I agree competition is good but if its taken away from the amount of boxings thats on television thats when I get pissed off, boxing needs to step up and make better fights.
Very well put. I'm not saying anyone is obligated to enjoy MMA. But, if they are going to criticize it, I would hope they could at least mount reasonable arguments that go past "It looks gay." You seem to have done that, even if I don't totally agree with what you said.
And the good thing is that it forces boxing to step up their match making ..If MMA hadn't got so popular we might be getting ready for another Rahamn Ruiz match ..Or Mayweather vs Corley 2 ..
And if they do, boxing will flourish even more than it has in the past. People will watch good fights, plain and simple. What they don't want to see is an alphabet soup champ fighting his mandatory challenger, while three other champions aren't even recognized by his two bit organization because they hold the other belts. I like MMA, but I don't want to see boxing lose some of it's fan base and TV slots either. And it won't, if it puts the best possible matchups together.
Apparently the words Ruiz vs_________ (insert name here) has become the ultimate boxing code for " incredibly shitty fight".
very true, but all these fights being canceled aint helping. And while we had the biggest grossing fight this year in boxing with the Mayweather/ Delahoya it didnt live up to even close to the hype, while I dont want to blame the fighters for there styles but some of the matches that our being made our either glorified sparring sessions or one sided matches. Boxing needs more knockouts or at least more guys going balls to the wall, thats why enjoyed Lamon Brewster so much other than his last fight he was the most exciting heavywieght in my opinion. His style was to go in there and knock you out similiar to Mike Tyson, thats what most people want to see.
I don't blame you. It's annoying to see the unenlightened make ridiculous claims regarding the homoeroticism of combative arts like MMA and boxing.
All true, one of the problems with todays crop of ungodly huge heavyweights is that they tend to be slower and pick their punches more carefully to not become fatigued to early. In other words they tend to be a tad bit boring...
Well, boxing sometimes goes through phases where there isn't that one single guy (or number of guys) who truly engage the public. Let's face it, the key to boxing's success is to have the average fan embrace it. Die hard fans like most of the people on this forum are always going to be there. The average fan needs a Mike Tyson to get them truly interested. The DLH /Mayweather fight was a big draw, but PBF's style doesn't really appeal to the average fan. Most of them will say they'd watch an Arturo Gatti fight before a PBF fight. There are obviously quite a few exceptional fighters in the sport today, but there isn't that one guy who everyone talks about and everyone wants to watch.
I feel almost every other wieght class is doing very well for themselves, I even think cruiser is stepping there game up with fighters like Ding,Haye,bell, and mormek. Guys like Wlad, Peter, and Chagaev our fun too watch in the Heavywieght division but as a whole it sucks.
Well, there is some truth to the old saying "As the heavyweight division goes, so goes boxing." It's not entirely true, since fighters like SRL, Hearns, Duran and Hagler commanded the world's attention when the heavyweight division was less than stellar. But, when the division is so crappy like it is right now, it hurts the sport.
Tyson like Ali made Heavywieght boxing popular again to the average fan and to die hard fans as well, I love boxing like most of us on here but we need a dominant fighter like Tyson to get heavywieght boxing back on the map.
Agreed. Wlad is the closest thing to that right now, but he's a far cry from being an Ali or a prime Tyson. I don't see anyone on the horizon right now who can bring the division back to life. I guess we'll just wait and see.
Well we've touched on the problem right there. The only GOOD heavyweights that anyone might have intrest in seeing fight by either avoidance or ABC politics can't seem to get a fight scheduled. Personally I hope to see Wlad unify and be built up as an unstoppable, huge, champion, and then when the next good/great heavy comes along have a heavyweight superfight. But I know that is just wishful thinking.
The last two fights weren't great, but then again, I've watched a lot of bad boxing as well. I prefer a good boxing match, but will watch MMA when it's on as well... You can be a fan of both.
