Whats wrong with "being boring"?

There is boxing and there is prize fighting.

In the latter, the more entertaining you are, supposing you've already reached an elite level, the bigger the prize.

 

Boxing is a spectator sport--it's supposed to be entertaining. Not al fights have to be a Pier 6 brawl, but no one wants to see a guy dance, run, clinch his way to a decision win while each fighter has only thrown 300 or less punches the entire fight. Mayweather was a cure for insomnia.

 

As long as you are winning I guess it is ok. Mayweather did pretty well for himself and he went a really really long time without being in a good fight.
The whole pursuit of not being boring has kind of warped how fighters are brought along and the fans feed into it. How many comments have you read on here that Fighter A was exposed because it took him 3 rounds to stop some guy that Fighter B stooped in 2?
There is a simple fact of life in boxing and I always tell this to fighters: The people that pay to watch fights what to see somebody get their tail kicked. You can either go toe to toe and participate equally in the giving and receiving of tail kicking, or you can kick his with such style that the crowd goes home happy. I think that there is plenty of room for a guy that wins fights by hitting and not getting hit, and you can do that without running, without tassels on your shoes, and without acting like a horse's ass but very few fighters seem to understand that.

 

Always told my fighters, ‘Let’s just win this time, we can worry about looking pretty next time.”

 

Who dared to be dull?

 

Harold Johnson

 

We love the punchers

 

I like watching boxers rather than punchers

 

One night, I attended the Demetrius Andrade-Grady Brewer fight. I didn't have great expectations. But it seemed like a good boxer-puncher matchup. I paid for the ticket. Drove to the casino. Paid for parking. Bought a couple beers. Bought some food at the arena. The undercard was good. David Diaz and Henry Lundy fought on it. Lundy knocked him out. The walk-out bout featured Montell Griffith winning his 50th pro fight before retiring. Everyone was into that one, as well. On their feet. Cheering. Very memorable.

But I can tell you the entire arena hated Andrade's guts by the end of the night. That fight was a classic example of a guy whose corner said don't listen to the boos, just win and we'll fight again another night.

Being boring sucks for the fans. Especially for the PAYING public. Promoters want fans to come back. Nobody wants to watch a boring guy play it safe and "live to fight another day." They want "the other day" to be the night they're buying a ticket.

Buy a ticket to a fight, go to it, watch a guy stink out the joint playing it safe ... then let me know if you think it's okay.

People that never buy tickets don't get it.

 

You've never spent triple digits on fight tickets. Everyone who buys a ticket wants a KO.

 

Again, fans drive the sport.

Even the promoter with the deepest pockets in the history of the sport knows that.

Joseph Parker is literally not getting a title shot at Usyk because the promoter considers him boring.

People don't want to pay to watch boring. Promoters don't. Fans don't.

 

Boxer or puncher I don't care,if they got good skills in the pocket I'm watching them.