True Boxing Fans only?

Question

What is wrong with Boxing today? why is it not like it was when i was a Kid and everyone in the family would all get together and watch a fight .... is it MMA

too many Belts

boxers not as good

boxers don't have character

organized crime

Media not covering Boxing right

what is it and what to do to fix it

Answer 1

You know, this is a good question.  Yes, there are too many belts, but that can be worked around.  Boxers are very good, so thats not it. media, organized crime, and character issues are a non factor. But.....

The biggest problem is that the promoters, sanctioning bodies, and fighters themselves dont do things properly. it shouldnt matter that because you fight for this promoter, you cant fight this guy cause you dont like his promoter, or you cant make deal.  If you are the best, fight the best. If you are the number 1 guy, fight the number 2 guy, or the number 1a guy.  To h**l with the WBA, WBC, and IBF and their mandatory challengers.  To h**l with Don King not liking bob arum, or golden boy not liking top rank. Let the best fight the best. nobody wants to fight anymore.

Ex. number 1. There is NO reason whatsoever why Joel Casamayor should not fight Nate Campbell next. They are the top two in the division, yet their promoters are trying to put Cas against Juan Diaz, who was just beaten convincingly by Campbell.  Why? Where does that make sense?  Look at Cotto and Margarito.  2 of the top 3 guys in the class, and they are going to settle it in the ring, with the winner facing the other guy, Paul Williams, to decide the number one guy. Cant script it any better than that.

Ex. number 2. So Pacquiao is moving on the bigger and better things, and Juan Manuel Marquez is debating who he should fight.  Well, why not Joan Guzman, who is young, hungry and wants to be the best. Again, settle it in the ring.  This fight isnt even being looked at though, cause the promoter's wont talk it up and dont think it will sell. WHO CARES!

This is what needs to be fixed in boxing; if you think you are the best, fight the others who think they are the best, or are made out to be the best, regardless of money, promotion, etc. Show it in the ring, thats the only place it matters. Have some heart and go after it, the way they used to do it back when fights went 15 rounds and the fighters genuinely did not like each other, and wanted to beat the c**p out of the other guy!

Answer 2

Here are some factors that I feel hurts boxing.

1 - Too many belts.  And with interim champions and "super" champions, it gets even more muddled.  That is why I follow and ecourage others to follow the Ring Magazine championship policy.

2 - Lack of media coverage and consistent airing.  ESPN carries regular cards but unfortunately many times the time slots change to accommodate other programming so it is hard to follow on a consistent basis.  There is nothing on the network channels on Saturday/Sunday afternoons anymore.  And anything outside of hte major fights (De la Hoya/Mayweather, etc) gets little if any coverage in the newspapers and on Sportscenter.

3 - No focus on the amateurs.  I remember the '88, '92, and '96 Olympic teams.  There was coverage in the newspaper and Ring Magazine would break down each weight class and predict the chance the US boxer would have to medal.  Now, I don't even know who will be representing my country in 2 months!  And the fights won't be shown until something like 3:00 in the morning.  Thankfully, they are eliminating the dreadful electronic scoring so hopefully that will raise interest again.

4 - I don't think MMA totally hurts the sport of boxing because I think there is a cross-over appeal.  I know many MMA fans dimiss it because they like the potentially faster pace and quicker endings.  I prefer boxing because I don't enjoy the mat grappling.  Generally when I fighter gets knocked down or stunned in an MMA bout, he is quickly overwhelmed and finished.  I like the drama in boxing where a boxer beats the count and rallies back (see Corrales-Castillo I).  The advantage to MMA's growing populartiy is that boxing promoters are now putting on better matchups.  Promoters are working together instead of hoarding fighters.  For years, Don King and Bob Arum would create mismatches for their stars and wouldn't let them fight anybody under a different promotional banner for fear of losing money.  Now they know that if that keep doing that, there will be no money left, so they are more willing to compromise.

Don't think boxing is dead or dying.  I go to a lot of local fight cards and they are often packed.  And many young fans are rallying behind new heros today - Miguel Cotto, Kelly Pavlik, etc.

Answer 3

that's a good question.

I remember everyone in the house and neighbors would pile up in our living room for a ray leonard fight..or hearns,Duran, hagler, Whitaker, Chavez...etc. Holmes, Ali...etc

PPV has killed it along with other things.

Answer 4

Very Good Question.  Here are a few answers.

1. Too Many Belts.   I don't mind the "jr." divisions but I think there should be ONLY ONE CHAMPION per division.  I would MUCH rather see a fight between the 147 and 140 pound champion instead of the WBC 147 vs the WBA 154 or anything of the sort.

2. PPV.  Who can afford boxing anymore?  Every major fight costs $50 dollars or more.   True you have some who will pay but MANY of them don't even know about boxing.   How many men will Fly to Las Vegas without their wives?  SO MANY of the people who can afford to attend a fight, or even watch it on PPV are also a contributing factor.  Many of them aren't even boxing fans.  They're just attending "An Event".  Many of the TRUE fans are blocked out.

3. The boxers aren't as good as generations before.  This is ALL THE MORE reason SOMETHING needs to be done about the current state of the sport.  If you have ONE champion the division, and the rest of boxing,  it suddenly becomes MORE exciting to see who can topple HIM, THE MAN,  not the MEN.  

The ONLY TIME the word "Champion" should include more than one person is in other sports,  NOT Boxing.

Answer 5

I know mma is not hurting boxing, infact boxings still doing great(money wise), heck its made more money than ufc in the last year and it doesnt need coverage like mma does. i think football and basketball type sports took over tv. nothing wrong with boxing lately, theres lots of good fights being made compared to the last four or five years. if your a true boxing fan you'll know which boxing matches to watch and which fighters to follow. but if mma keeps around i think it will force boxing to make better fights for appealment, it already started so boxing needs no fixing right now.

Answer 6

1. promoters

2.ppv price

3.too many belts

4.fixed fights

5 bad judge scoring

all that is hurting boxing

Answer 7

It's just a phase.The glory days will return.

Answer 8

too many belts i feel is a major factor..  just too many world champions, everyone and their mother has a belt.  and too many weight divisions.  a world champ doesn't carry the same respect as in the old days. the media doesn't seem to care much for the sport anymore and you can't watch boxing on free tv (but they'll show golf and Nascart!) i think its really sad how a great sport has fallen within the past 20 years...

Answer 9

all of the things that you mentioned effect the boxing world. organized crime was around during the sixties, and haven't ever been that big of deal. i think that the biggest reason that boxing is not as exciting is that no one has character. no one really clicks, no one has that x-factor that makes boxing so amazing and what it used to be. and the media is definitely not advertising the boxing matches enough or talking about it at all.

another big reason is that boxing is no longer on mainstream television. AND WHY THE h**l IS THAT? who knows, but when they put boxing on HBO or other PPV channels it took away a large portion of boxings fans. what if the NFL went PPV, just about no one would watch it.

It's ultimately just a bunch of BS. boxers only box for the money and every boxer has the same promoter and the promoters dont want their fighters getting hurt... it's all plain bull s**t. boxing was much better back in the day and now people dont watch it because it's not advertised and it's not advertised because no one watches it.

Answer 10

The main reason is that (I dont know how old you are) but when I was kid, under 10 allot of boxing used to be shown free on NBC  and CBS. That allowed people to get to know champions and contenders and understand the sport more. Now if you want to get to know a fighter you usually have to have HBO or pay for PPV. And allot of people are not willing to fork over 50 dollars for a fighter they don't know.

This is where the UFC has done well, by showing free fights on Spike tv and building an audience. MMA has nothing to do with boxing in anyway shape or form. Boxing is fine, it still generates more money on regular basis then does the UFC or MMA shows. Top boxers still make 10 times what top MMA fighters do.

The other thing that makes it hard for your average part time boxing fan is that there are so many weight divisions, at one time there was Featherweight, lightweight, welterweight, middleweight, lightheavyweight and heavyweight.

Now we have all these jr and super divisions that are just not necessary, but were created so that the alphabet boxing organizations such as the World Boxing Council (WBC) International Boxing Federation (IBF) and the World Boxing Association (WBA) along with the WBO,WBU ext ext.

The more divisions means more belts, more belts means more sanctioning fees. The Jr and Super divisions are a disgrace and should be eliminated.

It is much easier for a fan to follow when there is one champion and one division.

The fighters are great, we have some of the best fighters of all time in the past 20 years, they keep getting better and better. (except the heavyweight division)

Which is another factor, the heavyweight division is the leader of the sport, when its weak, the sport weakens. The regular sports fans love big knockouts from big guys. When Tyson was big people that didn’t normally watch boxing would tune into the PPV and while doing so catch the under cards of the lower divisions and get interested in them. So as soon as the next Ali or Tyson comes along and puts ***'s in seats then the sport will be popular again and MMA will take the backseat and wait it out.

Another big problem is Promoters who don’t work with other Promoters to make fights happen.

Also the Organization's (WBC,IBF,WBA ext.) require ranked fighters and champions to pay fee's. Most boxers cannot afford to pay 4 or 5 different fees for different titles or rankings so they have to choose the one they want to pay. So the organization takes the next person in line who is willing to pay their sanctioning fee's. So in reality fighters are buying their rankings, which is why you can see a guy who has lost 4 of his last 5 fights as a number 1 contender.

Boxing needs reform big time, and these mafia related organizations need to go, all fighters have to do is not pay the fees and do what Berrera did and throw his title away and keep the ring belt. If all fighters started doing that the Organizations would start to lose their power.

Props to Berrera for that by the way

Answer 11

All of the above and people have more things to do now