Im starting to think that the whole perception of boxing being dead has alot to do with where people live. Philly has always been a big boxing town, all my friends who are not even hardcore boxing fans pretty much know who Pavlik, Pac, Klitschko, cotto ect. are. Everytime time a big fight happens, people at my work will be talking about it, and almost any bar you go to will be showing boxing whenever a match is on. Most of the kids in the deeper suburbs are more into MMA, but they still can name quite a few boxers active today and watch a fight every now and then. How ever my friend brought over one of his friends he met at college who was from a suburb in Minnasota who was into boxing. He said nobody he knows around there is into boxing, and his friends cant even name a single boxer who is active today except for maybe De la Hoya. He was pretty surprised to see that almost all of us knew about the current fighters and actually follow the sport. So my question is: is boxing big at all where you live and do you come across any other people besides your self who follow the sport?
That would be a yes. Boxing obviously isn't having the same popularity as say the 1980's but if you live in The U.K. or Germany Boxing is doing fairly well in the current climate. You need to capture the general public's imagination and with Calzaghe, Hatton and Haye we've been riding on big renaissance in the U.K. and the talent pool over here is pretty good with a lot of young prospects coming through at the moment. The future look's bright for Boxing in Europe.:happy
It's doin alright in Springfield, Missouri. Alotta rednecks have jumped on the UFC bandwagon though. but the tickets have sold pretty well every time BJ Flores has fought down here.
The idea that boxing is dead is just ****ing stupid full stop. Mayweather-Oscar was huge. Pacquiao-Oscar did big numbers. Hatton-Pacquiao will do huge numbers. Last year saw the end of the best trilogy in the history of fighting and maybe the greatest performance in history by a fighter over 40. There will be more great fights this year, and the fighters in them are earning more money for those fights than at any time in history.
The problem with boxing lies here. It waits on one BIG fight to make money and then spends the next year hyping up the NEXT big fight that will make money. What boxing needs is a complete overhaul with its promoters...because the current ones seem to be clueless.
A boxing show on a local channel would be great. Come on Superbowl is free, NBA Finals are free, World Series are free etc. It would be nice to have one big boxing show with a great card on free tv once. Boxing has something that MMA doesn't have and thats credibility. Its part of the worlds history like all the great sports. MMA can't give that. Its a shame PPVs have made people forget about that. I just want one show. If these promoters want boxing to be big again. Feed its fans a bone once in a while.
In order for boxing to get back on TV, It has to do it the way MMA did. By putting on great cards with name value on it that pull in good enough numbers that network execs will want to put their hand in the cookie jar. As long as boxing keeps pulling in the 150-300K buy rates on a consistent basis..they won't get it.
well yeah the big fights sell well .. ie World Awaits or more recently the Dream Fight but the "150-300K buy" is very true as other then the big fights .... the Diaz-Pacquiao, Calzaghe-Jones and Pavlik-Hopkins PPV's all sold terribly. boxing really needs to get off of PPV, because I read on another forum about the Pavlik-Rubio Cotto-Jennings fight costing $60 which imo is just absurd.
Which is somewhat sad considering that the P4P 1 and 2, 2 HOF ATGs and an up and coming superstar comprise that list.
Theres two things I hate about the sport: 1) PPV. And after we pay there's still ****ing adverts everywhere 2) "Belt holders" You really don't need to be great to obtain a title
I'm worried that despite there being something of a golden period of British boxing recently there is little or no interest in my area. Where I'm from boxing fans are in the tiny minority, though some people do have a passing interest. The main reason I'm on this website messageboard is because I don't know anybody outside my family and maybe 1 other dude who is interested in talking about the sport. But perhaps the success of some UK fighters will do more for the younger generation than mine (I'm in early 20's). I'm pleased to say MMA is getting absolutely nowhere where I live though.
