how popular is boxing in Britain compared to other sports?

Boxing has been taken away from the mainstream largely due to the distribution of TV rights but it is known for doing consistently good viewing figures. With the right platform it still draws viewers, as channel 5 has shown.

F1 isn't a real sport anyway. It's driving.

 

That's exactly it, fishing is a popular participant sport similar to Golf in some respects. A lot of people play it/do it but wouldn't necessarily watch it if it was on TV!

Boxing is reasonably popular in the UK in comparison to other parts of the world but if you compare it to how it was in the 70's/80's and even early 90's it has definitely fallen down the pecking order. That is not to say that the sport has lost something it is down to things like, the fragmentation of terrestrial TV and Sky coming in meaning you don't get big Benn/Eubank type fights on terrestrial TV any more. Also, the world title belts being confusing for people, the HW division being quite dull and the increase in popularity of football as the national sport and the spread of the premier league.

All those things ^^ have hurt boxing and made it less available and interesting to Joe Q Public the average member of the UK.

 

Its a completely different sport in every sense to all the other ones listed even MMA so its impossible to compare. Look at how big guys like Pac and Mayweather are (top 2 highest earning athletes in 2011 if I recall?), when there is a big fight people watch.

Other sports are mainly controlled by leagues and franchises, boxing is just a mad circus and always has been. There is no real order even challengers and titles are a joke. Its closer to the theatre/film than it is to organised sports.

There is no such thing as a padded record in football, tennis, rugby etc. You can only get to the top by being a great player your chat and charisma will not make up for a lack of talent. Even amateur boxing is closer to most other professional sports than pro boxing.

 

Horse racing is the second most popular sport in Liverpool, then boxing I'd say.

Aintree holds 70,000 people remember.

 

most people i know don't know alot bar the big names Haye, Khan, Froch etc... most people only interested when there's a big headlining drama going on like Haye/Chisota

 

And when was the last time someone sat down to watch a day at the Velodrome that wasn't Olympics? Same with Athletics, everywheres normally dead, even for the golden league.

 

The Horse Racing isnt on regular though plus people come from all over to watch that. The Pro boxing is on regularly and always sells out, there's like 50 amateur boxing clubs in Liverpool as well which is a huge amount and the amateur shows are always busy. Also people only watch the horses because of gambling and it aint a participation sport.

 

If you added up the 5 or 6 days Aintree is open a year, it would be more than 200,000 people going there. (2 seventy thousand sell outs, then the thursday before the national is like 30,000 and the 3 smaller harders throughout the year get about 20,000 each time). I know its not a participation etc but its more popular.

Boxing in Liverpool, I'd say we have 10-15 cards at the Olympia a year and maybe 5 at the echo? Not as many people through the doors.

I go to both like, don't get me wrong.

 

What was the moment when the television companies (terrestrial) decided to turn their back on boxing? During the 90's and before, the sport enjoyed a great run on ITV and BBC, especially the former with the Benn-Eubank-Watson rivalry going on. BBC had McGuigan's fights, Dave McCauley, Herol Graham, Gary Mason etc...

Was it the near tragedies involving Watson and McCllelan which prompted terrestrial televison to shy away? I need reminding because I can't pin point the reason for the sports demise as a prime time attraction on non subscription TV? Maybe that was it, the emergence of Sky? Like I say, I can't remember. Anybody?

 

Channel 4 every Saturday for a fair few hours mate.

 

The emergence of Sky and their success off the back of the premier league meant that they had all the money and the balance of power shifted over from terrestrial. That and the emergence of PPV later meant that the terrestrials were largely priced out of the market.

 

Yeah, so although Sky has been good for fans of the sport who were already around, it's virtually cut off boxing's ability to attract new fans, thus killing it's growth.

 

I suppose when you put it like that your prob right. I dont see racing as a sport in the same way though if you get me, although it might be because ive never been into it so I dont really get it. It just seems it's popular because of the gambling aspect rather then people having a passion for the sport.

Boxing must be the second most participated sport in Liverpool though, But if were talking of viewing figures/attendances then I geus racing is a bigger deal.

 

Boxings a bit of a joke over here tbh, many people think that Flintoff is a legit contender.

Most people don't even know any of the world champions these days, even at the venues half the blokes there don't know **** about the main fighter on the bill.

 

Its about the participation rates though, Boxing in Liverpool has more participation than Horses racing!

You have people who bet on horse racing, but that's not really participation in the sport.

That's just people placing bets, i place a bet on Tennis & Formula One but i am not actively participating in the sport.

Boxing is Liverpool's number 2 sport.