Boxing Fans opinions required

Not on its last legs, no. If you still have fight cards every weekend, if you still have monthly paper views that regularly sell 100,000 buys, and if its still selling out arenas here and overseas, you cant call it near dead. Not by a long shot.

UFC is a threat. It is not only attracting attention from fans and the media, and drawing there money, but also young talent. Being a great boxer is now no longer the only way to be a great badass in competitive combat. You better believe MMA is affecting the talent that goes into professional boxing to begin with.

The further proliferation of titles, the removal of boxing from networks like ESPN, and a theoretical dry up of interesting fights are the worst threats right now.

Boxing isnt king of the world anymore, but I'd argue its doing just fine, and when you factor in the global boxing scene, dwarfs all other prizefighting sports.

 

I think it has enough fundamental fans to stay relevant no matter what. Pacquiao VS Mayweather is probably the highest potential PPV event to date, and it's coming from this sport. It may not be like that every year, but it goes to show a lot of people will pay to watch the best go at it. If promotion were to evolve along with the market for combat sports, then I think it would see a resurgence of boxing as a major sport. It's likely the most global sport, with disadvantaged individuals fighting their way towards a better life in all different countries, so it can't be in serious decline. This pattern may not fit into your model, but I feel as a commercial entity it can experience a rebirth with the proper exposure to consumers, which is lacking.

 

Boxing still beats MMA in overall ppv sales and attendance.

They've been saying boxing is dying and is on the way out for decades now.

It's certainly been more popular at other times, but it was around before mma and it'll be around after it loses it's popularity.

And I hope you don't plan on using that text abbreviation stuff in your dissertation... atsch

 

I would say boxing's future is unknown at best. In many ways it has been on decline since TV started to kill live boxing, and by extension a lot of gyms and fight venues, not to mention the fact that most guys today just don't fight enough or often enough to master their craft. Boxing is not supposed to be a product or a marketable item at its core; it is an art, and you are lucky that it does have a rise, peak, decline, and death. As of now it is difficult to gauge boxing's future. It is getting increasingly more popular in China, India(?!) and other asian countries as far as the amateur game goes. They lack the pro infrastructure, just like Russia, but it seems the interest is there.

In the united states boxing is on dying legs. The perception is that the sport is dead or dying and it has certainly become niche. Other sports have college endowments, are on public television, and don't have a reputation for ruining your body(although Football and Basketball and Baseball will hurt your body and brain as well).

The UFC is a product built around a lot of bull**** and minimal substance. They are superb at getting matchups made and with a unified brand they can promote very easily. Convenient. However, to me the excitement of the concept is waning, and I believe interest will too. Instead of being an ideal matchup between martial artists(wrestler vs boxer??) the majority of MMAists have become a very generic Muay/Thai BJJ hybrid, or a wrestler boxer. I don't consider many MMA fighters to be genuinely masters of their craft, although I do enjoy about 5 of them. UFC and Boxing can coexist. Combat sports have been around for centuries and people pick and choose what they like, period.

Boxing needs drastic reform in the pros and amateurs for sure. The function of a title for weight classes, and even weight classes with all these junior divisions is confusing and cuts the talent and competition of every class in half. The existence of the Cruiser division means the heavies don't have to train down for stamina or speed, so they remain fat, with no dexterity or conditioning. The multiple titles thing is ridiculous. I don't know of an antidote for that. The amateurs need to get rid of the headgear and start scoring like the pros. They way they have it now is hurting how kids learn defense, body punching and inside fighting. The sad thing is that there IS talent... it is just being wasted with guys staying in the amateurs for too long, getting coddled and overpaid as prospects, not being moved along with legitimate fights fast enough, and bull**** matchmaking. A HUGE issue is this stupid superfight bull****, if you protect a fighter till they run into another "great" fighter they will retire not having tapped into their potential OR built a decent resume.

The sport needs some serious help right now.

 

How about some facts to go along with your opinions?

- The number of active pro boxers increases by every year.
According to Boxrec, there were approx. 14,700 active boxes in 2008.
By the end of 2010 there were approx 16,300.

- More nationalities than ever are represented in The Ring's ratings.
At last count I found boxers from 34 different countries.

- In a number of countries around the world, a currently active boxer is among it's most popular athletes.
Be it Manny Pacquiao from the Philippines, Saul Alvarez in Mexico, Mikkel Kessler in Denmark, Chris John in Indonesia, Daisuke Naito in Japan, The Klitschko's in Ukraine and Germany, David Haye in UK, Miguel Cotto in Puerto Rico, etc.

- On any given weekend there will be shows held in countries like USA, UK, Germany, France, Argentina, Japan, Australia, Mexico, Canada, etc.
Several of these countries will host several shows.
In total there were over 20,000 pro fights contested around the world in 2010.


Boxing is not dying.
In fact, on a global scale, boxing is growing.
Few other individual sports could even produce a list such as the above.

 

You guys all make compelling points to argue that boxing is not on its last legs, but for it not to be defined as being in the 'decline' stage of its life-cycle, you would have to be able to argue that it is in one of the other stages, no? Can we do that? I don't think that you can.

KoKid, interesting statistic as to the number of professional boxers rising year to year, still. However the more interesting indicator would be to chart the percentage increase each year for the last however many years. I have a hunch that while still increasing in total number of professional boxers, the rate at which they are increasing may be slowing down. In which case, this would indicate a decline.

My personal belief is that boxing is indeed on the decline. For all of its flaws, MMA cannot help but force boxing in to some form of decline because at its fundamental least, where boxing used to be a way for you to find out who was the biggest badass on the planet, now it has to share that spot with MMA. I think it comes down to evolution, personally, people are becoming more and more interested in flash rather than substance, and MMA with its shorter fights, more flashy rock and roll marketing, more different ways to **** somebody up, is catered to entertain. That's why the general forum is packed (with mostly mongoloids) and the classic is relatively smaller. Even though the information available in the classic is so, so much better.

Boxing's great draw to me, is the artistry and subtle science involved. However, with the emergence of more and more coaches and trainers who don't take the time to learn, and therefore more and more boxers who don't properly learn their craft, this art is quickly being lost. There are less and less great fighters. More and more - I hate to use the word, but you understand the implication - "HBO hypejobs", and as such the mega fights aren't really mega fights anymore.

I think to my recollection the only MMA fight I have ever seen is the James Toney fight. So I don't really have any idea what I'm talking about when I discuss the MMA but man all of that stuff looks so sexy compared to the marketing and the events that boxing put together. Too many belts, too much dilution of weight classes. Too few great boxers. Hell, a factor may even be that there are too many - albeit absolute heinous - movies based on MMA with sexy young actors. The Fighter was great, but how many people saw that compared to **** like Never Back Down and the one with Channing Tatum, etc.

Boxing is not dead, by any means. However by stating that it is on the decline merely accepts that as popular as the sport once was, it is no longer. Which to me seems to be a fairly dead on description.

 

I was going to be doing something similar to this for my dissertation. Do share your findings.

 

Also, I just noticed on second read, David Haye is NOT one of the UK's most famous athletes. He's behind over a hundred football players alone.

 

Right on ...

 

When Mayweather and Pacquiao retire I fear a bit for the future, simply because neither of them are taking sufficient risks, and I KNOW both will retire before they're really past it. Look at what Oscar did. He transferred his PPV laurels to both men before he threw in the towel. How are any of the young guns going to make names for themselves when the big two dismiss them as not being ready or some other nonsense? Top Rank and GBP are at the apex of promotion bul****. Look at how they refuse to match up anyone with their respective stars. Look at how they protect their prospects. It's no surprise that the fanbase has come to enjoy dibella's stable and other fighters, because they aren't blatantly protected or codled and they aren't abandoned given losses. I have faith in the bantamweights though, these men are hungry, they have skills and talent. the 140lb and 168ers as well. Some good matchups in these areas. I used to be excited about FW but I think Gamboa and Lopez are not as complete as they need tobe and bantams/sbw's moving up will take their straps.

I think boxing's growth and popularity is really unknown as of now. it is growing and waning in different parts of the world. I DO think that the governing bodies, promotions and amateur guys need to rewrite some things for the good of the sport though.


If Nonito Donaire overcomes his wife's and promotional bull**** he will become a superstar.

 

life cycle? The greeks were hitting each other in the face with taped up hands thousands of years ago.

Boxing, running and swimming are the original sports. Timeless human sports for humans.