How do you know when Boxing is Dead?

When there's noone on sites like ESB talking about it.

 

It's almost like the first rule of being a true MMA fan is to discredit boxing by stating it is dead. I remember watching The DLH-Mayweather bout and two of my MMA Buddie's just kept repeating themselves 'Boxing is dying its dead MMA is taking over their done MMA is going to make boxing disappear watch just wait you'll see' It was like they where being brainwashed or something .

 

I must admit the guy has a major point and I can see boxing going under the carpet to be honest because if there is no emerging superstars within the next 5 years then it is safe to say that boxing will end up just like WWE, I remember when it used to be called WWF and we had Hulk Hogan and the Ultimate Warrior, Macho Man Randy Savage and guys like Bret Hart and Jake the Snake Roberts, those were a few names to mention back then and they were all very well known to the public, there were so many other stars in wrestling that could carry the show but guys like Hulk Hogan only come once every so often and my whole point to bringing up the old days of wrestling is that now when you watch wrestling there is nobody who really stands out and hits you like how the Hulkster did or the Ultimate Warrior. Now we have these tralier park dudes who all sport the same costume and come out with cheesy lines and there is nothing engaging about any of the new wrestlers, they are all the same, well most of them anyway.

Boxing I feel will go the same way and I think in a way it already has to some of the older folk because they always refer to the glory days of the heavyweights and Ali and the fighters who came before him but now most fighters are all pre-madonna's and there is still far too much corruption in the sport amongst judges and other officials that we are supposed to be able to put our faith in to give the right call in a fight.

I can see boxing dying in 5 years because there will probably be no superstars to carry the sport to the next level. Once Pac retires and Floyd and some other top level fighters we will need an Usain Bolt of the boxing world to generate that public interest again and to be honest I just dont see it happening.

Once Mayweather is out of the game for good and Pac and Marquez and these guys who else are we goin to be looking at to carry this sport to the next level. Pavlik ? Williams ? Dawson ? I dont think so somehow. Dawson couldn't even sell out his local grocery store and Pavlik and Williams are relatively unknown to the general public and I say general because most people who dont have any interest in boxing would never know who they were but they knew who Ali was or who Tyson was because those guys carried the sport to another level. Anyway you can see the comparison Im trying to make. Boxing is dying a slow painful death.

 

I hear ya. I think a lot of this goes back to their being too many good guys and not enough bad guys. Everything in life is based on good guys against bad guys....you want to cheer on somebody and you want someone to lose. Occasionally you just want to see a great fight but 9/10 you get big interest with characters. That's how you sell tickets or drum up interest.

 

Posting here you'd think it was the other way around.

 

As soon as Dana White gets stiff competiton...when they start having sactioning bodies...MMA will see the same politics that take away from boxing. Boxing has been around way too long to die...period.

 

Boxing will never die.

I understand that ufc is the "it" nowadays, I've been in the air force for 4 years and 3 years ago nobody knows nothing about UFC and just last year everybody started watching it. My best friend is a huge UFC *** ( this is not a typo ) and I could not stand it when he talks about it. UFC is the new poker. Remember the poker tv boom when in 2007 everybody was like..oh this poker stuff is cool ( although people have been playin it already ) next thing you know NBC, FOX and other major networks have then own poker show ( poker after dark, WPT etc..). Now poker is still shown but not as much as 2 years ago or when the "boom" started. UFC will be the same. I give it two more years and then it will eventually be irrelevant. Well not irrelevant but not as popular.

 

when michael buffer or jimmy lennon die.

 

boxing is far from dead, but can be much better than the state its in today. UFC is taking boxing fans for three main reasons.

1. Promotion/marketability

2. Recognized champions

3. stacked undercards

In that order. Nobody in boxing knows how to market the fighters. Bring in
sponsors that attract the young fans as well. Have one universal champ in each division. And give your fans what they paid for, not just the main
event.

 

Very interesting analogy.

In 2004, I became, for a summer, a "poker ***" with all of my friends. We thought we were such hot **** playing Hold 'Em even though it has been around for ages. Of course, we were 18 and knew everything.

We would play 4-5 nights a week, followed the WSOP, had our favorite players, would talk about poker like we talk boxing here.

And then...meh. It wasn't hot anymore. Occasionally we have an impromptu game, but it wasn't like it used to be.

I stumbled across some recent poker tournament, and all of the old players were there, playing the game like they always had.

 

Here's the difference:

What market did poker steal people from? The gin rummy club? The go fish club?

The UFC is taking fans from boxing. That's where these disenfranchised boxing fans are going to head to, the UFC and Strikeforce and what not. The UFC isn't going to just fall out of favor one day and people are going to say "Yeah, UFC was fun...but let's go back to being boxing fans again." It's not possible...especially since the UFC is getting people in their teens who will carry into their adult years. This isn't a new trend, UFC hasn't been a "fad" for a year now...they've been pulling in good ratings/reviews/buys etc since about 2006-2007 which happens to be at the same time as the decline of boxing as a popular sport. It's not a coincidence really. It's because those boxing fans who grew disgusted with boxing for whatever reason, went and saught out a well run, established alternative to their combat sport lust.

The UFC won't lose fans just because it "stops becoming popular", especially because people are growing up with it and because it's just NOW starting to become a world wide deal. If the Carano vs Cyborg Santos fight was put on HBO and it garnered the same ratings, it'd be in the top 5 for HBO. As it stands now, it's still a massive ratings move.

The only way the UFC loses fans is if boxing manages to win them back. Even if the UFC is peaking, it's still developing such a strong niche that it will continue to be a big fiscal success. Boxing on the other hand has lost it's top draw...the question remains where boxing is willing to adapt to fit the changing demands of audiences.

 

does anyone know who had more pay per view buys so far this year? boxing or ufc?

 

Totally! ITs funny seeing those guys that dont even fight wearing Tap out gear, thinking there ultimate fighters. Funny I seen Tito Ortiz at the wild card when i was working out and he was wearing a shirt that had his face on it, Like dude your trying too hard. People in the boxing gym, didnt even give two cents about him or probably didnt know who he was.

 

The UFC has had more PPV buys although that's certainly skewered due to the fact that the UFC has run more PPVs.

That said even if you want to compare them as the most HYPED PPVs of 2009...UFC's most hyped event drew anywhere from 1.5 to 1.7 million where as Pac vs Hatton has drawn anywhere from 850K to 950K.