Why do boxers get to pick and chose their opponents?

"there should be some boxing commission"

That's your problem.

 

Are you bothered about this mythical commission making competitive fights throughout it's rankings, or are you merely bothered as a fan about the best fighting the best?

 

It's the only sport in which the competitors are in serious danger

 

There are mandatory sports where you earn your right to fight the champion
and he cannot really refuse the fight ... otherwise the money rules this sport.

In the amateur boxing you typically don't have the choice of opponent.

 

Prizefighting is like no other sport, it may even be beyond a sport. Two guys trying to beat the hell out of each other shouldn't be taken lightly. Its impossible to force anybody to fight another. Sure boxing is corrupt in many ways, but everything is. For the most part we eventually get to see the best facing the best, not always but that's part of it. If you're a boxer and you know your career could end anytime and your earning window is small in years, you take the most money and least risk more often than not.
There isn't seasons in boxing like other sports. Normal joe's don't get together with their friends on weekends and play boxing, they play football, baseball and volleyball, soccer or whatever. You can't make each guy a team and have a schedule for them. Unlike team sports where if somebody is injured you have a backup, boxing is a one man show. It takes months to prepare for one fight, its not a league, its brutal prizefighting, and for that guys take fights that gets the biggest prize.

 

i dont think your frustrations and need of control will denote the downfall of boxing but....

im not too sure about the historical connotations of the sport which may cause this, but of course theres multiple commissions

In principle, boxing is considered a sporting "fight". In any "fight", you can call out an opponent and either they can choose to fight you or back down from the challenge. Organizations will place "mandatory" expectations on a fighter to fight someone they expect them to fight. Of course the fighter can choose not to and the best the organization can do is to strip them of title or ranking, or both.

In principle, the last thing to do is to "force" someone to fight another person when they truly dont want to. That will NOT make it a sporting event....

Better cheddar?

 

I understand your frustrations with Mayweather-Pacquiao, and in this instance, you’re right.

However, it’s worth noting that boxing isn’t a sport like any other. The contestants don’t kick a ball for 90 minutes and call it a day. They compete to inflict physical harm on one another. If fighters were to do everything that the fans want them to do, their careers and earning periods would be dramatically shortened, and they would have incurred far more damage for it. They’re in a very unforgiving sport. It would be a near impossibility to maintain a record with few losses, and that, in a sport that possesses senseless fans like us, doesn’t bode well. We’re so brutally quick to pounce on fighters when they lose or underperform, that it’s no wonder that fighters/promoters often resort to taking the safer route. We have to be partially blamed for this, in my opinion.

 

And please, don't buy into this 'boxing is in decline' nonsense. They've been saying that since the 1930s . It gets repeated now more than ever because, for the first time, the best fighters are no longer produced by the media-powered countries US and UK. We're not seeing any talent on our shores, and we immediately cry "Oh boxing is a dead sport :|". Yeah, for us it is maybe. But not for the rest of the world. Boxing's doing what it's always been doing. Evolving. The best fighters are coming from elsewhere now. Places where we don't bother to look or appreciate.

 

I know the Eurozone is in crisis, but there is no need to drag Hungary into this.

But seriously, I think almost all boxing fans agree, and anyone who cares to talk about it will have been saying this for years (and unfortunately got tired of knowing that it won't change).

I would add though that the fighters are entitled to be money hungry, given that such a small percentage of fighters actually make enough money to have a reasonable life after they have retired (and no doubt paid for the ongoing medical expenses and lack of pension etc..). I also don't think it is fair to call anyone who gets in the ring scared. They may be reticent to risk tarnishing their earning potential, but they are not scared in the same way as people are who could not get in the ring due to fear. As for ego, I can't argue with that.

 

Because in other sports, they are controlled by an organization which has exclusive control over the participants. Football is controlled by the NFL, Basketball by the NBA.

Boxing is composed of many different sanctioning bodies, and promotional organizations which have their own fighters. Its simply business. If fighter A with Goldenboy, and come to business agreement with Fighter B from Top Rank, then there is no fight. Unless every fighter gets signed to the same promotional company, this will always exists. Money, egos etc....will always stmy big fight.