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This is really nothing new, so some of you may not enjoy this, or whatever feelings you might have, but it's just some thoughts I've had about the sport, in general, as of late.
There are many problems facing this once great sport, and to pinpoint one as an absolute is probably impossible; rather, it's all the problems coupled together that are causing our beloved sport to falter.
To begin with (as was brought up in a recent front page article), the letter organizations. They cause a large part of the distress in the boxing world these days. Without the face of a real champion, the average sport fan has no one to connect with. Essentially, it makes for a lack of superstars. The last household name of boxing was Mike Tyson during his reign of the heavyweight division in the mid-80's, and after his jail time in the early 90's. He's become more of a circus act to most, and has since lost his reputation as the baddest man on the planet. Another problem with the alphabet organizations is their ranking systems, which is, essentially, determined by who gives them the most money. Many, many fighter who are undeserving of shots for titles, and even underserving of the belts, are beltholders and contenders, while guys who have worked through the system and have been in it for years, really earning their stripes, are forced to sit back and watch some gold medalist with more of a name than him get a title shot in his first ten fights. What could this problem almost be eliminated with? A joining of the titles. To gather them all under one name, and call the belt holder the champion would eliminate many of the problems that are faced by the alphabet organizations. Corruption is a sad part of life, and little could be dealt with as far as people throwing money at them to get title shots, but it would give people a face to connect with, and help the sport of boxing.
Another problem, which can be coupled with the alphabet titles, if you'd like, but is really a separate problem, is the lack of exposure to the sport. There is no prime time for boxing anymore. Sure, they play it on HBO, and Showtime and the like, but not everybody has cable, and hardly anybody wishes to stay up into the late hours of the night to catch boxing after dark. There is not one point in my life in which boxing was talked about on a national network (being ABC, CBS, NBC, or FOX), and the last I heard about boxing on SPORTS radio was about Brewster - Golota, and none of them had any idea what they were talking about-- in fact, the only reason it was mentioned is because it was the biggest heavyweight fight happening in years in this state [Illinois]. No one cares about boxing because it's not in the limelight anymore. Why is Football (American) popular in the USA? Because it's constantly on national TV. You can't go through a SINGLE news broadcast and not hear something mentioned about football. The same goes for basketball, baseball, and (sadly, I must say) NASCAR. They all have loads of exposure on the national level, and people care about them. They know the players/racers, and the teams they are on for one reason, they hear about it all the time. If boxing could get half the exposure of these other sports, there would be a boom in the popularity of it. Now, perhaps there are some of the more "hardcore" boxing fans would not wish to see the boxing popularity boom, lest they have to deal with the casual fan who thinks they know all, but in reality knows little. That's a part of sports- casual fans- and it's something you have to deal with as a fan if you want your sport to continue on.
There's one last major problem, in my estimation, and that is the pay per views. This, can go along with the paragraph above in so many ways, but, again, is really a separate issue, as will be explained. It's not just the fact that you have to pay in order to see the big fights in addition to your already outrageous cable or sattellite bills, it's the fact that it's going to cost you $50, and the bouts might turn out to be total mismatches or snooze-fests. (Anyone remember Jones-Tarver III? I sure remember the $50 I could have spent on something worth my time) That's the biggest problem with PPV's, the cost of them. Even if boxing were restricted to HBO and Showtime, but got better time slots than 11:30 pm, or whatever they are, then we'd see an increase in popularity.
The final problem facing boxing is a lack of activity in the so-called champions. When they are fighting once a year, and sometimes not even that, and are being allowed to retain their belts, we have a problem. It becomes an even bigger problem when the title organizations are not forcing them to fight the best competition, rather allowing them to fight mediocre, at best, mandatories. This is another problem that would be solved with the elimination of alphabet organizations.
When you add all these problems together you get one thing: a dying sport. It's sad to say, but boxing is not growing at all. Will it even be around in twenty years, and what will the state be? Will we see anymore great fighters emmerge, or will we have all of boxing in the same state as the current heavyweight division-- lackluster and disarray?
There are many problems facing this once great sport, and to pinpoint one as an absolute is probably impossible; rather, it's all the problems coupled together that are causing our beloved sport to falter.
To begin with (as was brought up in a recent front page article), the letter organizations. They cause a large part of the distress in the boxing world these days. Without the face of a real champion, the average sport fan has no one to connect with. Essentially, it makes for a lack of superstars. The last household name of boxing was Mike Tyson during his reign of the heavyweight division in the mid-80's, and after his jail time in the early 90's. He's become more of a circus act to most, and has since lost his reputation as the baddest man on the planet. Another problem with the alphabet organizations is their ranking systems, which is, essentially, determined by who gives them the most money. Many, many fighter who are undeserving of shots for titles, and even underserving of the belts, are beltholders and contenders, while guys who have worked through the system and have been in it for years, really earning their stripes, are forced to sit back and watch some gold medalist with more of a name than him get a title shot in his first ten fights. What could this problem almost be eliminated with? A joining of the titles. To gather them all under one name, and call the belt holder the champion would eliminate many of the problems that are faced by the alphabet organizations. Corruption is a sad part of life, and little could be dealt with as far as people throwing money at them to get title shots, but it would give people a face to connect with, and help the sport of boxing.
Another problem, which can be coupled with the alphabet titles, if you'd like, but is really a separate problem, is the lack of exposure to the sport. There is no prime time for boxing anymore. Sure, they play it on HBO, and Showtime and the like, but not everybody has cable, and hardly anybody wishes to stay up into the late hours of the night to catch boxing after dark. There is not one point in my life in which boxing was talked about on a national network (being ABC, CBS, NBC, or FOX), and the last I heard about boxing on SPORTS radio was about Brewster - Golota, and none of them had any idea what they were talking about-- in fact, the only reason it was mentioned is because it was the biggest heavyweight fight happening in years in this state [Illinois]. No one cares about boxing because it's not in the limelight anymore. Why is Football (American) popular in the USA? Because it's constantly on national TV. You can't go through a SINGLE news broadcast and not hear something mentioned about football. The same goes for basketball, baseball, and (sadly, I must say) NASCAR. They all have loads of exposure on the national level, and people care about them. They know the players/racers, and the teams they are on for one reason, they hear about it all the time. If boxing could get half the exposure of these other sports, there would be a boom in the popularity of it. Now, perhaps there are some of the more "hardcore" boxing fans would not wish to see the boxing popularity boom, lest they have to deal with the casual fan who thinks they know all, but in reality knows little. That's a part of sports- casual fans- and it's something you have to deal with as a fan if you want your sport to continue on.
There's one last major problem, in my estimation, and that is the pay per views. This, can go along with the paragraph above in so many ways, but, again, is really a separate issue, as will be explained. It's not just the fact that you have to pay in order to see the big fights in addition to your already outrageous cable or sattellite bills, it's the fact that it's going to cost you $50, and the bouts might turn out to be total mismatches or snooze-fests. (Anyone remember Jones-Tarver III? I sure remember the $50 I could have spent on something worth my time) That's the biggest problem with PPV's, the cost of them. Even if boxing were restricted to HBO and Showtime, but got better time slots than 11:30 pm, or whatever they are, then we'd see an increase in popularity.
The final problem facing boxing is a lack of activity in the so-called champions. When they are fighting once a year, and sometimes not even that, and are being allowed to retain their belts, we have a problem. It becomes an even bigger problem when the title organizations are not forcing them to fight the best competition, rather allowing them to fight mediocre, at best, mandatories. This is another problem that would be solved with the elimination of alphabet organizations.
When you add all these problems together you get one thing: a dying sport. It's sad to say, but boxing is not growing at all. Will it even be around in twenty years, and what will the state be? Will we see anymore great fighters emmerge, or will we have all of boxing in the same state as the current heavyweight division-- lackluster and disarray?
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