Mid 2000s. Not coincidentally the time when Mike Tyson and Roy Jones Jr became undeniably washed. There was nobody to replace them as figures. Floyd came close when viewed solely through the lens of PPV metrics but he never moved the cultural needle like they did.
I think that @MixedMartialLaw has it correct. The mid 2000s is about right. The rise of the UFC may be the number one factor, as well as the fact that the heavyweight champion was not from America. Of course, there were still lots of big stars around such as Pacquiao, Mayweather and others, but that’s when things really started going downhill. I am only talking about boxing becoming a niche sport in America. As far as I can tell it is still quite popular in other parts of the world.
Oh, it's been niche from a peak participation and mainstream popularity standpoint for far longer than the mid 2000's. You can trace it back to plenty of converging factors such as postwar prosperity, the rise of TV cannibalizing local fight scenes, boxing being removed from schools, blatant mob corruption, and higher income from safer sports, among other things. Ali and Tyson were great bandaids, and the sport needed them desperately, but they were outliers whose presence represented an uptick in a long term secular decline
Probably when HBO boxing stopped…maybe started before. A lot of blame can be put on Mayweather and Pac for not making a fight. I remember I was pissed at the time. To many alphabet belts and to much ppv.
A lot of good answers as to why on hear but add: The rise of MMA The death of boxing in schools and gyms
I don't know, I feel it has been a sliding scale. I think Mancini killing Kim and boxing moving to premium cable hurt the sport some as it moved off of regular TV. I think it has been a slow decline since then with the sport still carrying recognizable stars to the general public without the sport as a whole catching the public's imagination. Tyson and De La Hoya brought plenty of popularity but I'm not so sure how the rest of the sport did outside of them. Anecdotally, I grew up in the 2000's and went to a high school of over 2,000 kids. I think maybe one or two would really talk boxing at all. Mayweather vs De La Hoya happened then and plenty of kids watched that but most came away with a bad taste in their mouth. When I was still on Facebook there was discussions of the May-Pac fight but mostly frustration of it not happening and then disappointment after it did. Even in college, I don't think I met anyone who watched it. No one had watch parties for it. The school did a watch party in the auditorium for UFC Frankie Edgar vs Jose Aldo which drew big numbers and enthusiasm in a fight that was pretty good. I think boxing for now is going to be a niche sport for the foreseeable future. I think much of it is boxing's self inflicted wounds and the rest is the media landscape in general paired with lack of participation. Football has somewhat low participation in the general public vs viewership so that alone may not explain everything. The NHL and NBA just had two of the most watched championships I think the Stanley Cup was the most viewed ever and this NBA Final was the most watched since 1998. There is still a hunger for sports viewership
I clearly remember throughout the 70's into at least the mid 80's a championship fight with big name fighters dominated the sports pages and was usually the lead story on TV sports coverage--(local and national.) Olympic boxing also generated MAJOR interest. A big time championship fight would also be the centerpiece discussion in any bar or barbershop. Those were truly the days---we were lucky to be a part of it!! And to this day I've yet to see any single sporting event equal the intense buildup and interest generated by the FOTC. The world literally stood still for that fight!!
I agree with this. Aside from the odd superstar such as Ali or Tyson, not many could’ve named another champion in any other weight class. That wasn’t so much the case in the 60’s and especially earlier. way, way before 2000.
December 28, 1958. This was the date of the famous NFL Championship game between the Colts and the Giants which went to overtime and was watched by 45 million people on tv. The game really made the NFL a major league sport and it joined baseball as a national pastime that was clean and exciting. Before then, the NFL wasn't nearly as popular or as known. Boxing then took a third place behind these sports and started diminishing from there. It didn't help that boxing was on TV too often each week in the 50's and the quality of the fights suffered accordingly so people got bored of it.
After the 1990's. Once HBO cancelled their boxing programs because Wlad turned out to be such a waste of time, money, and resources, boxing truly tanked.. leaving undeserving pay per views to fill the void. Now, who cares anymore?
I blame cable and pay per view. Once younger audiences stopped having free access to viewing boxing it killed the future of its fan base. Just my theory.
I have to imagine popular entertainment becoming more geared and marketed toward women and children, in addition to men, played a part as well. As big as boxing was in the first half of the century, I'd wager it was still something primarily watched by men. Most women today tend to find boxing too brutal to enjoy, and I'd be surprised if that wasn't the case back then as well.
