What's wrong with boxing fans today ?

[OCPancho]

When did boxing fans start becoming other fighters' haters and have become full-on n#thuggers instead of just being fans ?

Can you imagine the 70's and 80's with these fans ?
They'd be arguing who should get freaking 60% of the PPV money . They'd be calling every boxer in the division of their favorite boxers bums . WTF? If they are all bums, then beating them is worthless .

When I followed boxing then, I was just excited to see the greats fight each other. And back then, more often than not, the greats really fought each other .
There were a few superfights that did not become about like Pintor-Chandler, Sanchez-Pedroza, Duran-Pryor or Duran-Arguello, but there were a ton of super bouts .
We didn't give a fkk who made what percentage . Losing was OK b/c you get to fight again. Did people call Ali a bum after losing to Norton ? Did people say Duran was "exposed" after losing to De Jesus ? Fkk, no. They just fought on and their fans still followed them.

And all these fans today who like to spew , " you don't know sh8 about boxing" are mostly clueless to the history of boxing.

['b']

Because people are gay

[Eff Pandas]

I've talked about this over n over, but I feel fans changed when boxing changed.

The big fights used to happen more often in timely fashion outside of outlier situations. Nowadays the big fights happrn less frequently so there are always less compelling fights when the schedule is filled with -500 to -2000 betting favorites. So fans talk about new sh^t these days & that means some fans talk more biased sh^t about the guys they see as ducks or aren't fighting their biggest rivals quick enough. And that leads to others being fanboys the opposite way in defense.

So fans just didn't decide to change. The were changed due to the sport changing. And likely the fans who didn't change with the sport went elsewhere or don't find boxing nearly as interesting as they used to largely I'd bet.

[Real King Kong]

The irony is a lot of the haters/nut huggers of today still revere the greats of the past...even though they’d probably have trashed 90% of them if they were fighting now.

[Joe Beamish]

I've talked about this over n over, but I feel fans changed when boxing changed.

The big fights used to happen more often in timely fashion outside of outlier situations. Nowadays the big fights happrn less frequently so there are always less compelling fights when the schedule is filled with -500 to -2000 betting favorites. So fans talk about new sh^t these days & that means some fans talk more biased sh^t about the guys they see as ducks or aren't fighting their biggest rivals quick enough. And that leads to others being fanboys the opposite way in defense.

So fans just didn't decide to change. The were changed due to the sport changing. And likely the fans who didn't change with the sport went elsewhere or don't find boxing nearly as interesting as they used to largely I'd bet.

That’s it. Unlike other sports, boxing has no system for determining who’s the best. Fighters avoid each other. Fans talk crap because in actuality there’s nothing else to do. Joshua isn’t going to fight Wilder (or vice versa.) Spence, Crawford, Thurman. Gosh ain’t they all so talented though? Yeah, but they don’t fight each other.

Didn’t used to be that way.

[Outwest Exp 355]

It’s the message board/social media era.

[Rock&Roll]

Agree with Eff Pandas, the business has changed and boxing fans are, in part, a product of the current state of boxing. Not the only reason but the main one I believe.

I could write an essay on how and why boxing is so messed up, which would probably help understand why fans have become so twisted.

In short:

1. Boxing power players and ego’s
Boxing is dominated by 3 main promoters who are each backed by a different tv network. Each of these 3 look our for themselves and are trying to bury the competition, attempting to keep fights ‘in house’ and shutting the others out (e.g Haymon will, like the others do, shut Crawford out, so we WON’T be getting Spence/Crawford anytime soon). No unity between the 3 big players creates conflict of programming and the ego’s of the powerful men in charge hinders fights from happening, allowing fans to only speculate as argue on potential fights and ultimately pick a side.
WBSS didn’t get a network in US (has now with dazn) and I bet that was because of politics from the power players.

2. Four, soon to be Five (with boxing scenes help) sanctioning bodies.
There are 17 different weight divisions, which means potentially 68 fighters calling themselves world champion at the same time. This leads to fans picking their favourite fighter and rubbishing the others.
There are too many stories of malpractice and corruption to fit in a single book. From ranking dead people, to covering up failed PED’s test, to sanctioning and enforcing dangerous mismatches and making it almost impossible to become and maintain undisputed champion.
No fan benefits from this.

Even shorter:

3. The best DON’T fight the best, nor even fight often enough so fans are constantly left wanting and waiting.
4. A disunited and fragmented sport does not attract sponsors, maximise network dollars or appeal to any type of sports fan.

Boxing fans constantly have to pay high premiums to see decent fight, which never turn out to be the exciting, entertaining wars of the past.
If Crawford/Spence got made, it wouldn’t be on espn, espn +, it would be on espn ppv.
Boxing fans are a small portion of sports fans in total, yet they take ridiculous amount of our money, allowing people like Floyd to become the highest paid athlete on the planet. I’m not asking guys to fight for nothing but paying $100 for a single fight at 39 yrs old with a garbage undercard is ridiculous.

In conclusion: Yes, boxing fans are turning in fanboys and fangirls but we have to look at the state of play of the sport they are following.
I find myself picking the side of Wilder in the AJ/Wilder online argument... but I don’t really like Wilder as a boxer, he’s awful. I don’t mind AJ. It’s obvious that Wilder and Joshua both aren’t afraid of each other and want the fight but it’s Hearn and Finkels EGO’S stopping the fight from happening...
All of us are arguing over Wilder/Joshua because of Hearn and Finkels EGO’S...let that sink in.

[Ray*]

This has been happening since days one. You have haters/lovers/critics/defenders of every single boxers. Its nothing new.

[Richard G]

Agree with all the preceding posts, the social media attitude has certainly had a big negative impact.

[OCPancho]

This has been happening since days one. You have haters/lovers/critics/defenders of every single boxers. Its nothing new.

Not at the level it is now.
Not even close.
Not even when Ali and Frazier had a rivalry .
Did Ali's fans boycott Frazier's fights and talk sh8 about him like Wilder-AJ now ? Not even close .