Between this Valdez travesty (allowed to fight with highly elevated levels of a potent PED stimulant and winning via blatant robbery) and 90 year old Holyfield being given a license to box has boxing’s reputation hit an all-time low?
No doubt, people are shelling out their cash for YouTubers and old men fighting and promotions are pushing them forward instead of the young legit fighters who need this . A good scorecard is just impossible to see in a slightly important fight, moreover judges and commentators are fudging the line between truly close fights that could've gone either way and 7-5 fights in favor of one fighter. And we've got paid shills with no integrity who cajole the public into thinking that a fight was close.
Boxing consist of cash cows and flies. If no one is fighting... and there haven't been many big fights, no one gets paid. With so few big fights since Covid started, many people are starving for work, and desperate to get paid. Everyone rallies around the cash cows (even if they're on PEDs), so they can get paid. Ward wants to get paid. Bradley wants to get paid. Networks (ESPN & DAZN) are desperate for advertising dollars or subscription dollars. They don't want to see cash cows get sidetracked so they do everything they can to protect them. It's a sickness within the industry. It's all about money.
I was thinking the exact same thing last night. The Valdez/Holyfield one two was deplorable, But then they go and rob a clean athlete blind in favor of said doper, and knock it out of the ****ing ballpark and right into the sewer outside.
I hate to say it as a long time detractor of the UFC and MMA, but they are kicking boxing ass's as a product for entertainment. Boxing will always be a staple, but promoters are going to have to do some series thinking about the value they bring to the table. You can much more easily find UFC fights in bars and restaurants and younger fans who know the names of the guys fighting. The fighters don't look like club boxers anymore and have decent striking abilities and strategies that they implement. Most of the fights are competitive and end in KO's and TKO's. In boxing the best don't have to face each other and we are treated to no name and underwhelming undercard matches, and dodgy decisions for the main events. The biggest events are being headlined by yester years stars and youtube club fighters. Yes, we are in the absolute worse era for boxing. It won't be this way forever, but it doesn't look like it will turn around anytime soon.
I use to have lots of friends and family show up to my house for fights cause they know i will have it. Bad scoring, no real champions (4 per wieght cause each major sanctioning bdy) and bad matchup have turn them all away. Even knowing they can watch it free, with food a booze supplied, they don't bother because they see it as a farce.
Kind of shows you capitalism and the free market won't solve everything without some intervention. Although the government would be the worst people to get involved. Ideally at some point some competent promoters and networks would have some ideas. I was kind of hopeful with PBC and DAZN, but they haven't done much better.
Yes for sure. Mercifully Jake ''Money'' Paul salvaged its reputation by destroying MMA for the second time in a row because since the Sugar ''Money'' Mac vs Floyd debacle MMA has been scoring a lot of event wins over the sport of boxing but if Holyfield loses tonight to Belfort I honestly don't think even Jake ''Money'' Paul will be able to resurrect boxing's reputation from the gutter again. That will be the final nail it the coffin.
I don't mind capitalism, but this is just corruption. Yeah, unregulated capitalism can become an uncontrollable beast, but MMA is making things work and they're doing a much better job of making sure the best fights the best. Boxing has been shooting itself in the foot for years. I've watched boxing for 20 years and I've never seen so much corruption. Many people stopped watching boxing once the ABCs started fracturing the belts in every division. More fans left after the hometown robberies and the favorable treatment of cash cows started. Now with boxing popularity declining, networks and organizations are desperate to prop up big fighters and even YouTubers so they can make money. It has become a vicious cycle of corruption that we may not be able to get out of.
The ****ed up thing is this fight couldn't be canceled for the reason you mentioned. How is ESPN gonna feel when every other sport is putting out full seasons with crowds and Top Rank has put up something like two cards that had broad appeal beforehand and delivered on their promise? How long could they deal with cancellations and reschedules before they reach the same conclusion HBO did? I'd be surprised if English language ESPN had regular boxing on in 10 years.
I've never seen a ref take a point (with no warnings) for tapping someone on the back of the head. I've seen guys load up and throw full power shots to the back of the head and only get warnings