Has the likes of Mundine and Nasser destroyed Boxing in Australia?

You can point the finger at Mundine all you want, but the culprit here is the sport of boxing itself...

Mundine can definitely be attributed to it's rise in the past few years, locally in particular. An argument can definitely be made to attribute a public distaste towards it in the past few years at the hands of Mundine and his cowardly career path. The dude is in it for the money and that is completely transparent now.

The Mundine circus can be attributed to ensuring casual fans tune in more. No doubt a bout it. Unfortunately casual fans make up the majority of the boxing public I think.

Pretty much every guy I know likes boxing - unfortunately 99% of them only know about 1% of what is actually going on in the sport. They don't look into it whatsoever. They barely look into any sport what so ever - because they don't ever need to!

Most other sports involve an organised competition whereby the best athlete, local team or country representatives achieve a defined goal, cup or championship. Player or Team A is in direct competition with player or team B,C,D, E etc etc in order to win X title, championship, cup or trophy proclaiming them as the best.

It's a formula that is easy for average Joe to follow making it easy for the media to talk about in order for the majority of people to understand. Player(s) A beat Player(s) B,C,D & E and thus they are the best this time around. They'll do it again next year, next 4 years what ever. It's easy for people to watch and know whats happening, making it easy for the media to write about as it's got a broad base.

Boxing on the other hand is a bunch of random guys, fighting for a bunch of random titles with no organisation what so ever. Obviously it's not so far gone people lose all interest. Jo BLo still wants to know about that which makes the sport popular in the first place (HW bouts, big title fights, the biggest athletes fighting each other) but he doesn't give a flying **** about anything else - if he did then Gatti/Ward, Marquez/Vazquez would be making the news reels on Sports Tonight along with the fat slow *******s who currently do.

People are simple - they are either passionate about their sport, or they are spoon fed it because it's that easy to follow. It's what seperates fans from diehards. I'd say most of us here are boxing diehards, but we actively have to follow the sport to even know what fights are coming up. There is no ladder - no comp & no reknowned competition for us to follow to stay in the know how with this sport. We need to come here, see box rec and other boxing forums/news sites and feeds from other countries to know what the hell is going on in the sport and who's "worth following".

There are so many titles, so many fighters and so many divisions under so many different sanctioning bodies and promoters that it's almost impossible to know who's the best any more. The universe of boxing is so ****ing convoluted that anyone can be a champ now and you don't need to fight anyone to be there. The ones who do make a name for themselves the right way. You have to be very smart, very manipulative and very lucky to get the 'blokes at the pub on a Friday' to know who you are or give a **** about you because they aren't gonna find out about you any other way anymore.

The boxing world is the one who needs to pull it's head out of it's arse. If it wasn't in the state it's currently in a person like Bumdine wouldn't have the chance to do what he's done in the first place.

I still agree with you that he's fighting nobodies, he's taking everyone for a ride and it's costing our sport fans. But ultimately it's the sport itself that lets ****wits like him do what he's doing to begin with.

 

Well said Pork Chop,a good start to getting Boxing back on track would be get rid of the WBA its a disgrace.!!!

Mahunga

 

Good post and much of that is true, but Mundine's apparent motivation for crossing over to Boxing was because in his opinion boxing was dead in this country and needed reviving.

Short term?... he may have gave it a shot in the arm but it didn't take too long before he acted more like an aggressive tumor.

*Leon, I like my last sentence and expect some level of applause.

 

I.E. This looks easy to manipulate. I might make some money.

 

Another reason boxing will never be mainstream here is the fact you have to pay $50 to main event to see the big fights, that's $50 for about 3 hours coverage. Imagine having to pay $50 for every 3 hours of rugby league or cricket etc you wanted to watch, you'd soon lose interest in the sport. Fox sports could help this situation too by putting the cards main event don't want on tv, as it is, all we get the occasional card from america about 2 months after its happened.

At least they've pledged to put some local cards on every 3 weeks, that's a start and we've had some good fights too like Vea vs Siale. :bbb

 

This might do. :bowdown

 

New poster alert!!!!!!
Until recently I would have pointed the finger at the Australia media rather than any particular weakness in Aussie boxing. Then there was Vic's "homecoming extravaganza" held in the function room at he back of the Red Lion, one small boom box for the PA and 25 people in attendence. F*ckin' ace!!! What an advertisment. What class!!! That aside, my point is, any tv exec who feels Kali Meehan vs Chagaev has more potential than Vazquez vs Marquez is needing a career change. The UK has Frank Warren cards on ITV (free to air) at prime time Saturday night slots. People in the UK are more savvy about their boxing because they are exposed to it in a palatable form. Amir Khan may or may not have the beating of Katsidis but I'd be willing to bet that more people in the UK actually know who these guys are. Therefore if they were to fight where do you think it would be likely to take place? If it's outside of the states then my money's on the Reebok Stadium Bolton. The trend continues; exposure to quality fights heightens boxing's profile which increases the likelyhood of attracting quality fights. If you are served up sh1t on a dinner plate you aint going back for seconds.

 

Who the **** do you think you are coming in here first post with that sort of horse **** :-(







































Welcome to ESB :yep :hi:

 

Mandy & Co. may have injected some much needed colour into the Oz game at the beginning. Those early days were credited with plenty of tests against seasoned Pro's, most having expired used by dates, yet the quality of opponents was still there for an aspiring star to be guaged by as he went about his business.

I for one was a fan. His talent was increasing with each outing, as each National title holder fell...

By the time of the Green bout it seemed Mandy and Co. were the goods... and they were. Aside from the Sept 11 dribble, Mandy had proved himself a fighter. Ottke had belted him goodnight with a single blow, and even that could be over looked by the time Green was out pointed..

Then the **** began. The numbers of promotions were continuing, but noise from undercard fighters being forced to sell their own tickets as the means to a dollar when fighting came well known. Boganesque bull**** from Mandy's mouth to sell shitty fights was increased with each unfulfilled promise of being matched with big names.

His stoppage of Soliman was enough to convince many of a future at the top.. Ducking Kessler, fighting more has beens, avoiding rematches with Geale etc after dropping a division.. the Medlay bout where Mandy barely controlled the bout.. Fallugia in Tassie was the token use of Geales face to promote a farcical promotion where Mandy showed true pig like form in weighing over the weight and not having the respect for a fighter to make weight as agreed...

The list is long and ugly of what the pricks have done.. some good, most negatives being in numbers that exceed the positives. The last few years have seen TeamKnob make arses of themselves in promo's that stink out all credibility.. Promises and more promises. Idiots who believe every word being told are limited to one less than two.

This same idiot has the idiocy of mind to suggest future promoters will apply the same tactics. Heaven forbid they do.

TeamKnob gave to the game, and took from the game ten-fold their worth.

What have they done for Australian boxing?? I mean, what have they left in the game as a positive stepping stone for future fighters?? NOTHING. Just a reminder that having a good set of skills and a budget to afford tomto cans is an easy out for pricks without shame.

I enjoyed the first 5-6 years... The last few years have been totally trash.

There's a squillion issues to raise, none of them positive.

 

Agree with tucker box and bobby sinn,absolutly!

 

I agree as well.

There is a lot of **** typed on this forum but this is a great thread with some well intelligent posts. :good

 

Dont worry about bringing back Saddam... just get rid of TeamMandy and the bull**** promo's.