Boxing fans appreciate the past more than other sports. Reasons?

Boxing is one of the very very few sports where the fan base actually GO BACK and WATCH fighters of the past.

Not highlight reels, but actual fights.



Let's look at a few other sport examples:

NBA:
As much as people talk about Jordan, I bet there is less than 10% of NBA Fans who will actually put in a Jordan game from the 90's and watch it. Don't work like that. Jordan's skills were build on memory, reputation, and highlight reels. For the newer fans.. it's just reputation and highlights, because there is no memory.


European Soccer:
Fans can talk all they want about George Best.. but how many new fans actually WATCH a full game of George Best? They don't.
The same goes for almost every other team sport/individual sport.
with the exception of boxing.

I'm not saying 100% of boxing fans go back and watch older fights. But the percentage of boxing fans who ACTUALLY have sit through entire fights from the past.. is pretty high compare to other sports.

Hagler-Hearns
Trinidad-Vargas
Leonard Fights
Jones Jr fights
Tyson fights.
I'm pretty sure most of you have watched those older fights on video at one time or another.


Boxing fans/pundits must be held in higher regard when it comes to their opinions of the past because they actually watch the past as compare to NFL/European Soccer/NBA where they are just viewing the past via reputation and memory.

A large part of that is obviously watching older boxing fights tend to be a lot more interesting than watching older basketball games.

 

because this era is weak as ****

 

There's no way I'll watch a 90 min football match again but a 45 min fight that's got action is good for me plus when you hear commentators and fighters like Mike Tyson talk about the old timers seem fascinating.

 

Not more than baseball. A lot of it has to do with age of the fan base.

 

Because people are hyper critical/ hypocritical....they don't appreciate talent at the time always comparing to past era's they never experienced stating fighters that fought 6 times with each other were great...bs

 

good fights are always worth re-watching

 

:yep

 

I'm a die hard baseball fan, and that group loves the past. I've spent hours talking baseball with my buddies. Certain numbers carry such weight that they don't need to be explained.

However, we are much more likely to read books or watch documentaries than watch an entire ballgame. After all, baseball achievements are typically accumulated over long periods of time.

Because there are no hard numbers to quantify a career in boxing, it is completely different. The greatest fighter of all time (SRR) lost several times. Undefeated fighters are often jokes (Ottke, Joe Cal).

Plus, fights offer condensed action. I can watch the 4 most significant Marvin Hagler fights in the same time it would take to watch one of Willie Mays 3000+ games.

 

And years later, people will go back and watch the likes of Jones Jr., Pacquiao, Mayweather, Marquez, Morales, Barrera, Mosley, De La Hoya, Forrest, Martinez, Hopkins, Ward, Froch and many others. Great fighters/fights are always worth watching.

 

Fans of anything, not only sports, always praise the past. Whatever it is people will praise the classic "hardcore" version.

 

Boxing fans are the most hardcore of any fans in the US so I'm sure they be fiending to watch fights, with YouTube it's so easy to watch 3 fights everyday, think about that that's a 1,000 classic fights in a year. I think I would watch Raiders games if it was easier, occasionally I'll watch a game from my collection but even than I half watch it.

 

I love youtube. Having the ability to pull up classic fights, or watch the majority of a past great's career, is awesome. It has made me a more knowledgeable fan.

 

Boxing is the only sport I can watch.

 

ldldldldldI've been old enough to really appreciate boxing since the mid-80's and I would love nothing more than to have a new era where the fighters were the equal of any of the best periods I've witnessed,so it's not down to nostalgia.
I think the fact that before cable and PPV, you could see the very best at least some of the time on terrestrial TV,so it was far more of a mainstream sport and we could relate more to the participants.
There were poor periods in the 90's too.
We don't just say it was better because it sounds good.

 

because every fight is a part of history