die hard fans the heavyweight division isn't the end all of boxing and nationalism doesn't come into play.

Amongst die hard fans boxing is fine. Amongst the common fan...not so much. And this isn't due to any particular division, talent levels in all divisions go up and down. It's because we now have 17 weight classes and 4 major titles, not to mention diamond belts, champion emeritus, etc., etc.. The common fan just isn't buying into this BS and has lost much interest in the sport. Luckily for the promoters and ABC orgs they still have the die hards who will look past these things. Sadly though its a double edged sword. If we quit buying boxing dies. If we keep buying they keep peddling us bullshit.

[JAB5239]

Sure, that's another big problem. But if America had a superstar heavyweight right now--say if the K-Bros were Americans--there is no doubt in my mind that the entire sport would be doing much better in the USA. There's always been big fights in other weight divisions, and stars like Sugar Ray Leonard, etc., but it is the heavyweight division that makes the sport go--or not. And it has little or nothing to do with how good or talented the K-Bros are. Americans are not ready to embrace two "Russian" champions (no distinction is made between Russian and Ukrainian here).

Before now, America has never had to deal with a heavyweight division that didn't have an American superstar in the history of boxing. Asking Americans to embrace two guys that they were trained by Rocky movies to dislike is asking too much. And the old guard of the American boxing media like Bert Sugar plays on those old stereotypes and keeps them alive.

What a load of horseshit. This is what you want to believe, that doesn't make it the truth.

[JAB5239]

All the HBO PPVs have had undercards going from good to great in 2011.

Nothing more annoying then a 'woe is me' boxing fan. I get the impression that people think that they aren't real boxing fans until they trash the current state of the sport and the contemporary fighters.

Belts are meaningless, PPVs are necessary for the big fights and most of the important fights take place. Is it perfect? Far from it, but there was never a time when prizefighting didn't have some corruption or nonsense going on. If you can't accept that then this sport is not for you.

Why exactly are PPV's important? For decades boxing had no PPV and was the most popular sport in America along with baseball. It's not the fighters bringing the sport down, it's all the divisions and champions from different groups that we allow to be legitimate.