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Back in the 70's everybody knew who Ali, Foreman, and Frazier were. In the 80's everybody knew who Hearns, Duran, Wilfred, Hangler, and Leonard was. In the 90's everyone knew who Tyson, Roy, and Holyfield were. Why aren't any of these current boxers known more by the general public when they have access to social media and other outlets that fighters of the past didn't have?
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Because back then the best fought the best and gave it their all in the ring; they didn't just hype themselves. Holyfield wasn't a big mouth but the way he fought made him popular. A lot of smoke now but no fire, just hype..."I'm gonna destroy him..", "I'm looking for a KO". I think the Pacquiao vs Mayweather fight put a lot of people off because prior to that fight casuals still spoke of Cotto, Mosley, DLH and if that fight had lived up to the hype (in one commercial Pac and FM in gladiator costumes) people wouldn't have lost so much faith. -
Because it's an expensive sport to be a fan of! How many popular sports cost $65+ every time they host a good event? I can only think of one; combat sports.
I blame the promoters for taking everything they could from the sport. The fact that we're getting more free boxing on TV is a positive but they spent the first couple years "building" so we're only starting to get into the good stuff and who knows if they can sustain long enough to actually raise popularity. If boxing becomes free and easy to find (not scattered across 20 channels), I think we'll get more household names once again.Comment
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They're not. The ufc has a more focused marketing machine so they can hype whoever they choose very efficiently but even with that, who is a household name in the UFC? No one who's currently active (I'm counting Rousey as retired) and McGreggor is the closest thing to it, primarily due to the Mayweather talk. Mayweather is 10x more known than McGreggor.
Their PPVs are doing well but they deliver stacked cards. 2 years ago, when they were showcasing one popular fighter per card, they did lousy numbers. Don't forget, we're only 2 years out from a boxing ppv that may have generated more revenue than a whole year of UFC events.
There's a lot of hype surrounding the UFC right now and they're doing well again, financially, but don't make the mistake of thinking they have a lot of stars.Comment
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honestly the sport went downhill after guys like Sutherland and Rainford retiredComment
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Yeah it seems like whenever the topic of boxing comes up with people who don't really know the sport too well, they can name Chavez Jr and Canelo but that's about it. At least that's how it is where I'm from (Cali)Comment
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