When did boxing lose its mystique for you?

I´m aware that we don´t have the same level of great fighters anymore though......I know Brandon Rios is not the new Roberto Duran.....or even not as good as Ray Mancini for example....

 

Still hadn't.

 

When Kitchko became champ..that did it for me...

 

When I grew up. I realized professional boxing is a bit of a sham, and always has been.

 

When the heavyweights of the 90's faded and we are now stuck with this era of subpar heavyweights who refuse to fight each other.

Klitschkos just don't have that mystique (although both are ATG'S).

I don't think the current generation of fans who love the lil guys understand just what it feels like watching the ring walks of Bowe-Holyfield, Lewis-Holyfield... Lewis-Bruno... Tyson-Holyfield etc....

the sheer primal fury of two heavyweights just can't be matched by the 140 guys...

I took great pride in saying that Prime Lewis will ktfo any 'nba or nfl' player. Prime Lewis when he knocked out Golota was THE BADDEST MAN ON THE PLANET. BAR NONE. No matter how talented Floyd is or exciting Pacquaio is.. they are only 5'6 and 5'7... they just can't take the label of baddest man on the planet.......... not the way Tyson did..


I enjoy reading mystical match ups now between two heavyweight atgs in the ESB Classics forums.. it's always fun to read ............

 

I haven't. I still stay up all hours watching fights... I go to any big fights that are within reasonable travel... I box myself... I get caught up in the hype of any major event.

I love boxing more than ever.

 

When they started filming it in colour!

 

There you go!

I'm an old fogey but I fight falling into old fogey syndrome. Still watch the fights religiously, train like a fighter, hit the bag and do roadwork but age and teeth already destroyed from fighting (and good sense) prevent me from exchanging punches anymore.

Totally get caught up in the hype.

 

Eubank, Bruno, Tyson, Hamed, Ali and the Fab Four seemed superhuman and extremely abnormal.

It is when normal-seeming guys like DL Hoya, Steve Collins, Robin Reid, Joe Calzaghe and a young Ricky Hatton came onto the scene in the mid-90s that it lost its mystique for most Brits, because it no longer seemed as out-of-this-world.

 

For me, the change in mystique was a personal thing that happened as I transitioned from youth with wide eyes and little boxing knowledge, to not-so-young cynical eyes with a reasonable appreciation of the sport and it's history. I don't think anything in particular was the catalyst for that, it's just that I got to know the sport for what it really was, and at that the mystique had gone.

I still enjoy boxing, but it's like that with many things in life, when you are young and naive (or even old and naive), anything new can seem so exciting - you can only see the tip of the iceberg, which is what gives it the mystique, but when the whole iceberg is revealed the mystique wears off. I've been lucky that a few things in my life have actually become better after many years, but boxing isn't quite one of them.

 

Change thread title to 'when did you become a whinny old moaner?' There's plenty to still get excited about in boxing, it's just after being around it longer you don't get taken in by the hype, the hype was there when you were younger, you just believed it then so it was alright.

 

What really got me looking back instead of forward was the first Mosley v DeLaHoya fight. The potential Mosley showed at LW disappeared when he no longer physically over-matched opponents. The great fighter Rivero had been creating had turned into a "high-guard" punch when he's done type of fighter.
The fight itself was not much, the skill level nearly abysmal.
Depressed me for a long time and I took refuge in tapes of old fights and have never really recovered.

 

Exactly. I was ringside when froch destroyed bute. There is no way anyone present that night would conclude boxing is a dying sport.

Sure there's not one true champ any more and a proliferation of belts means top guys can avoid each other and both tell the world they're the best out there, but this sport is still the same exciting blood lust we all know and love. Even so called boring fights like rigo v donaire result in broken bones.

 

For me as above and also the introduction of the day before weigh ins ........then basicly the Alphabet soup world titles made world titles meaningless to me

 

That sounds pretty awesome. Froch looked full bad-ass that night.

Today certainly has its faults. But would we exchange them for the color line or Dempsey's glory years? Or the mob controlled 1950's and 60's? Or the fat, coke-addled heavies of the 1980's?