Ideas to make boxing better and regain popularity

[deathofaclown]

No mention of 1 title per division...should be top of the list imo.

Yeah but it's not going to happen. Those belt organisations are businesses. They're not going to willingly just disappear.

[deathofaclown]

Make it illegal for fighters to be locked into deals with a promoter..


Every fighter should be a free agent at all times, free to make the biggest fight, which the promoters would bid against each other,, insuring the best fights get made, and fighters get the biggest possible payday

Eddie Hearn doesn't even have contract with a lot of his fighters. Tony Bellew, Brook, De Gale and a few others just go on a fight by fight basis. Obviously there's some loyalty there but it's all done on trust basically. Never been a great fan of Hearn but I always thought that was pretty cool really.

[Helm]

1) 1 fckuing title per division
2) weigh-in on fight day
3) fight mandatory or BTFO and lose the belt

[craigus1990]

I say, you could get rid of the square ring with ropes and instead have like a hexagon or an octagon or something.... and instead of ropes, have a big cage... and instead of it being called boxing, call it something with a three letter acronym, like Boxing Until Midnight, BUM.
And then have drug testing for fights but only reveal the dirty tests after fights so that the cards aren't ruined by all the fighters failing the tests.
Then you could have skinny a Irishman, who really weighs 180 pounds shredding down to 145 pounds to build a career...
And then hire some WWE wrestlers to come in and headline your biggest PPV fights, when they can't fight and are clearly just huge and sit on peoples heads to win...
Trust me, this will be brilliant.

[bboy80]

Naked ring girls.... The end!

[soul_survivor]

There are some good suggestions here but also some that just won't work _Maxi.

Starting with same day weigh in, or 3 hours before the fight as you state. Dehydration is a real serious, physical issue. It can decrease the amount of fluid in your body and more importantly the brain, leading to increased risk of damage to that particular organ.

However, I do agree that their needs to be something to stop the gross rehydration that fighters carry out. How can we do that? Either a weigh in 12 hours before the fight rather than 24+ hours or a limit of 5lbs on rehydration. That amount of fluid should be enough for a healthy person stepping into the ring.

Then there's the idea that there should be instant unifications, which does not address the actual problem. That problem is: there are 4-6 champions per division. Outside of heavyweight and possibly light welter, how many divisions can you point to and say the top 2 guys fought and we have a genuine divisional number 1?

So the real solution is to have a central governing body which regulates the sport and defines the world champion AND there needs to be a decrease in the number of weight divisions. Across 10 lb, from minimum to super fly, there are 4 damn weight divisions. That is plain laughable. From super fly to bantam, there's a 3lb difference.

the lower weight divisions could easily be amalgamated into one.

[Eff Pandas]

Copy as much as you reasonably can from the UFC (KO + performance + win bonuses, one champion per division, less divisions, hype show on TV that leads into a PPV, announcer's that seem to actually have passion for fights and outcomes for even the smaller fights or less than exciting fights, etc and so on)

Get rid of weight cutting entirely, assign a healthy weight range that a fighter can complete at, great fighters or fighters who gain weight or lose weight over time can petition to be moved up or down.

More clearly outlined protocol to judge fights to make it less subjective, the ability to judge the judges that move the best to the top quicker and the rest down to 4 rounders, amateur boxing to improve or out of the game.

Someone (PBC, AIBA, the top promoters, commissions, the unified alphabet groups or someone else I'm not thinking of right now) need to create a centralized power structure of elite boxers that is ultimately looking out for boxing the sport first over boxing the business.

More clearly defined levels that allow for more competitive fights at all levels. With a centralized power structure the elite level boxers would be clearly defined, but I'd also wanna see a B league, a C league and a rookie league that keeps fighters in a more competitive range of opponents from their first fight til they fight for a title til they get older and their skills diminish.

Naked rings girls.