Are boxing stars a thing of the past?

I went mad, not sure why. :s

Yeh, I definitely dont know boxing whatsoever

He has 17 fights lol. He hasn't even fought there. He wants to though, and he will click with the american public hopefully when he does.

 

You forgot Zou Shiming. 100m homes in China tune in to watch his fights supposedly.

 

I remember watching Oscar in massive fights on free view,I saw most of Lennox Lewis fights at the time,I seem to remember PPV coming around Eubank v Benn rematch and I'm trying to remember if Eubank v Calzaghe was too?
Before Naseem ruined his career he was a huge star and it was all orchestrated apparently,you'd have those wanting him to lose and those to win and I never knew that they also were targeting youngsters and that family's would go to see him fight.
With the language nowadays at the ringside interviews who'd want to take their kids to see em anyway,last but not least Ali,Floyd,Eubank,Tyson,Naseem ect were all supremely talented at boxing,at the end of the day Hype will only get one so far which is why I never call Mayweather cause over 49 fights against quality he always delivered and respect for him rematch in those where he maybe felt he lost or was poor on the night?

 

S*** if boxing only has one million fans then it is all over,like I said earlier Haye day not long ago broke a record on a channel called Dave,well over three million in the UK alone,as did Porter V Thurman.
Pay Per view should be done only for two or three big fights a year when the best fight the best,imagine paying to watch AJ in a mismatch that's over in round one,I suppose at least Hearns recognised that he needs to make the under cards better,same goes for Canelo v Smith,against Khan I could understand it but the Liam Smith undercard was awful and bombed and whilst Smith was Game I'll be amazed if even CST80 had heard of him let alone Canelo fans,as such it weakens genuine top fights like Ward v Kovalev as folk have been stung once already and can't afford it every other month,on free view this would of broke records

 

Great post. How many times have you tried to explain the belt system today to non boxing fans and they laugh and ask why there are so many belts

 

Oh well you count me in there,I have no idea what all the belts mean,I would of thought you're either the champion or not,then you have situation like Jacobs who has an inferior belt to GGG and yet somehow thinks he's more important than he is?

 

I think even with a better structure boxing still has a fundamental problem and that is that fighters can only fight 2 times a year. It's impossible to organize some competitive format that would determine who the real best fighter is at certain weight. The best way is to do something like Super 6 but even this takes very long time and in the meantime some new contender could emerge that wasn't even included in the original tournament. It takes too long and casual fans lose interest.

In F1 you have 19-21 races a year, it's much easier to see what the level of drivers is because they test themselves numerous times during the season. Tennis has 4 Grandslams and other big tournaments and the best fight between each other many times a year, again it's very easy to see who the best is.

Boxing is only big when there is a big star who has drawing power for whatever reason but when these stars do appear boxing become very relevant again. A a sport, boxing has a very high ceiling when it comes to mainstream attention and coverage. Even if it's "niche" most of the time, when we get something like Pacquiao-Mayweather it suddenly becomes the most relevant sport in the world.

 

I don't think the number of belts as such is that big of a problem. You could compare it to tennis where there are numerous Grand Slam. I mean who is the "tennis world champion"? We don't have it, all we have are champions of particular Grand Slams and no one seems to be bothered by that. In Formula One, there is no trophy for the real best driver either, you might be a world driver's champion but everyone knows that this doesn't mean you're actually the best driver since the car you're driving makes so much difference.

The biggest problem right now is that the best fighters don't fight each other often enough. If we would get all the match ups we want no one would care which belts are on the line really.