If a white fighter (American) emerged today at 147....

Same guy who makes this thread is so far up Khan's anus it is beyond a joke.

 

TV did well with Ray Mancini, a white fellow with meager talent.

 

Even though alots changed since the 80s, I think we would have a more modernised less obvious version of Gerry Cooney vs Larry Holmes if this working class white American fighter was to be built as a challenger to Mayweather. There wouldn't be a blatant race campaign, but a notable section of the fans would be influenced (in an innocent way) in who they support and how much interest they would show.

It's all about appealing to your target audience and one of the reasons why many fans have shifted to MMA. A popular white fighter that could challenge the bashful Mayweather would definitely create an interest that would be different to that of guys like Ortiz and Guerrero. From what I could tell even Ricky Hatton managed to become very popular over there when he took on Mayweather. American fans loved him.

 

atsch

 

Guerrero is Mexican.

On topic, a white fighter is always easily advertised, noticed and supported. Fact is, the majority of the people in America are white so it's very normal(not racist) for a white fighter to gain all the attention quickly.

 

It's actually the best comparison. In a sport mostly dominated by blacks and Hispanics, a white fighter tagging along will always get serious enough because it's rare. Tommy Morrison got a lot of hype and love too.

 

****** Bieber would break all PPV records if he turned pro. :deal

But seriously, a white American fighter in a hot division would be massive in terms of mainstream interest.

Give him a decent set of skills and an "aww gee, shucks" type of good ol' American attitude and promoters would be lining up to milk him.

It's a sensitive issue of course but we're talking about a potentially massive untapped market. As boxing fans we'll gravitate more toward skilled fighters regardless of colour, nationality etc. The casual fan however, looks for "heroes" of a similar ilk, nowt especially wrong with that and promoters would certainly pander too it.

 

Unc, I don't think the whole racial/ethnic/color things means as much as it seems over here. WHile I definitely do think it plays a role, it isn't the be all, end all it seems to be in other places around the world. This is just my opinion, but, in my experiences, boxing is such a niche sport, that if you're watching it, you either already have a rooting interest in a participant, or you are watching for the sport itself, regardless of the background of the fighters. Our fighters really don't get marketed over here. At all. We don't really get behind our fighters in a national/ethnic sense/ pride sense I think. Which is why you don't see the massive prefight extravaganzas at the venue that you see in other places, there seems to be a more "neutral" (not really the word I'm looking for... as judging hasn't been exactly stellar, or seemingly neutral, at times) approach.

Disagree with the NFL thing Dan. You could put a non-white QB on every single team and it wouldn't change the game's popularity at all. The NFL is made up largely of African-American players. The only one's who give a **** are the one's who already look at it as a black vs white thing, and they need to evolve. The saying is "you root for the laundry."

The jury is still out on the UFC. It is still evolving, and I think a large part of it's popularity is its high action, short fights and lots of em product.

To me, Mayweather is an odd case, because he has cast himself as the anti-hero. Getting people to watch him by rooting against him is a large part of his gameplan.



Anyway, a white American fighter would rally some of the white fight fans, but I seriously doubt it would bring a whole lot of new fans into the fold just because he is white. As someone else said in the thread. It depends on the personality/ style/ opposition/ promotion, etc. It might garner some interest if the fighter had a superfight coming up. But, outlets to watch are very limited over here. You have your PPV, then cable networks(HBO/Showtime), then espn(which shows mainly B and C guys) and then NBC and WealthTV with the rare card. The system isn't really designed to bring new fans in.

 

Dear lord.