I miss the days when any world title meant something. I miss the days when an undefeated record meant something. Yes, I was alive then!
Agree with everything you’ve written. Fury v Chisora hasn’t sold tickets, Eddie, because no-one wants to see a third instalment of a one-sided trilogy. People wanted Fury-AJ and you couldn’t make it and now they want Fury-Usyk and you can’t make it. If people aren’t buying tickets for the **** show you’re putting on, perhaps a rare moment of introspection is in order. Good on the fans who boycott this force-fed horse**** of an event.
I actually don’t care that there are 17 weight classes. You could add another three and 20 champs would be fine… if it was just 20 champs. It’s the proliferation of meaningless world titles that hurts the sport the most. Give us an undisputed champion in each weight class and you’d have about 50 fighters who no longer had a world title claim and 17 who you could call ‘champion’ meaningfully.
It's the end of an age and the dawn of another. The age of Aquarius is upon us, which is good in the long run. The system as we know it is designed to fail and everything that was once good becomes tainted. Not just in boxing...in everything. This transition will take some time. It's a slow process and we're in the stage that's become stale. Bitter. Rotten. EDIT: Apologies. I felt I needed to add a different take on the current sad state of boxing.
It’s better for the fighters at the top now — a champion can fight twice a year for four years defending the title (if he can hold it) and retire on that without ever a need to work again. But I miss the old days too … even when there were (mostly) two champs per weight division the public kind of had a good idea who was the ‘real champ.’ Larry Holmes was heavyweight champ even if there was another version being played hot potato with; nobody said ‘hey wait, he’s not the only welterweight champ’ when Duran beat Leonard (or vice versa). I remember going to big closed circuit fights (without the convenience of PPV at home) and being in an arena full of fight fans all watching and cheering along with the action — sometimes split in their allegiance, sometimes more one-sided, but it was all fight fans and you’d settle into your seat and could talk boxing with them while watching the show and everybody was cool because we all shared our passion for boxing in common. Just during my schooldays you could have real conversations with people about upcoming big fights and everybody knew who the key players were and had an opinion, right or wrong (I cleaned up on lunch money bets on Holmes over Cooney, haha). And then getting in the car after and hearing them break into a regular music station to tell everybody who won the big fight. I’ve read about the days of Joe Louis and people listening on the radio and Harlem being all turned out even though most of them weren’t even going to the Garden to see his fight but parties in the street when he won. I didn’t experience that but I’m grateful to come up when I did.
Sadly so many in recent times do not have the same viewpoint as Rocky Marciano: "What could be better than walking down any street in any city and knowing you're the heavyweight champion of the world?" The title itself has been devalued, its only value to them now is monetary. I am old enough to remember when the heavyweight champion was the man, a real life hero, as a youth i dreamed of being the heavyweight champion, a mysterious figure of awe, whereas nowadays it is WWE, with overdose of social media trash school playground talk, oh with a little boxing if they have to.
The 30s is often described as a weak era, but just look at the rankings of the title challengers! It was normal for the title next fight, to involve the most qualified contender!
I’d say the main reason is, if you watched Ali, Holmes, Tyson, Holyfield, or champs of the 60s-80s, you were watching true artists at work. They did not all have the talents each other did; but they all had talent. You could play music that matched their techniques. Watching HW boxing today professionals look like they would have lost to novice gold glove fighters. No artistic techniques. Champions in the recent days look off balance, clumsy, and not really in fighting shape. My opinion.
