Can Boxing ever return to its former glory?

Yeah, fixing it is really simple(!) Your ideas I agree with, but it's not an easy thing to turn around.

As for Bob Arum, do people really think that when he dies that will be the end of TR? It will be passed over and it wouldn't surprise me to see it operating in the same fashion.

 

There's also a lot of other things vying for the entertainment dollar today as opposed to the 50's. Many kids have been tied to a computer or some sort of video gaming system for the past 15-20 years and that was/is their entertainment. Less and less kids are heading to the gym because they'd rather sit on their asses and play war games on a box.

Take into consideration the huge salaries in basketball, baseball and football that has boxing looking not all that attractive to a kid with good athletic ability.

Fewer local cards are also to blame. In my city, up to the early 80's there were cards being offered every few months and in the 50's and 60's, even more often than that.

Like other's have mentioned, too many sanctioning bodies, far too many belts, too many greedy promoters, way too many PPV bouts that put the sport out of the reach of many people. I know I refuse to pay upwards of $60 to watch a PPV card. I will catch as many fights on regular cable as I can and watch the PPV in taped delay even though I already know the results.

 

I don't expect it to ever be like it was way back in the days when it was one of America's biggest sports, but it'd be nice to make a comeback in the mainstream.

Getting more sponsors so it is on network TV consistently. None of this ridiculous alphabet soup. Boxing has always had 2 titles since the 1920s, but now we have a Big 4 like it's an accounting firm, plus extra divisions and ridiculous titles.

 

most american fighters other than Mayweather, whos inactive and ducking, are just unserviceable to the mainstream. do you think ppl would even give a **** all of a sudden about guys like Bradley, Ward etc if there was only one major belt and 8 divisions? no one wants to see or hear anything about those boring and featherfisted guys that don't even talk a good game or anything. boxing is about entertainment and currently boxing gets exactly the attention it deserves imo.
theyre airing hilarious bums like that clown Thurman on HBO these days