When did boxing lose its mystique for you?

since the reign & demise of Tyson.

since then boxing both boomed, thanks to Iron Mike, as well as it became rediculous as every ****en fighter of note and thier mediocre opposition suddenly became the greatests fighters who ever lived.

the Past not only no longer counted, it NEVER even existed!

 

A lot of great comments here. My first response was going to be that it hasn't, but then I can hardly excuse why I was away for so long.

The early 90s was a time when it seemed that every week had two or three boxing programs on cable/satelite (non premium stations) that I had access to. Then, I'd be able to watch a PPV or so each month (maybe less), or the HBO/Showtime offerings. Finally, add the various "free" tv boxing series', especially in the Summar, that I'd also watch -- a whole lot of boxing for me without any big cost to me.

Then I go to college and lose all of that. I got married and we had children, so my time is more of a premium in those pre-college days, plus there was not near the same "standard" amount of boxing to watch.

(I also had a phase where MMA surpassed by boxing interest -- but it was one of those things that was easier, and seemingly less costly, for me to follow at the time).

I still love the Sweet Science, but I hate that the access isn't what it used to be for me.

 

No.

The biggest problem today is that there is less quantity of people on boxing though (fighters, trainers, fans, etc).......and that´s certainly bad for the quantity of talent.

 

late 90's, early 00's. The last two pay-per-view fights I recall getting were Trinidad-Hoya and Hopkins-Trinidad. I guess Trinidad was one of the last guys I'd pay to see.

I would've bought Pac-Mayweather but of course......

I could get interested again if there were network fights on weekend afternoons. They need to develop fighters better. Someone you can watch early in their career until the end of their career.

I caught on to a few guys early on like Trinidad, Donald Curry, Chavez and then I would pay to see them fight. You're more invested in a fighter when you're telling friends to watch this young guy an he pans out. If a guy didn't pan out, so what, someone else would come along.

 

I think the people that controls Boxing promotions don´t do a good job btw, they actually do a terrible job and a lot of the indifference is their fault.....
I notice that when I come back to follow the news and all these things regularly.. my interest starts to reborn.....you know. It´s like anything else, same with soccer-football, right now I´m not following it anymore (for a number os reasons) like I did before, and because of that I´m not looking forward to the games no more.....it´s simple.
If the boxing media was more accessible to people, it would be a different sport today. It would increases in every aspect.

 

I always thought it was around the time John L. retired!

 

When Jack Dempsey refused to cross the color line

 

Decisions like Whitaker-Chavez and Lewis-Holyfield I really made it start to seem meaningless to me. And the lack of TV fights, for sure. Boxing disrespects its fans in so many ways, that you have to be pretty codependent to stick with it. Judges tell you that you can't believe your own eyes. Promoters charge you an arm and a leg. And bull**** sanctioning bodies tell you about their "super champions" and all that ****. It's impossible to take it seriously anymore.

 

I understood gift decisions more with oscar/tito and holyfield/lewis in the same year.

 

1960s.
Clay/Ali turned boxing into a sideshow. His antics pulled it down to the level of pro wrestling.
Imagine Joe Louis or Marciano prancing around saying how pretty they were.

 

funny, great fighter that he was, I did a thread about this years ago at the CBZ, asking "was Ali good for boxing?", something along that line, the thread took off and there were mixed veiws. but like you many agreed he was the trailblazer for negative behaviour which morphed into 'punkish' showdowns & standoffs and worse today with the Gansta generation of IDIOTS!!!

so yes he certainly changed it!

 

I nearly went on a killing spree after the pacman vs bradley farce,but im still a fan and im excited for tonights bill with Ricky burns headlining.

I recently watched The night of gold with all the olympians in 84,announcers opening line was ''boxings been goin through a tough time recently...'':huh

 

I still love boxing and probably always will but it lost it's mystique on the world stage basically when I didn't know who the hell was the Champion/s because there was so many belts and so many divisions. The Heavyweight Championship went from the most prestigious sporting title in the world to something guys like Seldon, Botha and Valuev could claim.

Today I only really follow the lower weight divisions with quite alot of talented fighters popping up.

 

The end of 15 round contests certainly had something to do with it, but that's not the only thing...too many titles, too many "champions" in each division..the rap/hip-hop thug culture,..general bufoonery, both inside the ring and outside...but most of all, is the fact that todays crop is decidedly mediocre compared to the 60's and 70's...ther eras which I became intoxicated by this once great sport...and it's still the greatest sport BTW.