Is boxing really falling out of mainstream?

When you figure in what other sports net in terms of advertisement dollars and tickets, boxing is a gimp in comparison.

Boxing has been on the back burner for years now, as Knuckles said. It appeals to a very select group of Americans (and many more Europeans apparently).

 

I dont believe it I think the stars of yesterday will still be around long enough while these other guys build there names. Come on man we got Amir Khan,The Peterson brothers,Andre Dirrell,Chad Dawson,Orlandier Solis,David Haye,Alexander Povetkin,Kelly Pavlik,Mikkli Kessler,Andre Berto,Gamboa,Miguel Cotto,Juan Diaz,Nonito Donaire. Plenty of guys out there with star quality. Remember when Duran,Hearns,Leonard,McCallum,Foreman,Holmes,Nelson ETC where going away I bet all the fans ignored what DLH,Hopkins,RJJ,Tarver,Mosley,Trinidad,Holyfield could do. Just be positive man these young guys today show me promise.

 

Trust me I feel you alot we have up a coming stars, but alot usaully fighters pass the torch and I dont see none of are great fighters from this era doing that. Think about it Jones vs Cal, and this might be both of their last fights. So who will pass the torch to Pavlik? Same thing if Floyd beats Cotto. We have no dominate heavyweight, plus to many belts. Greed has **** the sport up in America. Europe supports there fighters. Also UFC is always sellouts, boxing cant say that

 

Take the PPV numbers for boxing in the last ten years and take De la Hoya out of it. How does it look now? Well folks, he's going to retire soon and then we'll see how things are.

It's a combination of a lot of things:
--Local sports news guys are pussies who didn't box as kids, don't know anything about it, don't go to local shows and don't care about the big events.
--Boxing stopped being the preferred way for kids to learn to defend themselves back when karate showed up and now fewer and fewer people know enough about boxing to have favorites fighters and really get into it the way they used to.
--There is no easy network tv method of watching good boxing regularly. FNF is okay, but it's not always on and the caliber of fighter they have isn't top notch. Also, you can't follow a fighter that way because once they're good/exciting enough on FNF they end up moving to HBO or PPV or something.
--There are too many worthless belts.
--There needs to be ONE matchmaker who makes the best fight the second best EVERY TIME. There was talk about a national commission that would lead to a league with rankings and a method to make sure that if someone earns a shot they get it no matter who the champion wants to fight. This would be a big step up for boxing.
--UFC does a lot of these things already because some of it is less confusing to the average clown who has seen/been in street fights but has no idea about slipping punches and footwork, they have the best fight the best, there is one champ, it's on network tv and you can easily follow your favorites etc. People always argue about boxing vs. MMA in terms of which sport is better and which sport should be more popular and crap, but it's actually just which is RUN BETTER FOR THE AVERAGE FAN. At this point, it's clearly UFC.

--there are more that I can't remember now.

 

UFC has a limited run though due to the style there won't be any legends...

the days of joyce gracie and Kent Shamrock are done and soon pepole will realize that these guys are street thugs with better than average training.

These fights are much more boring that boxing matches...even the boring fights because of the strategy and technique.

in UFC all it is, is high school wrestling with punching and kicking.

take wrestling, boxing, and Karate and get rid of most of the skill and there you have UFC

 

Me and you are one the right track. But alot of athletes who could be boxers are playing other sports like football and basketball as far as the inner city goes. Think about they don't even play baseball anymore. People parents don't want there kids in boxing. ANd boxing gyms are not cheap

 

It definitely has to an extent. For boxing to regain its commercial appeal the sport definitely needs to be covered more by America's #1 sports coverage network which is ESPN. SportsCenter will once in a blue moon mention a blurb on a marquee fight when the same fight might be spotlighted by another sports network overseas. I think one of the many reasons for lack of coverage is lack of star appeal. We hardly ever see a boxer on a billboard, on a magizine cover, in a commercial, or on a talkshow nower days. And its a catch 22 because if these guys got more Sportscenter highlights they would more likely get commercials, magizine covers, and talkshow offers. It fustrates me as a boxing fan to see horse racing get more love on SC.

Competitive eatting as well for that matter.

 

:rofl What a moron :-( Royce Gracie hasnt been **** in years since he passed his tourch to Sakuraba 8 years ago and Shamrock hasnt been taken seriously since Tito made his face into hamburger meat in 2002. This all happened before the TUF era began in 2005 and MMAs pouplarity started to soar. I could see if you used Liddell and Couture as examples of legends on the way out but the UFC and other organizations are loaded with good and exiciting/pouplar young talent Clay Guida,Tyson Griffin,Roger Huerta,Kenny Florian,Urijah Faber,Joe Lazuon,BJ Penn,Anderson Silva,GSP,Nick Diaz,Rich Franklin,Martin Kampman,Robbie Lawler,Jon Fitch,Gabriel Gonzaga,Shogun Rua,Rampage Jackson,Forrest Griffin,Keith Jardine,Michael Bisping,Sokodjue,Chris Leben,Brandon Vera,Andrei Arlovski none of these guys are going anywhere soon.

 

other than boxing moving off the networks and onto premium cable, the biggest issue with the sport nowadays is the fact that there is not a dominant american heavyweight champion who has pound for pound quality type of skills... we haven't had that since tyson, which also coincides with the last time the sport could've been considered "mainstream"

 

As a LONG time boxing fan I have seen the sport fall a long way. Of the above mentioned names of Amir Khan,The Peterson brothers,Andre Dirrell,Chad Dawson,Orlandier Solis,David Haye,Alexander Povetkin,Kelly Pavlik,Mikkli Kessler,Andre Berto,Gamboa,Miguel Cotto,Juan Diaz,Nonito Donaire. I have only seen a total of 3 fights total! I don't know these guys and sadly I don't care. They are no names. Most fans do not even follow boxing at all. It has become a niche sport with a small core of fans. Instead of millions of viewers on TV that watched Ali, Leonard, Duran etc. 25 years ago we have a few hundred thousand and is considered a success. I hope there is a way it can come back to glory because it is a great sport.

 

in the UFC yes, but there are countless other mma orgs with their own belts

 

In the UK Boxing is bigger now then it has been for a decade or more. In fact you'd have to go back to the Eubank, Benn days...

Calzaghe and Hatton have somewhat led a resurgence in its popularity.

 

If you are not willing to watch this guys then you are simply not a fan.

 

I honestly hope boxing continues to decline. The less money involved, the less a chance at corruption and politics ruling the day. It's not like it'll ever go away. Also, when guys think they're too good for some fighters or there isn't enough MONEY for them, we as fans, lose out. Most boxers don't make as much as the premadonna's anyway.