Boxing's Dead! Here's why?

[Irondan]

I was a big boxing fan growing up and as a young man. I saw all the Tyson fights from when he exploded into the boxing world at 19 years old onward. I wondered how anyone could ever beat such a ferocious fighter... Buster Douglass fixed that for us. Anyway, I got to meet Marvelous Marvin Hagler off chance while swimming near his summer vacation home. That was the greatest celebrity meeting of my life, meeting the champ while he was the champ. Hagler was a beast, those fights with Suger Ray Leonard, Thomas the Hitman Hearns, Roberto Duran were to me the golden age of boxing.

Hagler v Hearns was the best 3 rounds of boxing in history, period.

After those guys left boxing there was a void that has never been filled.

Now, we have these guys fighting for the Heavyweight Championship of the world, but I think Ronda Rousey can fill a card with more enthusiasm than this one.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/ap...-teases-Wladimir-Klitschko-ahead-rematch.html

Boxing's dead...

 

[Alpe d'Huez]

I agree that the sport is nothing like it was in the 80's, or the 70's. Not even close. In the 1970's boxing was the 2nd biggest sport in the world, behind only soccer.

As far as Fury and Klitschko, I honestly don't care. In fact, I can barely name any champion in any division, and there's numerous divisions, and numerous belts. But the most bland may be the heavyweights. There is so little drama there. Even lower weight classes, the actual weight, or belt don't mean much of anything to fans. Does anyone really know what belt (belts?) were at stake in the Mayweather-Pacquiao fight? Match-ups are what rules the day, beyond weight classes or belts. Everyone's a champion of something these days, and every fight on TV a title fight it seems. But even then, compared to the era you speak of, what marquee matches are there?

But boxing does remain profitable, and a money making machine for some people. So I don't anticipate much change in the years to come.

To me there are only two ideas the sport needs to do in order to make a huge leap:

• Recognize only 9 weight classes (there are currently 17). Drop all the junior and super weights. Also drop minimumweight. Tradition was 8 weight classes, but I'd keep cruiserweight.

• Make only one, true world champion per weight class. If there are to be other belts, they need to go back to things like the USBA or NABF champion, or European champion, etc.

There are other things they probably should do, like start health care funds, and retirement funds for fighters, adopt Olympic like drug testing. You could argue that the referee should be allowed to pause the action more to observe the fighters for their safety, and even call in the ring doctor to examine a fighter more, plus err on the side of caution with more standing 8 counts. This could lead to even slower and more boring fights though.

 

[jmdirt]

I too was a fan of boxing in the '70s and '80s, but as has been pointed out, there is too much division (too many weight classes, too many belts...). I still enjoy watching a good fight, but those only happen maybe once a year.

The heavy weight champ fight could be OK, but not likely.

In my teens, I did some boxing for the skills, and to vent anger. We would get clubs together several times per year and have 'smokers' with walking weight- weight classes 125-145, 145-165, 165-185, 185+...that often resulted in big wight differences. I was 155 then so it was never too bad. I volunteer to fight a 180 guy one time though, and was quickly educated on how much harder a 180 could punch. Honestly though, 180 guy aside, my hardest fights were guys within a few pounds of me.

I would love to see boxing "unify" and make a comeback, but don;t see it happening.

EDIT: I spent the rest of the day remembering getting up early on Saturday morning, pounded from Friday night's football game, and sparring in that old crap hole building for a few hours. Now I couldn't do either!

 

[Pricey_sky]

I'm not a hardcore boxing fan but enjoy meeting up with friends and watching a big fight with the beer and whiskey flowing.

Cant stand Fury and I've never been a big fan of the Klitchko's.

Anthony Joshua on the other hand has got the potential to be one of the very best. Looking forward to some massive fights featuring him over the next few years.

 

[movingtarget]

Maybe not dead but it's slipped a long way.

 

[JackRabbitSlims]

was a huge Mike Tyson fan many years ago.....watched "Mike Tyson's Greatest Hits" so many times I can't watch it any more.

Nearly cried when Buster Douglas took him down - not worthy!!

anyways......that clown Mayweather wants back in the ring......for 9 figures!!
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/sport/news/article.cfm?c_id=4&objectid=11631962

Boxing is a bit of a joke these days and MMA is picking up the ball they've dropped.

 

[Irondan]

Re:

was a huge Mike Tyson fan many years ago.....watched "Mike Tyson's Greatest Hits" so many times I can't watch it any more.

Nearly cried when Buster Douglas took him down - not worthy!!

anyways......that clown Mayweather wants back in the ring......for 9 figures!!
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/sport/news/article.cfm?c_id=4&objectid=11631962

Boxing is a bit of a joke these days and MMA is picking up the ball they've dropped.

Floyd Mayweather in my opinion is a POS as a person but as a boxer it's hard to deny his talent.

I would like nothing more than for him to come back for one more fight, even if it's in the 9 figure range, and lose.

That would make me happy...

My hero!

 

[JackRabbitSlims]

Re: Re:

was a huge Mike Tyson fan many years ago.....watched "Mike Tyson's Greatest Hits" so many times I can't watch it any more.

Nearly cried when Buster Douglas took him down - not worthy!!

anyways......that clown Mayweather wants back in the ring......for 9 figures!!
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/sport/news/article.cfm?c_id=4&objectid=11631962

Boxing is a bit of a joke these days and MMA is picking up the ball they've dropped.

Floyd Mayweather in my opinion is a POS as a person but as a boxer it's hard to deny his talent.

I would like nothing more than for him to come back for one more fight, even if it's in the 9 figure range, and lose.

That would make me happy...

My hero!

A well researched post

Yeah, it's hard to like a guy like that....who's around that can take him down though?

We've got a guy down here called Joseph Parker that hits pretty hard....he's looking for a heavy weight title fight in the next 12-18 months.