Boxing is becoming more and more a sport in wich the best never face eachother because one of them would lose. Problem is that the current setup allows for that to happen, because the way the sport is managed (or actually not managed at all) today. Back in the day we had the "color line" preventing good fights taking place, in wich white fighters never had to face black fighters in defence of the title and black fighters actually had their own version of a world title belt. Nowadays we have the "network line" preventing HBO fighters from facing their Shotime counterparts and vice versa. The Brits have their own version with Sky/Channel 5/Boxnation wich allows the top fighters to duck eachother hiding behind their networks. The real problem here isn't just that top fighters don't face eachother, but that due to the multiple belt issue it actually prevents some really good fighters to built up a resume or even having a chance to get hold of the linear belt at all because it's held hostage by a rivalling network. We saw it's used as the ultimate ducking method, and then fans actually defend the fighter by saying "he can't fight him because he's at ........, and he's at ... so it isn't really ducking!", wich of course it most certainly is. I hope that whole network crap will end soon, because it's destroying boxing about as much as the multiple belts thing. Just suck it up networks, make combined channel shows and split the take neatly based on viewers per channel. How F hard can it be?! I know there's more at stake here of course, because networks have invested in a fighter and with the knowledge in the back of their heads that they could milk it without that pesky fighter(s) from the other network beating the crap outta him and maybe destroying their investment for good. What do you guys think, and do you have a solution for this crap?
Not sure there is a realistic solution. In an ideal world all the governing bodies would consolidate in to one body. Some kind of independent regulating body? I have no idea how that would be implemented. It's ****ed it really is.
Agree with everything that has been said. The network divide makes it too easy to 'duck' fighters, eg Stevenson Kovalev a lot of fans saying Stevenson was justified making the move but that sort of thing is ruining boxing. To be honest I dont think its possible to change much as the commissions promoters and networks do their own thing to make money divorced from what the fans want. Only thing I can see having some impact is fans boycotting PPV events, maybe when the networks start losing money they night sit up and notice, and fans should then support ppv if its joint network or GB vs TR. It wouldnt happen in reality but it could be tge only thing to send a message. That or the fighters speaking up, like Canelo sometimes does.
I see promoters as a large part of the problem as they hold most of the power. Ideally there would be one organisation at the top, then if promoters are needed to bring in money for the sport then they should work *for* the organisation. Unfortunately, this is unlikely to ever happen. It's hard to see a solution because the fighters, the promoters, the networks and the organisations are all in it together, it's basically a conspiracy. The only realistic "solution" I can see is one network/promoter becoming dominant and having a monopoly over the sports. You would still get a lot of cherrypicked fights and artificially inflated records but we would hopefully get the best fighting the best some of the time. I never personally buy PPVs as I don't see why I should pay extra, I don't have to pay extra for other sports so why boxing? I gather that Mayweather/Maidana and Pacquiao/Bradley were both slightly disappointing in terms of PPV buys, but it's hard to draw any conclusions from a couple of fights.
This is not about the Floyd/Pac issue, this is about the problem with boxing as a whole due to tv network contracts. Pac and Floyd will be gone soon, but the issue remains and has only become worse.
Great thread, totally agree, its really sickening. Things won't change because it seems fighters and the industry are making huge coin. This trend will only change when the money stops flowing because people become sick of it and the product is watered down.
