Is Floyd And His Imitators Style The Reason Boxing Isn't A Mainstream Sport In The US

It would be an understatement to say that Boxing has lost a great deal of support in the United States over the past 20 years. And I place the lack of popularity for the most part squarely on the shoulders of Floyd "Money" Mayweather. Is he one of the best fighters in the world of course he is...but that's aside from the point. He is dull to watch...its as simple as that. Most casual fans are not fans of the sweet science they don't even understand how he wins his matches most of the time, they don't understand why the guy retreating (which they view as running) yet landing the cleaner shots is winning the match, they don't understand defense and which punches count and which ones don't, so in the cases of the Hatton, De La Hoya, Cotto and Maidana matches they don't get the difference between effective aggression and ineffective aggression so they don't understand how he wins the match which confuses them. None of it makes any sense to them so they lose interest. The rest of the people that watch the sport that are so-called Floyd fans many of them are fans of his **** talking persona they loves how he trash talks his opponent in the lead up and it gets them all pumped because they root for a celebrity and his personality not because they are actually entertained by him.

And here's another reason for his Pay-Per-View numbers, many fans buy them simply hoping to see Floyd get knocked out, and that is an exercise in futility at this point due to him not taking any truly risky fights where that's even a possibility with the exception of maybe Maidana. But for the rest of the country they may have seen him once and were bored out of their skulls and never wanted to se him again. At any rate his negative counter punching fighting style is a turn off, and to many his trash talking is equally distasteful so ultimately the audiences here who consider the possibility of seeing a knockout as one of the only reason to watch, have virtually no reason whatsoever to watch the sport with Floyd being its most visible representative.

Sure Floyd is technically the biggest selling PPV fighter currently, but how big would he be if he fought more like Manny and actually tried to put on a show for the people who paid their hard earned money to see him.


American Fighters Unlike Floyd.
All of these fighters were immensely or somewhat popular and they all have a style that is exciting and most importantly fan friendly even the slick defensive fighters that I mention weren't overly defensive and were exciting to watch. Fighters like Mike Tyson, Marvin Hagler, Thomas Hearns, Sugar Ray Leonard, Ray Mancini, Muhammad Ali, Joe Frazier, Evander Holyfield, Tommy Morrison, Riddick Bowe, George Foreman, Oscar De la Hoya, Roy Jones Jr. etc. They and many others were fun to watch for the casual fan and therefore the sport was popular.:thumbsup Its as simple as that.

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American Fighters That Are Similar to Floyd.
Pernell Whitaker, James Toney, Bernard Hopkins, Andre Ward, Winky Wright. Now what do they all have in common no one wants to watch their matches because they are incredibly dull. BHop gets some people interested due to his trash talking and currently the fact that he's so old is a novelty and other than that most of these fighters didn't or don't have near the popularity, because they are not fun to watch. Its as simple as that. That doesn't take away from their skill level it just means their fighting style isn't the most conducive to bringing in new fans and making people care in the least.

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Now this is what I fear for the future of the sport in America. Every young new fighter that's came along in the last 5 years in America seem to have a fanboy like obsession with emulating the style of Pretty Boy Floyd. So that means the sport may not become as popular as it once was for the foreseeable future.

The Shape Of Things To Come:scaredas:
Jermell Charlo, Jermall Charlo, Chris Algieri, Demetrius Andrade, Errol Spence, Adrien Broner, Rau'shee Warran, Peter Quillin, Mickey Bey, J'Leon Love, Terence Crawford, Dominic Wade, Antoine Douglas, Chris Pearson, The Dirrell Brothers, Daniel Jacobs, Willie Monroe Jr. Karl Dargan, Sadam Ali, Terrell Gausha and Amir Imam. Not a crowd pleasing style amongst them. Bleak Forecast as far as bringing in New Fans.

The Few Bright Spots
Keith Thurman (Exciting Counter Puncher)
Deontay Wilder (KO Artist)
Tony Harrison (KO Artist)
JRock Williams
Jesse Hart
Brandon Adams
James Kirkland
Curtis Stevens
Glen Tapia
Brandon Rios
Emmanuel Taylor
Shawn Porter
Andre Berto
Marcus Browne
Amir Mansour (Old)

American Boxing will never be as popular as it once was as long as fighters choose to fight in a style similar to Floyd Mayweather, it may not be right that fans don't want to see that type of Boxing, but it is what it is. Fans want KO's and fans want to be entertained and if they are not getting that then they tune out. Because America is the land of short attention spans and they want to be stimulated and not bored to sleep.

So let's root for the Deontay's, Porter's and Thurman's of the World and maybe fans will start to care once again.:happy


Something else to consider:think: The Population of the US was 226 Million in 1980, 249 Million in 1990, 289 Million in 2000, and currently in 2015 its a whopping 320 Million yet at his best Mayweather with the help of De La Hoya and Canelo and their huge Mexican fanbase is only drawing numbers comparable to Tyson in the mid 90's. The sport may still be popular to its hardcore fanbase but the sport and its numbers haven't grown with the population as it should have. The sport has stagnated and not grown as it should have.



EDIT: Title Clarified for people who didn't actually read the thread:readthre:

 

Why are you afraid that you're agreeing with me too much lately.:yep

 

The Heavyweights weren't that popular in the 80's yet Hagler, Hearns, Duran and Leonard kept the sport afloat. Its not Wlad's fault.:nono

 

Its not popular because there is no one like a Tyson, if there was a Welterweight destroyer of Middleweight destroyer etc who came along in the 2000's the ratings would have increased why else do you think GGG Thurman and Kovalev have decent ratings now, Floyd is dull, so to the casual fans lose interest it is not good for the sport when its number one fighter is as exciting to watch as paint drying and any rational person would be able to see that. Sure it would help if HW was more appealing.