The state of boxing today.

Boxing in some markets is absolutely thriving, but at the same time its dying in the US. Its been downhill ever since the early 2010s, and its only getting worse.
Of course there are highs, like the recent Saudi cards, but there are many more lows than there used to be. Personally, I am rarely ever exited for a fight weekend these days, which is a shame. I miss HBO and SHO competing with each other.

 

My biggest concern is the sheer inactivity of top level boxers. Fighting just once a year is becoming more and more common. Eventually it may become once every 2 years. Inactivity is killing boxing right now.

 

It is sadly on the downside and clearly so.

 

Been watching since 2008 and it's on the brink right now of its lowest point since then for me....

HW division is tailing off rapidly and not interested in any other divisions, nothing interesting going on there. Never will be interested in men smaller than 125 pounds.

 

I think there are a lot of contributing factors, but some of the main ones are:

• Ridiculous payment models, putting the good fights behind subscriptions, and then additional payment walls - no other sport does this. Once you pay the subscription, you're in. This drives hardcore fans away, never mind casuals.
• Promoters thinking it is about them and not their fighters - hence the Warren/Hearn pre-Saudi beef for years, which resulted in a barren wasteland in the UK and fights like Joshua and Fury completely missing their station and never happening.
• Floyd Mayweather's impact - not only did he market his 0 as if it were the only thing that mattered, but he became the face of the sport for a generation that now believes the 0 is the only thing that matters - hence the likes of Tank Davis emerging.
• A lack of true crossover personalities - MMA had McGregor, boxing has had nobody like that since Mike Tyson. This is especially true in the US, where fans will disengage if they can't see themselves completely overrepresented at the top of the sport. We've seen this happen with the NBA. America brings in the most money and the most eyes when it has a truly standout talent at the top.
• Sanctioning bodies and their ridiculous mandatories, dozens of different belts, and attachments to certain promoters. Confusing even for the most hardcore fan.

Unless these issues are addressed, the sport will continue to struggle to compete with mainstream ones.

 

Honestly the sport "dying" in the US is probably for its benefit everywhere else. If we look at the 20th century the US took all the oxygen out of the room. Giving a shot to a non American regional champion was seen as a waste of time for well over 50 years. That fever got broken around the turn of the century and its more of a global community now.

 

Same for me. I would say, the last 12 months, I have exited the sport as a hardcoe fan.

 

I have started watching more and more older fights, and am having a blast. In recent years a lot of old fights have been released in good quality and remastered by fans. It makes older fights more appetizing, and I also finally get to re-watch some 2000s fights that I had previously only seen in potato 360p on YouTube.

Many hardcore fans have fallen out of love with the sport this last decade, which is unfortunate. But I am hopeful that better days lay ahead.

 

Quite sure rhe glory days are behind the sport but new fans coming into it have a clean slate so who knows who or what might appeal to the masses down the line. I'm fairly pessimistic though looking at the current generation of consumers.
I'd been hooked since I was 9 years old, back in the commercial/free TV days. Not a lot on offer in Australia, so I'd salivate when anything was shown. Started out with Larry Holmes fights, Marvin Hagler, Barry Michael, Lester Ellis, Jeff Fenech. I became a big Sugar Ray fan but mostly through news highlights and magazines. I started buying Ring, KO and Boxing Illustrated. Boxing then left free tv for pub/bar TV, no home cable at the time. Only chance I got to see fights was if Dad woul take me to the pub. When home pay tv became available they were showing fight after fight but by the time I could afford to have it installed that had dried up, more mainstream sports had attached to cable and Boxing took a back seat. Only the mega ppv's were available. So I hunted online for fellow hard-core fans in the US, Europe, South America even Japan. That's when it exploded, I was getting parcels at least twice a week with fights from bskyb and German shows, Kessler fights from Denmark etc and the precious HBO and showtime. I know that at one stage, I'd collected that many fights through vhs and then DVD that nationally I was in the top 5, at least 10,000 fights were in my possession. It was fun, not only watching fights for tens of hours every week but making good buddies online. Then after a while everything was available online in some form. Ironically for me by the time I could watch anything online live from HBO, they pulled out of the sport which sucked. There's an abundance available now, maybe that's why the thrill is gone!

 

Sure, but even you have to admit that its not the same it was about 12 years ago, right? Boxing in the US is in the gutter. HBO, SHO, ESPN have bowed out, as have many other networks. I remember fondly the deal Kathy Duva had with NBC, lots of great little cards and breakout performances for the likes of; Gabe Rosado, Sergey Kovalev, Curtis Stevenson(career rejuvenation).
All of the medium sized US promoters have bowed out, and no one has really replaced them; Dibella, Duva, Goosen-Tutor, Gary Shaw.

GBP was giant at one moment before PBC gutted them, and now De La Hoya cant even get an extension on his DAZN deal, which ended last year.
PBC itself only managed to promote 6 cards last year.
Top Rank´s deal with ESPN ended and they have yet to sign a new broadcasting deal.

Its pretty bleak. Sampson Lewkowicz is still doing his thing, but hes one of the few who have managed continued success this last decade +. And the only one putting out major cards in the US is Turkey with his Saudi money.

Boxing is not dead, and it wont die, but its been loosing popularity since the 1980s, and more drastically so since about 2015.

 

I can only speak of boxing's popularity in the US. It seems to be thriving in the UK and Japan with some other markets doing well or having popular fighters. In the US it has over time faded more and more into a niche sport.

I think the biggest problem for boxing has been the fracturing of entertainment media and boxing generally living on the margins. Most of boxing's biggest fights happen on DAZN and though I have no figures to back it up I would assume that the amount of US subscribers is very low in comparison to other major sports audiences.

For casual sports fans and curious viewers the idea of downloading an obscure app for a sport you do not watch seems very unlikely. In the past you might be channel surfing and come across boxing on network TV, premium cable or cable. Bars also used to put ESPN or Fox Sports on the TV which had boxing and people could randomly watch a fight because that is what was on the TV. Now bars show sports but not from apps like DAZN, at least not where I live.

Netflix is basically the new cable for Millenials and Gen Z a quick Google search said 67% of Americans in those generations have Netflix and the service has 81 million subscribers in the US. Putting boxing on there seems like the best way to make the sport popular again because that is where the eye balls are. I know the Paul-Joshua fight did big numbers for viewers as did the Canelo-Crawford fight. This leads me to believe that if you put boxing on a platform that people have and don't charge PPV, people will watch it.

That said, these were also massive events with strong promotion and the fighters were compensated handsomely. I don't know if this model is sustainable for Netflix and if lesser fights with less promotion get worthwhile views.

I am curious to see what happens with Paramount + and Zuffa Boxing riding the coattails of the UFC deal and whether the UFC audience in the US gives the boxing a try.

There is also an issue of star power in US boxing because it is a niche sport. Mayweather retired undefeated and did not pass the torch. Canelo took up the torch and lost to Crawford who is now retiring without passing the torch to someone else to absorb that popularity. I am curious to see if a genuine crossover star emerges with longevity in the sport

 

Hi Buddy.
I feel the same, there was a time when I could name all champs, and most of the top contenders, granted along, long time ago, I never thought my enthusiasm would subside, it has, and by a lot, as above there are many areas where you could find faults, and pick holes, for me it's the lack of fights from the top rated fighters, Warren was talking about Moses recently and said if he beats Franklin, they will get him out again around June/July, this was in January !!! seems the top guys only want/need to fight twice a year, where is Bivol for a start, in my day the likes of Napoles, Olivares, Monzon, Duran, Foster, would fight 3/4/ sometimes ( not often ) 5 times a year, are today's fighters earning too much money, and why don't they fight 3/4 times a year, I mean a fighter might win in the first or second round, if so why wait 6 months to fight again, lately all talk is about " camps " all we hear is " 3/4 month camps, really ? years ago boxers didn't need this amount of time to prepare, because they would fight on a regular basis keeping sharp and in tip top shape, I don't get it.
So as the song goes " thanks for the memories " .
stay safe guys, chat soon.
Mike.

 

Yes. Of everything ... inactivity of beltholders especially iis the main problem. Championship fights ... especially at HW ... capture the attention of casual sports fans and kids ... and draw them in. Once a year kills it. People get interested then that fades.

 

It's not dying America, it's dead. The good news is, it's thriving in Britain, Saudi Arabia, and Japan...it's always popular in Mexico...it's coming back in Germany...the Scandanavian countries, Italy, Nigeria and Uzbekistan seem to be catching on as markets and/or talent producers...despite the war, Ukraine and Russia continue to produce talent...and Usyk seems to want to help revive it in America!

I think there is a lot of doom and gloom on this thread for no good reason. Boxing in the world's premier combat sport, and since MMA seems to be stalling, it probably always will be.