The Decline of the Popularity of Boxing in the United States

"Henry Ford factory lines"

But at least you got paid. This was probably considered a step up from sharecroppers and a lot of the other drudge work. Actually, a lot of work was done by chain gangs, basically legalized servitude. In the 1920's and 1930's men flooded from rural areas to the industrial cities just to get jobs in the auto plants and steel mills.

remember the song "Detroit City" with the lines about "by day I make the cars" and how the guy had ridden the rails north to escape "the cotton fields back home."

 

Good ... nay, excellent point. We've got problems nowadays, but even the relatively poor live like kings compared to the middle ages. Industrialization and production has brought us this.

 

In a word, multi ruling bodies multi 'champions', among the ruling bodies virtually none of their top 10 'contenders' are the same so we've got 40-50 'top 10 contenders'???
Not to mention this ridiculous UFC c r a p!

 

Yeah, and before that, Lions, Neanderthals and wilderness

 

The decline of USA Amateur Boxing at the Olympic's didn't help.
The last USA Gold medalist in last 20 years was Andre Ward and before
that David Reid. The glory days of USA dominating Olympic boxing has
long gone. In the old days Gold Medalist's were household names.

 

When exactly did boxing reach its peak popularity though?

 

From 1920's to 1950's . When it was the second most popular sport
before baseball.

 

Right, so it seems strange to blame the sport's decline in popularity on events that happened in the 1980s.

 

TV was given as THE reason for its supposed decline in the early 50's... But then many old(er) timers I talk to have fond recollections of watching Pabst Blue Ribbon boxing or one of the many other shows of live boxing as children. I would call it an evolution.

Similarly, many old codgers in the 60's and 70's seemed miffed at all the Latin surnames who were sweeping through the lighter classes. Those guys claimed the sport had seen better days.

And more recently, we have those providing the emergence of Eastern Europeans (and before them the English in the 90's) as proof the sport is waning.

They are all developments as I see them, not necessarily progress but neither a swan dive. Boxing remains the only sport that operate on a PPV basis at its highest level which says something of the devotion of the fanbase.

 

As a personal anecdote, the sole reason I never pursued boxing competitively was that a family friend who was a neurologist sat me down and in a grave tone explained to me the risks. It's a damn shame, because aside from wrestling it's the only sport I ever enjoyed and I'll never know how good I could have been.

 

More exposure to health risks, conflicting directly with an increased quality of life over the last 100 years is probably the main reason.

Early 20th century American boxing probably had the best talent due to the combination of desperate competitors, and powerful market forces.

Talent from developing nations may have the desperate competitors, but they don't have the powerful market forces. Such as efficient funnels to refine raw talent into pros.

 

Saw some old articles that basically complained that televised boxing and the rise of a more formalized amateur system were killing the sport by sapping interest in the ragtag fights between inexperienced local pugs, among other things.

 

Hard to say, since so many talented athletes were excluded or lacked access to the sport due to the sport’s “politics” and America’s racial apartheid system. I’m sure that some of the most talented potential boxers in the early twentieth century were stuck as sharecroppers and laborers on southern farms and roads.

 

I don't think that off balances the massive gulf of competitors who were willing to die by the glove. In regards to racism, it seems like boxing was one of the rarer opportunities for meritocracy in the early 20th century. In comparison to other options available.

In a world drought with opportunity, boxing must've been an appetizing endeavor.

 

I think you’re greatly overestimating both the meritocracy of Boxing in that period and the freedom and ability of poor southern black men to pursue careers in the sport.