Why doesnt boxing get any mainstream publicity

[Sugar Adam Ali]

ESPN can't show actual footage or they get sued I believe people also got tired of not seeing big fights that rarely happen ABC used to show fights every week on wide world of sports and big fights at that but it all went to HBO and SHOWTIME and for the average fan to come back they need either free fights to watch and or big names facing off for free not PPV that might bring back casual fans and popularize more names and make espn cover more

HBO just signed a deal awhile back to allow espn to show highlights,,,,,

How absurd is it for boxing not to let ESPN run highlights,,,,
ESPN makes huge stars out of every sports top guys,,,, they basically are one big hype machine for athletes,,, its absurd that boxing doesnt take advantage of it...

[DudeN561]

Honestly, Pay-Per-View has killed boxing. I see some posters claiming that Boxing PPV numbers dwarf MMA numbers and honestly that shouldn't matter. I don't know the exact number of PPV's that boxing does a year but I would rather see that it be shown in over at least 50 Million homes on regular television than by say a million PPV customers per bout. The big shows do limit viewers to just a few boxers. The numerous amount of belt holders also hurts Boxing. You can sometimes have more than 12 "Champions" in one weight division. I live in the South Florida area and rarely can I find a fellow boxing enthusiast. I did happen to find a radio show here on Espn's radio that diverts some of it's air time to Boxing/MMA on Sunday's 10AM-Noon. I enjoy when they devote time to Boxing but about 60-70% of the time they talk about MMA. I agree with most, Espn's coverage of Boxing consists of recaps or a quick snippet on the ticker. Soccer is starting to get more coverage on Espn compared to Boxing.

[K-DOGG]

On ESPN today as i type this,,, they are having a live interview with rampage jackson and tito ortiz,,, to of MMA's biggest names, but both pretty much retired,,,
They have fought for many years in UFC, but both have signed with bellator,,, yeah you may have never heard of bellator but to their credit they have a 5 min segment on the most watched sporting show in the world,,, and floyd-canelo, lucas-danny, tim-jmm, manny-rios, wont recieve that type of attention....


Kinda sad when boxing has their biggest brand name fighters all having upcoming fights, yet ESPN is giving a whole segment and answering fans questions on air, to some retired MMA guys coming back for one last hurrah, and the biggest guys in boxing dont get anytime of airtime,,,

What gives,,,,,

And to the idiots that think MMA is struggling then how does their #2 promotion in the world land its own segment on SPortcenters for 2 aging fighters that wont fight till november,,,,

Why doesnt boxing get the same publicity

Easy answer. A station, such as ESPN, if vying for ratings against other sports oriented stations.....or any other station, really. The way that happens is by talking about what you think the viewers want to know about. Sad fact is, boxing is at an all-time low in the states from a publicity and popularity standpoint. ESPN knows which side their bread is buttered on, so they cater to the public they want watching them and buying the products that are advertised during that time slot.

Boxing began shooting itself in the foot back in the early 90's when it ceased to exist on free tv, aka ABC, NBC, and CBS. Without regular boxing programming to attract new fans, all that was left was those of us who became fans before they took the toys away. Newer fans now are mostly grandfathered in by someone else in the house hold. You don't really stumble across boxing anymore like you could when in used to appear on Saturday afternoon on Wild World of Sports.

In addition to that (and this is where the MMA fans are gonna get pissed), professional wrestling was growing in the 90's and exploded during the Monday Night wars with the WWF and WCW; and is still popular. Now, I ask you, what's better than Rasslin that's real? MMA is as popular as it is 'cause it feeds into a more base nature of pure violence. No holds barred (essentially), cage matches. See where I'm going with this? The media, ESPN included, is all about money, as is everything in our capitalistic society. People wanna watch MMA more than boxing. It's that simple.

From James Figg until John L. Sullivan, boxing was illegal because it was immoral. You used to have to ride a train to a secret location to avoid the cops, who would inevitably stop the fight and throw the participants in jail. Boxing became popular first as the sport of kings, then as the outlaw sport.

Now, we live in a society that celebrates brutality; and MMA has it all over boxing in this regard. If you give the people what they want or talk about what they want to hear, they will watch.......and you can sell your on-air slots for much more money than if they didn't.

The dollar my man. That's your answer.