In the mid 60's the Ring Magazine wrote a lot about how the sport had deteriorated and the topic was spoken of as the 'death' of boxing. Some of the things they noted were things we take for granted as what boxing is all about. Mass media, ie. television got a lot of blame. These effects were cited to show how mass media had harmed the sport of boxing. I'll try to remember them it's been a long long time. A long time ago before television, boxing thrived. It thrived in neighborhood arenas where neighboring local rivalries would take place and strong partisan followers of favorite boxers would develop. A lively book making business followed the fights as well. The locals arenas did a number of things to ensure that boxing would thrive. They provided a place for jobs. They provided a place for a continuous supply of fresh talent to develop. This is where all the old time great fighters came from. Abe Atell, Lew Jenkins, Benny Leonard. We owe their legend, to the fact that neighborhood clubs were the grass roots of boxing. In 1950 I think it was, Robinson and Lamotta fought and more people to watch any one sporting event prior watched in their living rooms or in bar rooms. Boxing had changed irreversibly due to the practices of marketing. Today a fighter can step into a million dollar fight in his first pro match. He can do this if the public has been primed to accept him as the product their money is going to pay for. Of course that is the way the business works now. It is easy to draw the lines from effect to causes. Boxing is dying. Why? It has no place for boxers to develop in a way that is healthy. The market place of the local arena that did fill that need is gone. Nothing has appeared to take its place and the evidence is the lack of developing talent. If you can follow this analogy, if the clubs were like a pasture where the cows get fat and healthy, then what we have now is like a feed lot. It seems reasonable to me that boxing business has a share in the demise of the sport of boxing.
I believe one of the most-overlooked aspects about the whole "boxing is dying" discussion is the inactivity a large number of pros show. Why do champions only fight once every six to 12 months occasionally? They say you are only as good as your last fight ...
Its all about the green. They need to either create a PPV or get HBO or maybe Showtime to run the fight or the gate just won't be big enough for the money that they want. They are forced to try to make a big fight but then the parties can hardly ever agree on anything. They need to have one unifying body and all these problems would go away. Hence why the UFC is more popular.
