How popular is the sport of Boxing?

[jhar26]

I'm not arguing in favor of boxing tournaments at all. All I'm saying is that in,say tennis people know that the four Grand Slam events are the most important that the sport has to offer and that winning one of those is the most important achievement in that sport. Same goes for other sports. But boxing is much too confusing. How are people to know if the IBF,WBO,WBC or WBA (or one of the countless others) champ is the real one? And is it really necessary to have weight divisions for every couple of pounds difference,especially considering the fact that many boxers change weight divisions on a regular basis and don't even weigh anywhere near the particular weight of the division they are competing in come fighting time?

Eight weight divisions,one champ per division and every time one of those champs defends their title television coverage worldwide for free. That's all that's necessary in my view . Doesn't mean that they can't show other fights as well of course,or that other fighters aren't worthy of attention,but the most important thing is that people out there know who are the real champs and are able to understand what's important and what's not. I know all too well that none of this will ever happen,but I'm talking about what I think SHOULD,not about what I think WILL happen.

Maybe tournaments will help the popularity. Very regulated tournaments, with brackets and s*** like the college basketball fans go crazy over. Each round is fought on specific days on one card, and they make it like some sort of reality show or something. It would ruin boxing as we know it but make it more appealing to the public.

[glass_joe]

I believe the lack of cohesive and unified circuits is to blame for the decrease in mainstream attention to boxing. Â All of the divisions are splintered, and the value of a championship cut into fragments.

Also, I believe that the lack of entertaining and proven players in boxing's flagship division, the Heavyweight, is also dragging down on public interest. Â Most people don't want to see Chris Byrd run around the ropes for half an hour, or Andrew Golota getting KO'ed in 13 seconds by Lamon Brewster. Â They want to see brutal brawls between long-lasting and electrifying fighters that end in a big KO, and the Heavyweight division has been lacking of that lately. Â

I just wish King would ease up on the lathargic hold he has gripped the Heavyweight division in.

It would be much more entertaining if a true unifying tournament was being held.. then we would have a better measure of all the prospects' skills, a true champion, and open up more opportunities for new blood.

[CutMeMick]

I feel everything plays a little role in the popularity of any sport. The actual athletes in the sport, the fans, the organization of the sport etc etc etc....

Soccer is the worlds most popular sport. Everybody knows DAVID BECKHAM. RONALDO, DIEGO FORLAN, THIERRY HENRY, ZINEDIN ZIDANE, SAVIOLA, TREZEGUET.
They hold (1) WORLD tournament every 4 yrs. to determine the Champ. of the world. And they have many branches and organization's. Theres the GOLD CUP, THE AMERICAS CUP, THE S. AMERICA, THE EURO, etc etc. but they all know that the main one to win is the WORLD. There fans ARE DIE HARD they will kill for theur team with no hesitation but that also comes from the sport side of it.

If boxing can do something like that, like before just have (1) recognized champ like before that would be great. Then we as fans would also be more into it like the way it was before where people cried after watching ALI loose or Alexis Arguello. Now we just watch a fight and say, uhh! Oh! well...

[vex]

I'm not arguing in favor of boxing tournaments at all. All I'm saying is that in,say tennis people know that the four Grand Slam events are the most important that the sport has to offer and that winning one of those is the most important achievement in that sport. Same goes for other sports. But boxing is much too confusing. How are people to know if the IBF,WBO,WBC or WBA (or one of the countless others) champ is the real one? And is it really necessary to have weight divisions for every couple of pounds difference,especially considering the fact that many boxers change weight divisions on a regular basis and don't even weigh anywhere near the particular weight of the division they are competing in come fighting time?

Eight weight divisions,one champ per division and every time one of those champs defends their title television coverage worldwide for free. That's all that's necessary in my view . Doesn't mean that they can't show other fights as well of course,or that other fighters aren't worthy of attention,but the most important thing is that people out there know who are the real champs and are able to understand what's important and what's not. I know all too well that none of this will ever happen,but I'm talking about what I think SHOULD,not about what I think WILL happen.

Maybe tournaments will help the popularity. Very regulated tournaments, with brackets and s*** like the college basketball fans go crazy over. Each round is fought on specific days on one card, and they make it like some sort of reality show or something. It would ruin boxing as we know it but make it more appealing to the public.

It's all about money man, the more divisions you have the more money that these organizations will make. for example Every time there is a WBA super strawweight fight the WBA takes something like 2% from each fighter in sanctioning fees. This also explans all the foney titles out there, there are like 1000s of championship belts to be won in the world. There is nothing wrong in people wanting to make alot of money in the biz, but it's the people who want to make a cheap buck or two are the ones who hurt the sport

[The Shadow]

To answer the post topic question:

Not nearly popular enough. I think NASCAR has more of a following. Hell,
maybe even Golf.

[mucho testosterone]

Part of the problem is that your average big name fight is $50.00 on Television whereas golf and nascar are free
to watch on Television. I doubt it even costs $50.00 to watch nascar in person but I could be wrong. A lot of people just don't want to gamble $40-$50 on whether or not a fight will be watchable.

[The Shadow]

Part of the problem is that your average big name fight is $50.00 on Television whereas golf and nascar are freeÂ
to watch on Television. I doubt it even costs $50.00 to watch nascar in person but I could be wrong. A lot of people just don't want to gamble $40-$50 on whether or not a fight will be watchable.Â

That's unfortunate. I understand the reluctance, but if people kept abreast about what's going own on ESPN on Tuesday and Friday, and what's happening on FoxSports, maybe it would gather more of a following.

[Chico]

Also lack of a youthful audience has also hurt boxing, i read once somewhere that about 70-80% of boxing viewers are over the age of 35. Boxing simply isn't considered has being a "cool" sport anymore.

i think boxing is a "cool" sport. most of the people i know around the ages of 12-21 like boxing,and maybe 3 or 4 of the 12 year old kids here do box,they just dont watch it because no coverage and you have to buy the good fights on PPV. as long as boxing allows you to hit somebody in the face and get paid for it,it will always be cool, with boys at least.

[Hulk]

Also lack of a youthful audience has also hurt boxing, i read once somewhere that about 70-80% of boxing viewers are over the age of 35. Boxing simply isn't considered has being a "cool" sport anymore.

i think boxing is a "cool" sport. most of the people i know around the ages of 12-21 like boxing,and maybe 3 or 4 of the 12 year old kids here do box,they just dont watch it because no coverage and you have to buy the good fights on PPV. as long as boxing allows you to hit somebody in the face and get paid for it,it will always be cool, with boys at least.

I think more young people are flocking to the UFC events than boxing. Maybe I'm wrong. Those are ALL PPV too. Personally I prefer boxing over UFC by quite a bit. But if there is a weekend with no boxing, I'll purchase a pride, or rent a UFC from Blockbusters.

[vex]

Also lack of a youthful audience has also hurt boxing, i read once somewhere that about 70-80% of boxing viewers are over the age of 35. Boxing simply isn't considered has being a "cool" sport anymore.

i think boxing is a "cool" sport. most of the people i know around the ages of 12-21 like boxing,and maybe 3 or 4 of the 12 year old kids here do box,they just dont watch it because no coverage and you have to buy the good fights on PPV. as long as boxing allows you to hit somebody in the face and get paid for it,it will always be cool, with boys at least.

I think more young people are flocking to the UFC events than boxing. Maybe I'm wrong. Those are ALL PPV too. Personally I prefer boxing over UFC by quite a bit. But if there is a weekend with no boxing, I'll purchase a pride, or rent a UFC from Blockbusters.

Ya most young people are flocking to the UFC, I peronally know that my friends respect boxing but are far interested in MMA and they don't know a dam thing about it. Along time ago people saw boxing as the ultimate combat sport but now people see mma as the ultimate combat sport.

[magicman]

i know,a lot of people don't know anything about boxing.they only know about like muhammid ali and mabye suger ray leaonerd.boxing is better than half the sports out there.the only other good sports to watch is football and basketball