Will boxing ever reclaim it's former glory?

Until the best fighters fight each other on a more regular basis and for valid titles boxing will remain about where it is now.

 

Well it has evolved as far as safety and human rights, but just because it isn't mob controlled anymore doesn't mean there isn't corruption, there still is and always will be. There seemed to be a more even playing field back then too. There were many more superstars sharing the same division willing to fight one another instead of much fewer stars today making silly demands or demand after demand. Boxing was as big if not bigger than mainstream sports today and I can understand people being from a much tougher era/eras back then. Boxing seems like a sport that it can embrace its fans and then push them away, with high points and low ones, and then embrace its fans once again, with fans doing the samething to boxing, like a love\hate relationship. You have to give people a reason to watch it and if great fighters from this era can't find one in their division they have to keep moving up til they find a challenge. Challenging themselves is what makes a fighter great.

 

the thing is boxing is becoming a lot more of a global sport, since the fall of the soviet union they have become major players in boxing, asia is also improving and so are south america. if you go back in time to boxings glory years all its big stars were almost always american and all its big fights usually involved americans.


This was at a time when America was the center of popular culture, meaning if something was very popular in america the whole world would be exposed to it because it was seen as something that should be important to them too. America is still the center of popular culture but with infromation technology improving, people are now aloud to choose what there exposed to rather than replying on tv or print to tell them the big news, meaning there less likely to hear about boxing news unless they choose to look at it (example im sure every Mohammed Ali fight result was shown on irish news, iv never once heard them ever discuss boxing in my lifetime unless its involved an irish boxer).

The absence of an american heavyweight also doesnt help and judging by the amateur ranks and prospects coming up Europe will continue to dominate the heavyweight division( Darmani Rock looks very good though) .Boxing is going to become an even more global sport as time moves on and boxing really needs a central governing body if it want to be promoted right and organised properly. AIBA pro boxing is a decent attempt but i see it taken another 12-16 years before they could have anything to rival pro boxing.

things such as Pac-floyd not happening is something that i feel has directly hurt boxing. In no other sport in the world would the two greatest teams/players be aloud not to fight/play eachother. this has probebly annoyed a lot of casual fans. This is where a central governing body would help improve boxing as they could make the best fight the best. A single governing body would mean we would have 1 champ per division and then being a world champion would mean a lot more

 

The reason this has happened in modern sports is because professionalism and athleticisim are something that even the weaklings in the divisions/sports are intent on having.

So whilst the person at the top isn't necessarily better, the person at 100 is infinitely better than his 1970 counterpart.

It makes it more difficult to just blow the ears off everyone.

 

Too many wt classes, too many titles. Best fighters no fighting. Too much politics.

More great athletes going into other sports.

The biggest problem may be short attention span of our young people. A 12 round fight that goes to decision is "boring" to them unless its Ruslan-Bradley level action.

Fewer people appreciate the art or science of the sport and its natural beauty.

And we all boxed and fought in the backyard as kids. You do that today, OMG your parents are getting sued. Less people have experienced the sport.

 

Who have they ducked?