What excites you the most about the future of boxing?

I appreciate this post as well as the overall thread. I admit when I read the title, it made me confront that I generally have a negative and pessimistic outlook to the future of boxing. At the same time, roughly 20 years ago, being a boxing fan in the US was pretty bleak. Boxing had a blackout in most mainstream sports media. Now OK it's not tons better but there are fights on most weekends from a variety of sites and sources, more availability of international cards. And like you described I almost always see some unknown-to-me fighters impressing with skills, heart or both.

So I will stop walking around with a cloud over my head and face our boxing future with a more rosy outlook.

All thanks to the fine thinkers down at ESB~

 

Boots !

 

watching the careers of Bam Rodriguez and Moses Ituama. Thrilled that Bam is an American, and even better, Texan (as am I).

Boots too.

 

I'm looking forward to Bivol beterbiev 3 and hopefully the winner fighting Benevidez after that. Looking forward to the last few fights from usyk, opetaia hopefully unifying, tank getting beaten again, inoue vs nakatani, bam Rodriguez unifying, kenshiro teraji hopefully unifying again

 

Nothing?

Boxing lacks young talent and the future is bleak. It will be a niche sport not unlike kickboxing once the boxers born in the 80s and 90s age out.

 

Boxing has lacked a dynamic crossover talent and headline-grabbing personality since Tyson - the sport was bleak in the 80s until he showed up. People like to say Floyd was good for the sport, but he did a lot more harm than good. Until someone emerges like that again in any niche sport, it struggles to break through the ice and into mass adoption. The only notable one I can think of was Conor McGregor in the 2010s.

The idea that the sport is not doing well is not true, though. There have been 7 or 8 stadium sell-outs in the UK alone over the last 10 years, Pacquiao and Canelo have both done gates over 50,000, and Inoue is a household name in Japan. Just because it's struggling for relevance in the US doesn't mean there aren't global pockets where the sport is thriving.

What excites me most?

Inoue vs Nakatani
The rise of Moses Itauma, Nick Ball, Adam Azim, and other British talents.
Ortiz vs Boots
Kabayel against one of the top guys
Opetaia unifying

Plenty to be excited about, I'm not sure why people are so negative.

 

I look forward to seeing more and more womens boxing.

Me sarcastic ?

Never.

 

I look forward to more if the best fighting the best

Hasn't been perfect recently, but there have been some improvement with Saudi involvement. Without Turki, we would still be waiting for Fury v usyk, while Fury fights Wilder for the 8th time

Boxing will always be business first, sport second, but let's hope we get the big fights more often.

It never happens, but when big name fighters duck, the public should not buy or even watch their fights.

I don't think boxing will ever recapture it's former glory, but these last couple of years have been a move in the right direction

 

I do not believe in Turkis vision for the sport. Think hes telling boxing fans what they want to hear so they'll happily let him take over the industry.

I think boxing fans have misdiagnosed the problems with their sport and they will be trading their current problems for new ones they didn't sign up for.

 

Kickboxing has taken over MMA. Kickboxing is mainstream it just can't be called kickboxing.

 

Hi Buddy.
Sadly I echo your thoughts and sentiments, might be because I am getting on, but I lament at the fight scene of today, and of recents years, it is called The Noble Art, or was, all the faux anger, the tipping over of tables, the name calling, the judges, the overpaid HWs, the Fury's, the months between fights, the drug taking, why are not drug cheats, if found unequivocally guilty, banned for life, who would protest, other than unscrupulous promoters, who have a vested interest in keeping the fighters licence, why are these cheats feted on their comeback, and not treated like pariahs, sorry but I have less and less interest in today's fights and fighters, my only nod to the sport is this forum and the truly wonderful posters that grace these pages, early on I had doubts about staying here and contributing, I wasn't prepared for the antagonistic attitude of posters, the putdowns, the name calling, I didn't understand why people would conduct themselves in such a manner, thankfully the forum these days is a much friendlier place, and a much better place for it.
stay safe guys, chat soon.
Mike.

 

Less big fights in America