When did the Heavyeight champion title lose its sparkle?

And more importantly WHY? kind of saddens me that its not appreciated the way it use to be.

 

When they started having so many. Even with the NYSAC/NBA rivalry of sorts, there was usually just ONE champ. There started being more than 1 in the late 70s more often, an now it keeps getting worse.

Plus boxing has gotten less popular in the states and the HW division has largely been devoid of exciting fights and fighters, which a few exceptions.

 

How in the hell can we have 3 heavyweight "Champions"? That's why it's not the coveted prize it once was. You don't see multiple Super Bowl champions or World series champions do you? It's a joke and it's all about money for the promoters and ABC divisions and thier bogus titles. One champion in each division....And for that matter let's go back to 8 weight divisions...If a fighter cam't make the weight then tough. Today a fighter can win a belt in 6 different weight divisions that are only 10 pounds different for chrissakes..Enough already. One champion and that's it!

 

answer =once PPV got going.

aficionados and hard core fans wont ever need HW boxing to “sparkle” to continue following it. The "sparkle" only ever attracts people that don’t understand it. the mainstream casuals.

PPV has cut the exposure and accessibility of the top fights. Nothing with a restricted exposure (at the top end) will ever go mainstream again if less people get to see and hear about boxing on a day to day basis other than those that want to. How can it attract a new audience if the mainstream press, terrestrial channels don’t give it the same inches and air time?

take the biggest sport in the world, take it out of schools, cut the free TV exposure, cut the amount of articles printed in the daily newspapers then once nobody is talking about it anymore and the interest has declined charge PPV to watch it and people will soon say it had “lost its sparkle”. It can happen to any sport. More so once a nation that used to dominate big boxing begins to produce less champions.

 

Probably around the time the WBO, and even the IBF, came into being.

 

When Lewis retired pretty much. Vitali had peaked the interest but he soon retired also.

Wlad is just too much of a gentleman with these shitty gentleman's agreements against **** opponents (rescheduling against mormeck? wtf)

anyways combine this with the last decadeof success at ww by oscar, mosley, cotto, pac and floyd and it's easy to see why the www crown is the most prized at present.

 

WW has been something of a king for quite a few decades now IMO with only a few snags in between.

 

Wonder if ppv will ever go away?

 

it was when Americans stopped being competitive in the weight

 

I would say when Lewis retired the final nail was hammered into the coffin.

 

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If it makes money, it will never go away. That is just the way it is. PPV doesn't make a nickle off me, but there are those that will gladly pay $50+ US to watch a few pre-lims and a decent title fight or two in the privacy of their own home.

 

Split titles. The championship kept it's luster when there was a clear lineage of who people believed to be the top dog (Holmes, Tyson unifying), but it was only a matter of time before split belts meant there was too much interest on the behalf of promoters to keep their top 5 heavyweight with a belt as opposed to risking it in unification. Hopefully Wlad can pick up the last strap once Vitali retires and make the line of succession clear again, unless he retires with all the belts...

Not knowing the top dog was is a big part of what lost alot of fans. Then when Lewis stepped down without losing and Vitali did the same, it just put things in limbo until Wlad started collecting the straps again.