When did you become a boxing fan?

[IronDanHamza]

The first fight I actually remember watching was Henry Cooper-Muhammad Ali 2, the one in 1966. I was still very young but I remember the fight, the buzz, the exictement. Having the Heavyweight Champion of the world fight in the UK against the guy who almost knocked him out.

I don't remember the first fight at all but apparently I did watch it. I was incredibley young then so there's no surprise I have no recollection of it.

I have a big Boxing family so I had no choice but to be into Boxing pretty much since I was born.

[jabsRstiff]

I followed boxing a little when I was very young. I liked Ray Leonard and watched him take the title from Wilfred Benitez. I still wasn't a real fan just yet. Then my father told me there was a fight on television with the guy Benitez who Leonard beat, and he was going for his third title. So, I actually made a point to watch it. When Benitez landed that ferocious right on poor Mo Hope, something just clicked in me. I was mesmerized and hooked from that point on. It also helped that my mother worked for a company that was the main distributor of magazines in the Philadelphia area- she had been bringing boxing mags home and I started reading them the day after the Benitez fight. This made me go from boxing fan to boxing NUT.

I think it helped that I got into boxing when there was a true abundance of great, exciting fighters and great, exciting fights.....on television just about every weekend. The hype for Leonard-Hearns was in full swing, Sanchez-Gomez was right around the corner, and the build up for Holmes-Cooney was starting to kick in.

[joe strong]

started watching when i was 14

24 years...

[Nagabilly]

Reading all these replies, I feel like a baby. I'm 17.

Ever since I watched Rocky in 7th grade I became a casual fan of boxing. I only watched Pacman fights (still my fav fighter) and few Ali, Tyson, and Chris John (The only fighters I know) then I stumbled on a Frazier documentary they were showing on TV not long after he died. Interested, I went to a few forums for classic fights and so here I am. I've been watching hundreds of fights and discovering new fighters since.

I'm the only boxing fan I know. My friends only care about Pac and my old man liked Larry Holmes and Oscar but not exactly huge fan of the sport either

[Sheppirino]

I became a fan as a little kid when I saw Tyson beat Holmes. At the time I didn't understand that Holmes was past his prime all I knew was that he got knocked out and I thought it was cool. From then until my late teenage years I only cared about the big fights. Then one day I decided to become a serious fan and started paying attention to all the fights no matter what channel they were on or what magazine they were in.

Thanks to youtube I've been looking at all the classics for quite some time now.

[GrandpaBernard]

When did you discover boxing? When did you become a fan? Who was the fighter that made you a fan of the sport? For me, it was watching boxing on ABC and NBC at times as a kid, but became a bigger fan when I started watching more of it on HBO and seeing fighters like Leonard, Hagler, Holmes, Tyson and later Holyfield. What was the first big fight you watched? For me, it was Leonard-Hagler. Watching Tyson and later Holyfield become heavyweight champion made me a fan for life.

Do you guys still have the passion for the sport you had when you discovered it? It started to wane for me in the late '90s, then was reignited watching guys like Cotto, Gatti, and Mayweather on DVD.

I of course discovered a lot of the old films of guys like Louis, Robinson, Demsey and Marciano, at which point he became my favorite and that's why he's now my avatar.

When I stopped boxing. I used to think it is strange how fighters aren't necessarily the biggest fight fans, or that the people I trained with weren't always up to date with boxing news.

[joseph5620]

When did you discover boxing? When did you become a fan? Who was the fighter that made you a fan of the sport? For me, it was watching boxing on ABC and NBC at times as a kid, but became a bigger fan when I started watching more of it on HBO and seeing fighters like Leonard, Hagler, Holmes, Tyson and later Holyfield. What was the first big fight you watched? For me, it was Leonard-Hagler. Watching Tyson and later Holyfield become heavyweight champion made me a fan for life.

Do you guys still have the passion for the sport you had when you discovered it? It started to wane for me in the late '90s, then was reignited watching guys like Cotto, Gatti, and Mayweather on DVD.

I of course discovered a lot of the old films of guys like Louis, Robinson, Demsey and Marciano, at which point he became my favorite and that's why he's now my avatar.

I've been a boxing fan since I was about six years old. My Dad would buy boxing magazines like "KO" "Boxing illustrated" and "Ring" and leave them around the house. I started reading them when I was no more than 6 or 7 years old and after that I was hooked. By the time I was about 11 or 12 I started reading up on the 70's since I was not around for that era and I became even more fascinated by the sport and the different styles that boxers presented. I started reading up on boxing's best in history which influenced me always to equally appreciate defense as much as offense(hit and not get hit) and fighters like Willie Pep, Ali(60's), and Pernell Whitaker, fascinated me and basically established the type of styles I enjoy watching the most. A lot of the The PPV fights in the 90's actually had quality undercards and to me there is nothing more exciting in sports than watching a quality PPV boxing event.

To sum it up, I've been a boxing fan most of my life.

[PAC-BOY]

When i was born!

[Panamaniac]

The first time I became aware of boxing was through my father who was an avid Joe Louis fan. I was indifferent to the 'sweet science' until Floyd Patterson became the youngest man to win the heavyweight title. I was first intrigued, then became a fan as a result of his epic trilogy with Ingemar Johansson. When "Cassius Clay" burst upon the scene, I became an avid fan myself.

Meanwhile, names like Isidro Martinez, Julio Ruiz, Hector Hicks, Humberto Trottman, Jorge Quintero, Eloy Henry, Jesus Santamaria, Justiniano Aguilar, Benjamin Lewis, Ismael Laguna,* etc. were featured at the boxing venues of Panama.



*Second Panamanian to become world champion (first was Panama Al Brown in 1923, who was also the first Latin American to become world champion).

[raskat]

I started watching boxing because of my grandfather about 20 years ago. The Ali wars with Foreman, Norton and Frazier were on TV all the time and my grandfather was watching them and so I watched with him. It was interesting at first, but only a few years later did I develop an interest myself and started reading boxing magazines (Ring, KO) and I watched european boxing on Eurosport. Later did I start to watch international boxing and develop an interest in ALL divisions because at first I was only interested in the HW division like most "casual" boxing fans.
It is indeed a process to study this sport. I would say I study boxing history since around 14 years now and even today I hear new stories I never heard before.