The British Boxing “Boom” is well and truly over

Yeah an obvious one in Yarde, Buatsi has been pushed hard but there’s Burton and Johnson there for him. Both winnable. Dubois, Gorman, have they thought anyone who punches back? Josh Kelly, Cordina, Catterall, all top prospects but been clear favourites for every fight bar the OD fight. Sam Bowen?

I could go on all day. There’s plenty of decent fights for these to have, I’m not saying throw them in at world level but yeah step it up, especially with the domestic clashes as they capture the public’s imagination.

 

Anyone who says there isn't a fixation with keeping an 0 at almost any cost needs their heads and eyes examined. It's an acknowledged trend in boxing for many years now which Floyd personified and still continues as strong as ever to this day.

It's the rule rather than the exception.

 

As long as 50/50 domestic fights are being made, most fans are happy with that. The problem is when we have cards full of prospects VS Bums. Obviously world title fights are going to be bigger but you don't need loads of champions to build a good card providing the fights are competitive.

 

I see there’s arguments both ways but realistically if you take out the 0 protection factor who out of the bunch left in the UK is going to get the non boxing fans switching on?

 

I see your point but I'd make the argument that keeping a zero on someone who then gets badly outclassed when he steps up on whatever level with a bigger audience is just perpetually making new and dedicated followers more and more cynical. It's like a pyramid scheme.

Before social media, grumbling about a fighter avoiding better challenges was mainly kept to boxing magazine letters pages. Now the minute a "well managed" fighter posts a twitter update, there are dozens of messages from followers calling him a duck see Yarde for example. The game has changed, it's like promoters are still stuck in a 2005 mentality. Fury didn't win (technically) against Wilder but it's done his rep or marketing no harm whatsoever.

 

Biggest UK fight last year? Other than AJ v Povetkin it was Groves vs Eubank. Both had took losses previously, still captured the public’s imagination, sold out an arena, was PPV.

 

The boom was Froch-Groves and Joshua, and Fury's personal struggles. Nothing else really registered the mainstream (although Bellew tried hard to get there). Everything else is the Sky Sports hype machine in action.

I'd argue there are no more 'marquee names' left on the Sky roster, other than Joshua. The likes of Brook, Crolla, Burns, etc were regional attractions hyped by Sky and no more.

FWIW I enjoyed the boxing last night!

 

If it were the rule rather than the exception wouldn't we have far more unbeaten fighters building a career against journeymen?

I think you massively over exaggerate the impact of a loss on a fighters career. It's a very weird fixation.

 

Boxing really needs to adopt the MMA culture of losses. A loss doesn't mean the end, you can improve and come again. A loss can also endear fighters to fans.

 

I maintain boxing largely does have this culture. The biggest fights in boxing generally always feature a guy who's lost.

 

90% of the biggest fights include at least one fighter who is unbeaten.

 

The issue is, boxing might endear fighters who lose 1 or 2 fights, but if you lose 3 or 4 then it's always 'There done at this level now etc'.

You don't really get that mentality so much in MMA.

It's the same if a fighter loses a close fight, say they lose 115-113 in a crossroads fight and the fighter that lost, the reaction is that they can't really come back. When in reality a 1 point difference would of resulted in a draw.

We want to write that losing fighter off because they lost, even though the difference in ability in the fight was negligible.

We are fixated on results more so then actual performances.

 

But that doesn't necessarily suggest boxing has a problem with fighters in general being protected. The likes of De La Hoya, Pacquiao, Canelo and Tyson went on to absolutely massive fights having lost. I don't think it's fair to necessarily blame Mayweather per se and I don't really see that reflected across the board.

The MMA comparison is fair to an extent but it's a very different sport and realistically harder to maintain an unbeaten record in my opinion.

 

We're in a low point alright from a fight/talent viewpoint and a fan morale too is low right now. Biggest causes of it I'd say are :

*DAZN
*Fury, AJ and Wilder avoiding each other and taking easier fights
*Talent pool of British fighters is IMO not as bad as people are making out but it's been made to look worse than it is by fractured nature of the sport - Sky, BT, DAZN etc. and promoters refusing to take risks with their fighters (Yarde is a good example)
*Inactivity of top fighters (fighting twice a year if we're lucky)

Boxing goes in cycles, it'll pick up again.

 

Spot on....

The reason why Josh Warrington is doing so well now is that he took control of his career and has done it the right way....Step by step moving through the levels and learning in the ring.....

The way its gone lately is that fighters are getting falsely put in position for big fights they are nowhere near ready for...Like you say they are being found out by Euro level boxers