Casually since 1976. Hardcore from '84 to about 2000. I don't follow current boxing much at all, so I stick to this forum. I am 48 yrs old.
Have any current fighters at all earned your recognition? As in, do you tune in even if it's only for a particular fighter or two?
I honestly don't watch it at all. I did watch Mayweather-Pacquao and it was just an awful fight. I watched Floyd's last few fights on youtube a day after they aired on PPV. I watched ESPN Friday Night fights until about 2007 as well as some PPV until about 2010. One of the last I watched was Jones-Hopkins II and Jones-Calzaghe.
You have followed boxing for 10 years... and you have never attended a show of any kind?? Can I ask, what country you are from?
Grew up watching Tyson in the mid-to-late 80s but started seriously following the sport in 1993 when I was 16 (so I'm 40 now). Pretty much immediately started reading up on boxing history from the early 1900s onwards and that's why I spend my time on this forum. Used to collect fights on VHS (pre-YouTube days) and that's when I started to watch all the classic fights I'd read about from the 70s and early 80s. I can't tell you what it was like waiting for those tapes and then finally watching some of those fights and seeing that they lived up to the hype (and in some cases surpassed it). The YouTube generation don't know how lucky they are.
I'm 53. I first became aware of boxing when I saw Chuck Wepner's face in the newspaper after the Ali fight and a photo of Wepner stepping on Ali's foot as Ali fell down. The first fight I watched live was Ali-Lyle. I've been hooked ever since, except for a few years (1983-1985) when I was in college. I picked it up again when Holmes-Spinks 1 was playing on a TV while I was at a party. I couldn't believe Spinks won.
I grew up in a boxing environment so as far back as I remember people were talking about boxing around me. I really started getting into mid 70's when I was about 10 with Stracey and Conteh on the scene. I started reading everything about boxing i could get my hands on then. Lucky for me there were stacks of Ring, Boxing illustrated and Boxing news all over the house. Most of these from the 60's so that's what I was reading at 10 as well as what was present. I'm 53 now.
First fight I watched was Hagler-Hearns, which had set the bar unrealistically high for my 9 year old self.
Damn, the average age of member of classic is way, way higher than I would have thought. Not having a dig, I just feel like a fresh faced newbie in comparison. Like I said earlier...
I'm partial to the 80s and 90s so I'd tend to agree that boxing has become less compelling and entertaining from a fan's perspective. I still enjoy the sport immensely and I watch a lot of boxing (mostly on tv but usually 2-3 live cards per year too). Still an abundance of very talented, well-schooled athletes in the sport.
Watched boxing since I was a kid in the 70's and early 80's. Really got into in the late 80's... Really, really got into it in the early 90's and been a dork about it ever since.