Boxing seem to have less and less fans as time goes on, its sad that out of my personal fans and work colleagues, only 1 other guys actively follows the sport. I think part of the problem, is that 90% of the fights we want to see have to be paid for, and casual fans just dont want to do that. You have the big PPV fights (Floyd/Pac) which cost £14.99 (UK), which although is a lot cheaper than the US have to pay, is still too much for the casual fans. There is also BoxNation, this has some Ok fights being shown. This weekend we had BHOP/Dawson and Malignaggi/Senchenko. However, this channel is £10 monthly subscription!! No casual fan is going to get behind this. I cant think of any other sport where you have to pay through the nose to watch the top fights. I think if we ditched PPV all together, boxing could start to rebuild its fan base. Thoughts?
Ya PPV is the number one killer of boxing not the corrupt judges or the lack of big fights. It really is Think about it If you had put the weekend's fight on ESPN I honestly think the double feature of Mitchell vs Whiterspoon Hopkins vs Dawson if promoted right can do HOCKEY PLAYOFF NUMBERS at least ya ya hockey playoff numbers is baby but still millions more then the biggest PPV I think for a big fight like Mayweather Cotto on free TV it can hit 20 million + 30 million even
its like that for me in canada, im sure its lessening in the states. When a new dominant heavy weight with charisma or just straight up craziness shows up then you'll see boxing go up again in popularity. Thats the truth, boxing will go up and down in popularity but it will never disappear.
PPV and a lack of creative promotion is what's limiting boxing's fanbase, IMO, but I think it's healthy in many parts of the world.
SJS19, Intentional Butt and John Garfield are the fellas to talk to on this subject, though there are a fair few men/women on here who will tell you how it is. As stupid as this site is, there are some clever people to talk about boxing. In the UK the BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation) won't show boxing, it's seen in their eyes as 'barbaric'. ITV show nothing now, Channel 4, nothing, Channel 5 show some fights now and again. Sky is ****ing rubbish for me, awful commentary, awful pundits (aside fom Barry McGguigan). Boxnation is great for £10 a pop (month). They'll let you watch May school Cotto. I'm no ***** by the way.
there were fights on ESPN, FOX Deportes and America Azteca this weekend... And some very very good ones.. a hell of a lot better then the HBO fight at least... I think promotion is the big issue... These big companies are doing an horrendous job with all the new media and stuff... I heard rumors that 50 Cent is going to get into boxing promotions.. And he is likely to promote Gamboa and Broner... He has 20 million followers on facebook and 7 million on twitter.. As much as i hate him as a musician... i really think he can stir things up in boxing..
The biggest problems causing lack of casual fans are: 1. Lack of predictable schedule. With other sports you know when games will take place/be televised. With boxing...you don't know. - Solution: Have scheduled boxing tournaments at all pro levels where winners advance to next stage. National/Country tournaments in Spring, Regional in Summer, Intercontinental in Fall, World Championship in Winter like baseball/football. 2. Too many belts. Nobody knows who is who, who to support, etc.. - Solution: If we had the above schedule, belts would be unified and title fights would happen on a regular schedule. This would produce a single lineal/unified champion at each weight class, making it easier for fans to identify with fighters at different levels. 3. Lack of quality fights being made. Again, if you used my solution in #1, it would solve this by forcing the best to fight the best in the tournaments, title shots would be earned and would be significant at each level (not just world level). 4. Promoters & Sanctioning bodies **** block quality fights. You see it in every division, guys not fighting their way up the ranks because they don't want to lose a title shot. Why fight one tough guy after another if you can instead fight 10 easy ones, 1 decent guy then expect a title shot? - Solution: The tournament schedule I mentioned above would solve this problem be forcing competitive fights at every stage.
I agree that the lack of predictable schedule is a problem, but im not convinced that your style of tournaments would be ideal. For me, the issue is promotion. I cant remember the last time i saw a big fight advterised on the main stream TV/Radio channels (UK). I only know about the upcoming fights because of dedicated boxing sites. Too many belts is 100% an issue. Had a tough time explaining a simple question to my Mrs last week, she asked "So who is the actual champion, Mayweather or Pacman" - took me ages to explain it. The super six was great, saw some fantastic fights there. Best fighting the best (except Bute).
I'm busy, I'll come back later and write a full answer but as far as Boxing in the UK in terms of popularity... ****** had a spot on ITV, he took his stable to SKY thus narrowing his market. The BBC gave Audley Harrison a multi-million pound deal straight out of the Olympics and got their arses burned, since then they've had no interest. Benn vs G-Man very nearly lead to Boxing being banned in Britain for good. ITV dipped their toes in the water a few years back, unfortunatley they gave their Boxing shows to Mick Hennesey. Froch got ITV exposure, and so did John Murray. (Tyson Fury did too but nobody paid much heed) Froch won his fight with Pascal and instead of building on that momentum and getting the Jermain Taylor fight, ITV let it slide. If you have momentum then you build on it! The Taylor fight was awesome, and really would of bought in decent numbers. ITV showed Khan vs Paulie, and it did brilliant numbers. It showed that the British public will watch Boxing when it's given too them, but no promoter asides from Mick H wants to do it. Eddie Hearn, here's a memo. Brook and Frampton have quality, put them on terrestrial TV and build up a large fan base, then there's much more leverage when it comes to negotiating. (People point to Hatton becoming a star on Sky and argue that it can work. Yes it can, but Hatton was a one off in my view. We need a grass roots approach IMO) (I'll be back later.)
OK, think about this way. Brackets: Break the world into regions, break each region down by nation. N. America (region) - USA (nation) - Canada (nation) Latin America (region) - Mexico (nation) - Cuba (nation) - PR (nation) - Central America (nation) Europe (region) - Italy (nation) - France - Spain - UK etc... (you get the idea) Tournaments: Spring - Pro tournament happens in each nation, on free TV. Finalist fights Interim National Champion. Winner = National Champion 2012. Loser = recycled into tournament for following year. Summer - National Champions fight in a tournament (on free TV). Finalist fights Interim Regional Champion. Winner = Regional Champion 2012. Loser = Interim National Champ 2013 Fall - Regional Champions fight in a tourney (on free TV). Finalist fights Interim Intercontinental Champion. Winner = Intercontinental Champion 2012. Loser = Interim Regional Champ 2013. Winter - Intercon Champion fights reigning World Champion each January. Winner = World Champion 2012. Loser = Interim Intercontinental Champ 2013. Problems solved in this format: - Unpredictable schedule of fights. Boxing tournament going on all year, every year. Fights progress in difficulty as the year progresses. - Negotiations/Promotions - All the fights will be done at fixed purses (60/40 split per tournament rules), so no endless bickering about money. - Eliminates bull**** fights. Titles only change hands by winning in the tournament. - Creates recognizable lineal champions at the National, Regional, Intercon and World levels. Every fan in every nation could tell you who their national champion is at any time.
I don't even mind it being a nice sport tbh, it gives me something to stand out from the crowd. Whenever I mention my favourite sport is boxing you get a different reaction from just saying something like football, the bitches love it.
:deal Nothing gets sluts wet like the thought of a man punching another guys nose through the back of his skull.
Should just make it like the old days, the top contender fights the champ. Not this, pick a bum off the street b.s