LONDON -- Joe Calzaghe believes boxing is on the ropes, with too many champions and few real stars. Still weighing whether he'll retire after beating Bernard Hopkins and Roy Jones Jr. this year to remain unbeaten in 46 fights, Calzaghe said Wednesday he was glad he was almost on the way out of the sport instead of just starting out. "I think boxing is a dying sport. Globally -- in America for instance -- you've got UFC, which has taken a lot off boxing, business-wise," Calzaghe said, referring to the mixed martial arts Ultimate Fighting Championship. The Welshman who held the WBO super middleweight world title for more than 10 years before moving up to light heavyweight to fight Hopkins and Jones also said boxing has its own problems. "There is too much politics in boxing, too many belts and too many champions, which dilutes real champions like myself," he said. "There are four world champions in each division and it's bad because there are no stars any more. It's a big problem." Calzaghe also noted that the United States won only one medal at the Beijing Games -- a bronze by heavyweight Deontay Wilder -- which points to a grim future for American boxing. "America only had one medalist in the Olympics this year," Calzaghe said. "In Britain, we did pretty good, but I'm glad I'm ending my career Sheez... Hes right. Too bad hes doing nothing about just like all the other fighters. :-(
Personally I get tired of this "boxing is dying" ****. According to the pundits the first Ali/Chuvalo fight killed boxing. The death of Du Koo Kim killed boxing. The move from free TV to cable killed boxing. PPV killed boxing. Blah-blah-blah. This **** has been going on for DECADES!!!!
He's just full of himself and pissed that his self promoted Roy Jones Jr vs Calzaghe fight did 250,000 buys while DLH and Pacs did 1.2 Million. He thinks he hot **** and should get that many buys and is pissed that he didn't.
I think that's partially wrong. People are finally interested in Calzaghe now....but he's chosen to either retire or fight worthless fights. Calzaghe's mentality is whats wrong with boxing.
man i love to be a boxing fan today.... thanks to the internet i can watch every fight i want, if it is in america, europe, asia it doesn't matter.... And imo pretty exciting fights are made the last few years... much better then in the 90's... It seems that the best fighters are willing to fight the best fighters more then in the 90's... And i could not care less how many people in america are watching boxing.... imo the less people are buying ppv's, the better the fights they have to put on... and to reapeat the words of Muhammad Ali.... Boxing will never die. As long as there is a streetcorner and two people with a disagreement, boxing will survive
I meant that the crap about how boxing is a dying sport has been going on for decades. Boxing itself is one of the oldest sports in the world. The examples I gave are exampples of times, and situations where lots of people made noise about boxing being finished. The oldest example I am personally aware of was the first Ali/Chuvalo fight. The "experts" freaked out and claimed it signaled the end of boxing as a legitimate sport. That was 1966.
The people who say boxing is dead/dying are the casual fans. REAL boxing fans know that the sweet science is here to stay.
