Will boxing ever come out of this "weak era"?

A good post i came across a year + or so back

 

when the economy gets better

 

everything in life fluctuates. smaller, bigger smaller, bigger.

endless cycle.

 

"Lucy you have some splainin' ta do"

 

They have to stop making **** fights and sell them to the public (especially casual fans who are their targets and are easily fooled). This careful management is killing the sport along with these confusing sanctioning bodies, robberies, corrupt judges, incompetent refs, greedy/liar promoters, etc. If the best always fight the best, in a fair weight, boxing can go back to what it once used to be.

 

... and more:

1998: " Everything you- needed to know about the current sad state of boxing in general and the heavyweight division in particular was revealed in a span of three days in the last week"

1994: "And so the heavyweight boxing division is in a time warp, not to mention a shambles, not to mention a state of incredulity. George Foreman, old, fat and immobile, won two-thirds of the available titles Saturday night."

1988: "Tyson looks unbeatable, especially given the sorry state of the heavyweight division."

1984: "Usually, the heavyweight division carries boxing, but it's a disaster."

1982: "Tonight's match (Holmes-Cobb), of course, reflects the sorry state of heavyweight boxing, once the most important division in the game."

 

its hysterical to see ppl talk about how bad the era is like there has never been a bad heavyweight era before

it would appear pundits always have the rose tinted glasses looking to the past even during a great time for the fight game

i know boxing is flawed and certainly isnt mainstream but i watch the fights and i enjoy them

 

So there's hope for me yet! :happy

 

hey keep it clean this is a boxing forum... not the playboy mansion.

 

When everyone refuses to pay for over priced ppv fights, fighters will have to fight more often too make big money.

 

The top talent is as good as ever. You'd have to be crazy to think that guys like Mayweather and Pacquiao aren't ATGs, or that they'd be champs or major contenders in virtually any era. And there's a fair amount of talent of the next level down, some it possessed by young guys like Ward who are going to be around for years and will probably continue to prove themselves in that time.

So in terms of that, I don't think you can call it a weak era.

However, where I see the weakness is that there isn't the depth of talent below the top guys. Each division has anywhere between around 1-4 big dogs, and then after that it seems like there's not a lot to talk about. And even in the top dogs, certain old time skills and talents are dying out in favor of just trying to get bigger, stronger, and beat up on smaller guys.

I don't think things are going to change until there's a major cleanup of the sport done. The judging needs to be fixed, the rules need to be fixed, the entire title system needs to be fixed, (I mean, can you think of another sport where one man or family is in a position to hand out or make up new titles whenever they want the way the Suleiman family is with the WBC? When was the last time that the commissioners of baseball, football or hockey decided to name the team their godson was on champions before a championship match even happened?) the ranking system needs to be fixed, and there needs to be one belt per weight class.

I think boxing would be a much more mainstream sport in the US and in a number of other countries if there was a sense that the system was honest and makes sense. Right now, it doesn't, and there's not even a pretense about it.

 

I see nobody promising enough on the horizon that suggests to me that the sport will come out of this **** era loaded with mediocrity anytime soon.

 

Boxing has changed. The balance of power has been spread throughout the globe rather than concentrated in North America. That doesn't mean it is dead, but the term "World Champion" is a lot more correct now than it ever was in the past.

 

Boxing has been like that in every era. 1-4 competitive elite fighters per division and a dozen or two contenders which are a step (or two) below.