Good Job ESPN

Huge disappointment

It would've been the first live boxing match on ESPN in... uhm forever?

The worst part is.. there is no excuse for it. This weekend is not even a huge sports weekend in the US, other than the NCAA tournament.. but CBS shows all those tournaments games.. there's absolutely no excuse for canceling this..

 

****

 

Why did they change it?

Luckily i got Classic but it would be good for Boxing if they had it on regular ESPN.

 

It dosent make sense. If the fight was good they could have kept thowing the highlights up on SportsCenter and really put a nice effort into drawing attention to boxing with a large "sports fan" fan base.

 

At least they're going to show it live.

You guys don't get how far back boxing is right now.

 

Yes, this is sad news indeed. Though I rather see it for free, than have to pay like 20 bucs to watch it on Showtime or HBO, then get rid of it a month later. I do wish ESPN would try hard to promote the sport I love, I'm afraid the UFC is becoming alot more popular with my age group, it wouldn't surprise me to see ESPN get into the whole mixed martial arts fad within the next couple years and drop boxing all together.

 

I agree with everything said about ESPN, specifically Sportscenter, and Sports Illustrated. Both have abandoned boxing. But, I've said this before, let's not let the boxing promotional companies, promoters and managers off the hook. I am consistently amazed by how little they do to promote their fighters outside of their local area. I was fortunately enough to have the opportunity to cover both the Kelly Pavlik fight and UFC 96 live in the past month. The difference between the marketing push the UFC puts out there for it's guys and what boxing does to support theirs is night and day. You want to talk about guys "sitting on their money". How about some of the big time promoters out there who not only do everything they can to prevent some good fights from happening, but also do little to support their fighters and their events. Don't get me wrong, there are plenty of good guys out there, but if boxing had half the marketing push the UFC gets, and half the marketing minds the UFC has, it would be on top of the world.

 

Thats just my opinion, and I do hope I'm wrong. I just see the storm vastly approaching, and unless boxing makes some major changes or finds a big star to promote again, I feel it mayb be in some trouble in regards to drawing attention to the average fan. People could say what they want about Tyson and his antics, but if anything it brought attention to our sport. Everytime he would make and off comment or do something wild, it made the front of the sports page, and was put on blast on sports channels such as ESPN throughout the day.

I think fight fans must remember, being good behind a mic, can be just as important as what he does in the ring. We have very little fighters with any personality, most are downright boring in and out of the ring. Look no further than Wlad Klitschko, he might be a nice guy and all, but he's boring as hell to hear talk and his fighting style is not much better lately. We just more colorful characters in the division, I think this may help gain the attention of the average fan IMO.

 

I agree on ALL posts so far, except for the highlighted part:admin:bart

 

I must admit that's an interesting reason for wanting McCain to win. Who cares what he does for our country, at least boxing will be taken care of!