In 20 years boxing will be all but lost!?

Fair enough. The question was directed at Houdini. You have a point about the decline in heavyweight skill; I'm just questioning the mechanism.

 

Boxing has fallen out of favor with the American Mainstream for some time, but has increased in popularity over seas. It isn't dying, its just moving. This is to be expected with such an influx of fighters based in Britian, Germany, Eastern Europea, Asia..etc. I don't expect much in change in the next 20 years, boxing will continue to be big business in Europe and overseas, and there will still be a fringe following in the US with a few crossover stars.

 

In 20 years the NFL will be flag football. Look at all the changes that are being made and the lawsuits for concussions etc. You can't even sack the QB anymore or it is a penalty :rofl

Boxing will be OK but there is a problem with the great teachers of Boxing dying off and we are going to be left with a bunch of clowns that just train guys on the mitts. Steward had a good interview about this once he said half of the trainers today don't know **** and think all the excessive mitt work is impressive. :rofl

 

'The boxers today do not know how to fight' - Harry Forbes (former bantamweight champion), 1911.

http://boxrec.com/media/index.php/Harry_Forbes

 

First name all the hwts today who had great coaches. Secondly just having a great coach does not automatically mean the technical points of the game are mastered and exhibited. The fighter himself needs the athletic ability to master the technical aspects of the sport. So the right athlete needs to be in contact with a great coach and then you may produce a great fighter. As an example Wlad had a great coach yet he exhibits no great technical abilities. Leonard had Dundee and Ray had everything and more in this regard. Duran had Arcel...and so on. So the lack of great coaches makes it that much more unlikely that a great natural athlete will pick up the skills required to be a great fighter.

 

By and large, they have the same coaches as lighter weight fighters. Certainly at the lower levels of the sport, where almost everybody starts out.

But again, that reasoning applies to all weight classes.

And it doesn't address your "lost technique" argument at all (even though those "lost" techniques are used by lighter weight fighters trained by the same system of boxing gyms).

 

Boxing always has sucked, and yet in a lot of places the sport has never been stronger...

 

Exactly, we've had a great run of matches:

Pac/Marquez IV
Bradley/Prov
Prov/Alvarado
Alvarado/Rios I & II
Chavez Jr/Vera
Chavez Jr/Martinez
Kessler/Froch II
Khan/Garcia
Guerrero/Berto

Even the HWs have been fun:

Adamek/Cunningham II, Adamek/Walker, Fury/Cunningham, Huck/Povetkin, Price/Thompson II.

 

Competition makes great fighters. Great fighters make great trainers. Any trainer gifted at teaching can study the great fighter and help less natural fighters understand what to concentrate on.

But the "great trainers" poach the best fighters and are connected to the power players of championship boxing that's how they get to work with the best kids. They never produced the best kids even in the golden days. Very few did anyway.

It has nothing to do with the great trainer being in a higher level than the grassroots guys. Like I say if a group of guys only apply the finishing touches to already great fighters they will wind up being called great trainers. How hard can it be though if each kid you get is already great?

 

There may be an upswing again, down the line. One never can say for sure.

I like the weight classes as they are. Going back to the traditional 8 will cause it's own problems. What we need though, is less champions per division. Even just going back to two champs per divsion would be great.

Boxing needs to be made accessible to the man on the street again. Not everyone can afford (or wants to buy) an expensive PPV broadcast, especially if he doesn't know the fighters.

 

Yes, I see what you're saying. I meant "higher level" as in more successful economically / more famous, not more competent.

 

Once again...name the great coaches.

Once again....just because a hwt has a great coach does not mean the skills translate. The right athlete has to be matched with the great trainer. Great trainers coach many fighters but typically only a minority become great highly skilled fighters.

The issues are there are VERY few great trainers, very few great athletes choose boxing as there advocation, of all the fighters hwts are a small minority. So the right hwt has to find a great trainer ....highly unlikely since great coaches are few and far between.