Will Boxing ever be as popular as it once was?

Probably not.

The term "ever" is steep but it's not likely that boxing will reach the level it has enjoyed between the early 70s and the late 90s. There are a few reasons for this.

The heavyweight division has long ruled the sport. The heavyweight champion was the figurative "strongest man in all of sports". Even if that were true today, it's not perceived that way anymore. Wladimir Klitschko is everything you could want in a champion. But he's in a time when boxing just doesn't enjoy the status it once enjoyed. He's not THE man in the way that Muhammad Ali was. It's probably not fair to say it because, who can be The Man the way Ali was? But Wladimir is not even the Man in the way that Tyson was and there is every reason why he should be.

Other sports have gained in popularity over the years. The NBA and NBL are not as popular as they once were but the NFL is more popular than ever. Most prospective athletes would rather take a shot at the NFL than go into boxing.

Boxing is a microcosm of corporate America, where 1% of the participants make 90+ percent of the money. How many Mayweathers are in boxing. Will someone else make the numbers and money that Floyd made? Not likely. But there will be a star, probably Canelo, who will earn far more than the rest of the sport's participants.

Boxing is still a heavily Black sport and it's not very popular to be Black in the US, possibly less popular than in recent memory. Racial tensions in the US are at a relative high for a number of reasons.

Starting with Don and Bob, promoters have more power than ever before. It could be argued that their predecessors like Tex Rickard and Mike Jacobs ruled boxing even more so. However, it depends on how you view their level of control. In Rickard's day, if he didn't want to give you a shot at the heavyweight title, you didn't get it. If Mike Jacobs didn't want you to fight for a title, you didn't. Jim Norris wielded the same power.

The difference is that we live in a more political correct society today than in those days. Rickard, Jacobs and Norris could SAY "You ain't gettin a shot because you're black" and no one could do anything about it. Then along came Bob Arum and Don King, neither of whom would have risen to power without Muhammad Ali.

There are a number of other reasons why boxing is not likely to rise to the level of popularity it once enjoyed. Those are just a few.

 

Exactly