Why are the best fights in boxing not happening?

[Chollo Vista]

If you look at it logically, the reason is that it's too easy to avoid them. For both the fighters and the promoters. Until it becomes too difficult for fighters to make money any other way than fighting top competition, they will continue to avoid fighting top competition.

It's easy to blame this promoter or that promoter, but they all have a hand in it. They're all part of the same fu*ked up system. The promoters don't design the incentives, they just live by them. Granted guys like Arum and Haymon are far more responsible for this than smaller promoters because they have more power. But they are operating under the established logic of the sport as well, build stars up soft and match them even softer unless there's a truckload of money parked outside.

The biggest problem is that it's hard for anyone to make long term investment in the future of the sport when they might not survive long enough to see the return from it. So it's all about making money now, bleeding whatever you can get out of the game while you have the chance.

The balance is all out of whack in the sport. That philosophy is extremely destructive and has been eating away at the sport for decades. The promotional cold war is obviously very bad for the sport as a whole, but for a while at least, it was working out ok for the players.

And if you're a smaller player, forget about it. When you're trying to keep the lights on you're not going to gamble away the one or two stars you have because it's the 'right thing to do for the sport'. You're going to hold them close until you get a satisfactory return on your investment.

My two cents is that boxing needs a financial crash. The business landscape needs levelling. This might mean PBC going bust, or HBO withdrawing for good, or anything that sucks tens of millions out off the game. A big external shock is needed to bring all the players back to the same table again.

These dudes (1) have to be forced to work together to make money again, and (2) have to be forced to innovate. Both those things need to happen for boxing to move forward. A big financial shock is the surest way to bring it about. When these guys are desperately trying to put a series of multi-promoter tournaments together in order to make some dough, then you'll know we're going somewhere.

Excellent post. I would only add that promoters get away with whatever the networks allow them. I think at this point exclusive network deals need to end. It limits the pool of available opponents while guaranteeing large purses for fights that are meaningless and easy.

Maybe having only one network would work so long as their programming was geared toward giving fans the best fights rather than building a star and having ratings based on "entertainment" and "performance" of the star against an easy opponent.

Superb posts

[al-Xander]

Thurman vs Spence
Broner vs Garcia
Ortiz vs Joshua
Joshua vs Wilder
Wilder vs Fury
Jacobs vs GGG
Pacquiao vs Crawford
Rigo vs Loma
Canelo vs GGG
Crawford vs Broner
Canelo vs Andrade
Beterbiev vs Stevenson
Spence vs Garcia
Spence vs Broner

People say boxing is dead and that the UFC has surpassed boxing. Maybe they're right. The UFC doesn't have this problem of the best not facing the best.

Boxing has this problem because promoters try to take their stars and maximize their potential earnings by matching them against guys they'll easily beat while earning maximum profit. All the while this makes business sense financially, but its completely ruined the sport.

I'm tired of "building" fights. I'll be 70 years old by the time I see 5 good fights. This is bullschit. The best needs to fight the best. Point blank period.

No more Floyd Mayweather business models

It's a bullschit sport.

[Prince Madison]

Thurman vs Spence- Because Spence went the IBF route in order to face the Ring #1 rated welterweight

Broner vs Garcia- Broner just moved back up to welterweight and hasn't earned a shot at the WBC welterweight tilt

Ortiz vs Joshua- Ortiz is set to fight Ustinov for the WBA elminator and he'll get to fight the winner of Klitschko vs. Fury

Joshua vs Wilder- Wilder is out for the year after injuring his hand. He didn't fight Joshua before that because Wilder had a mandatory with Povetkin which ended up getting canceled

Wilder vs Fury- Fury has a rematch clause he has to fulfill.

Jacobs vs GGG-Bidness decisions

Pacquiao vs Crawford- Crawford is trying to unify 140. Pacquiao is a welterweight

Rigo vs Loma- Loma is two weight classes higher than Rigo. Rigo won't even move up one weight class.

Canelo vs GGG- Bidness decisions and Canelo has dropped down to 154

Crawford vs Broner- Crawford has an exclusive contract with HBO. HBO can't afford to pay Broner what the fight would fetch in an open competitive market.

Canelo vs Andrade- Canelo is fighting Liam Smith for the 154 lb title. Andrade doesn't have a title so Canelo isn't fighting him

Beterbiev vs Stevenson- Stevenson has a mandatory defense

Spence vs Garcia-See my first answer
Spence vs Broner-See my first answer

I wish more of these guys would take the Floyd Mayweather business model and face tough competition and earn their way onto a PPV. Brone has done nothing to earn a PPV slot but people were mad he turned down Pacquiao.

what a load of ****

[al-Xander]

Let's be real here. What are the fights do you want to see at this point? Why are they not happening?

[M Bison]

Coming back to this thread I blame the fans for not standing against the B.S. you need to boycott bad fights and you need to make your opinion loud and clear to these type of guys who just want to cash out and want easy paydays.

[al-Xander]

Coming back to this thread I blame the fans for not standing against the B.S. you need to boycott bad fights and you need to make your opinion loud and clear to these type of guys who just want to cash out and want easy paydays.

They should be treated like lepers. They don't belong in this sport and should have picked other careers.

[M Bison]

Let's be real here. What are the fights do you want to see at this point? Why are they not happening?

Fights that we want to see that aren't being made easily

Adonis Stevenson Vs. Sergey Kovalev
Andre Ward Vs. Sergey Kovalev
Wladimir Klitschko Vs. Tyson Fury 2
Roman Gonzalez Vs. Estrada 2 (there was no reason for that to not happen again)
Canelo Alvarez Vs. GGG
Rigondeaux Vs. Frampton
Rigondeaux Vs. Quigg
Danny Garcia Vs. Someone actually good

[kevin-novice]

khan v brook too. we want that one.

Joshua v fury

haye v joshua

haye v fury

Garcia v somebody ffs

[al-Xander]

Fights that we want to see that aren't being made easily

Adonis Stevenson Vs. Sergey Kovalev
Andre Ward Vs. Sergey Kovalev
Wladimir Klitschko Vs. Tyson Fury 2
Roman Gonzalez Vs. Estrada 2 (there was no reason for that to not happen again)
Canelo Alvarez Vs. GGG
Rigondeaux Vs. Frampton
Rigondeaux Vs. Quigg
Danny Garcia Vs. Someone actually good

I have little interest in 160 and above. It's 140 - 154 for me. They're mostly in the Haymon stable. Which means they could be made easily with zero issues. But they're not.

Thurman vs Garcia, Thurman vs Broner, Thurman vs Spence, Garcia vs Broner, Garcia vs Spence, Garcia vs Porter, Broner vs Guerrero, Broner vs Berto, Broner vs Peterson, Spence vs Porter, Spence vs Peterson, Lara vs Andrade, Lara vs Williams, Lara vs Charlo brothers, etc.

Most of the fights in your list have different management teams, thus not easy to make. Mine have no issues. Which makes it frustrating.

[MrRolltide91]

They do though. Cleveland Cavaliers and Golden State Warriors was built up with an 82 game season and 3 additional playoff series. The Cavs and Warriors play all the teams whether it be the OKC Thunder or the Milwaukee Bucks. The best don't play the best night in and night out.

Same thing with the Super Bowl. It's built up with a 16 game regular season and 3 playoff games.

Megafights are built up through two stand out fighters, beating top contenders in their division and ending up being the last 2 men standing.

And for next nba season it will be Warriors vs Cavaliers again.


That's a good point about the nba.

The cavs play in the eastern conference, and they didn't have to worry about the clippers, spurs, warriors, and thunder.

They only play one team from the western conference and that's it.

People say lebron has an easy path to the nba finals but they still watch it.