Will heavyweight boxing ever regain its popularity in the USA

If the best guys in each division all actually faced each other the punters would probably come back.

So yeah, no time soon.

 

not in my life time
anderson will be a top contender though

 

Canelo Alvarez is packing out huge stadiums in the USA

Errol Spence vs Mikey Garcia had 47,000 people in attendance.

Gervonta Davis has a big fanbase. As does Wilder. Crawford is huge in his home city.

Boxing is on more TV channels in the USA than anywhere in the world. And charges the biggest PPV prices by far. And the most expensive for tickets

USA have a huge number of registered current pros, more than any other country

Fighters from around the world move to USA train in USa fight in USA. Sign with usa promoters.Its still seen as the 'mecca of boxing'

(Just saying boxing can't be as unpopular over there as some people make out)

 

History seems cyclical. I assume it'll get back around to being super popular eventually.

 

Perhaps heavyweight boxing lost its popularity in the USA when the heavyweight title holders started to increasingly be from other countries.

Likewise perhaps it is just a sign of the times, in 1960s/70s more folk in a UK street would likely have been able to identify the domestic British Champion compared to folk of today trying to identify Fury.

The fights used to be on terrestrial television so households knew who fighters were even if not directly interested in boxing, now with PPV and less buying of newspapers which covered all big fights, the breadth of viewers and readers of boxing coverage is more restricted to those that seek it out.

Likewise just compare the regularity of title defences say by Ali to those who hold the titles nowadays.

The Heavyweight Champion was when i was growing up (and history tells us before that too ) was nigh on given superhero status, that alas is much less so today, i cannot imagine any of the recent Heavyweight champions being put in a DC comic like Ali was vs Superman.

The Heavyweight Championship has had its heyday to the wider audience, however we just have to enjoy it as boxing fans today despite that including the trash talk, social media rants etc etc from fighters.

 

No.

Too many screw jobs. Too many fake champions. Too many shitty rematches. Too many generations didn't get hooked on it. To many boxing gyms shut down. To many absorbent prices for shitty pay per views. Too many networks bailed out. Too little talent. And all at a time when it has to compete with MMA.

I mean, anything can happen in the very long term, but there would have to be some kind of massive paradigm shift. The answer is effectively no.

 

The media and entertainment landscape is too fragmented for it to be how it was in the 90s. Anyone who turned on a TV, radio, or looked at a newspaper would see who the champ was.

Now, if you love knitting you watch knitting shows, listen to knitting podcasts, get your news from a knitting blog and they're not covering boxing.

Still though, if they make good fights and promote themselves well growth is very possible.

 

Another issue with boxing is there is alot of foreign fighters in the US such as from eastern europe. There are plenty of eastern europeans in the US but they usually arent very into boxing so those fighters lack fan bases. American fans tend to support American (home) fighters. I am not saying this in a negative way a boxers ehtnic background is always the main base for thier support.

 

It needs domestic name rivalries which isn't there now and hasn't been there since the 90s.

 

Probably not, but it's hard to imagine the world 50 years from now. Zeitgeist is a thing.

Many factors are at play.
The HW championship isn't American vs American, or American vs no hoper anymore.
Boxers aren't seen as super-humans anymore, the awe is gone, and the HW champion is no longer seen as the baddest man on the planet.
After PPV and paid subscriptions, boxing left the public eye. Certainly with many other entertainment options.
This day and age everybody's a champion, with some smaller divisions 1 out of 8 or 9 boxers fight for a world title some time in their careers.
And many other reasons already mentioned.

 

Not surprising When your heavyweight champion routinely takes on the likes of Artur Szpillka

 

When a charismatic American or American friendly fighter that transcends the sport and captures the imagination of the masses comes along, yes. Ali, Foreman, and Tyson were all must see for even the casual fans and normally non-fans. Looking at the car wreck never goes out of style but, jab and clinch and safety first boxing chess most certainly do.

The influx of world competition and rival sports created an extended limbo while a new equilibrium is found. It may take longer than any of us would like but, someone will sneak up when we least expect it and capture our collective imagination.

 

It did have a semi-resurgence with the Fury/Wilder fights, but I dont think we will ever get particularly close to the CONSISTENT interest there was in the Tyson or Ali days. In the 90s you had a bunch of high level American HWs with name value and pretty much any combination of them would do good to great numbers, hence relatively consistent interest. Now thats much less the case and the few good American HWs who people kind of know about arent fighting each other.

 

It won't ever come back, we're closer now than ever to most of society not wanting to see people smashing one another's faces in.

All combat sports will decline further and further as time goes on until the world looks back wondering what their ancestors seen in watching people beat each other to a pulp.