Does professional boxing need a flagship event?

Yes but it’s not happening. We’ve seen fans demanding elite fighter tournaments with one big finale for a very long time but there’s no effort for it actually being made.

 

Yes I agree, but we need a league first bro. Just like if you do MMA you compete in UFC, hockey in NHL, football in NFL, basketball in NBA... Sometimes a dictator is good. Like Dana White, he puts guys in the most challenging of fights instead of this protect the O nonsense we have in boxing. Someone mentioned the Charlo twins are 31 and still trying to cash out with Canelo, instead of fighting other young thoroughbreds.

The question is: what would this event be called? What weight class would it be in? Interested to find out.

 

It's a nice idea but too many promoters, networks etc worried about protecting their product ( franchise fighters ) to risk losing to the other side of the street promotion. It's all about money, fattening the pockets of promoters etc. I guess without thinking too deeply about it, my question is : Why haven't other sports fragmented through the years like boxing? Plenty of leagues have splintered but always seems short lived and they get back together.

 

You can argue Cinco de Mayo and Mexican Independence day already are.
Maybe even NYE in Japan.
Smaller scale though.

 

Last time I checked, teddy atlas was looking for a senator John McCain as commissioner of a world boxing league, now that he is passed away (may he rest in peace) I think this idea should be sent straight to the fight with teddy atlas and Ken Rideout. No seriously man, it's a very well concept me thinks. But it is good idea at the same time. Somehow they get the memo lol. Imagine teddy romantisizing over this idea lol. Maybe it will bring him back to earth (the boxing world) instead of up in the atmosphere with MMA lol. It's a thinking man's game and it's a good idea. Good looking out for boxing.

 

Teddy didnt sugar coat things on live tv.
Like he mentioned on the last podcast all he got for it was the boot.

 

Boxing is too splintered with too many groups, whether that be sanctioning bodies, TV networks or promoters to ever be organised and united enough to be able to establish a flagship event that happened regularly.

The changes required to do that alone would be a vast improvement for the sport. I don't see a league like in football, I see more a tour like Tennis or F1 with tournament style events around the world held year round with a points system so at the end of a year you a final ranking with belts/titles given. So no more taking a title and then cherry picking opponents, no more ducking fighters until they look vulnerable, no more promotional feuds preventing fights. You would of course have levels, much like in F1 where you have F1, F2, F3 etc or tennis where you have the main ATP tour and then ITF challenger events. So novices start off in the lower level events only until they garner enough points or win enough events to be invited into the top events.

Maybe you could have an end of season championships as the flagship event with the top top guys in each division that have the most total points facing off. There are 17 divisions so imagine 17 fights with the 34 best fighters in the world facing off in one event, held over a couple of weekends. Imagine that as a PPV event, it would actually be worth whatever the price would be.

 

One already exists for boxing. The world HW championship is the flagship event. Unfortunately there are too many belts and we haven't had an undisputed champion since Lennox.

 

It already does. It's called the World Heavyweight Championship.

 

It does, but it isn't going to happen because of the way boxing is set up.
They tried it with the WBSS to moderate succes, but the issue is you'll never get the big stars in there. The money isn't there, plus exclusive contracts prevent it from happening.
And just look how hard it is to get the best fighting the best in boxing at all nowadays. How hard it is to get towards undisputed at all. The last undisputed heavyweight fight was back at the end of the previous century, and the last undisputed defence almost 30 years ago! There's always one that knows he'll probably lose, a manager that doesn't want it, an alphabet org throwing a spanner in the works, you name it...

Long story short. It absolutely should, but no chance it will happen.

 

A flagship event might be fun, but i'm not sure it would enough to revitalize the sport. What we need is a multi-billionaire to buy up the 4 major alphabet organizations, merge them into one, and restructure the sport so that it is considerably more fan-friendly. Get the fights all on one network, have regular pay per views that are worth the money, and have a governing body independent of the boxers' teams that determines match-ups.

I know the UFC has its faults, and it pays its fighters in peanuts by comparison, but hey, at least it has solidified itself as the premier MMA league, and it is structured so that the best are constantly fighting the best, and there's usually about one PPV per month and these are usually at least pretty decent. If boxing could ape this, then it would probably make a significant comeback in america.

 

You lost me at Super Punch. I think the major belts can work out a deal were all the belt holders fight eachother every 2 years. Every division.

 

This is a good post man, you're oozing with information , thanks to the op for making this thread.