Thread: Boxing could use an arbitrator

A year from now.... two years from now.... are we STILL going to be posting about who's ducking who in the Pacquiao-Mayweather, and Wlad-Haye potential matchups? Not only would that be sad... it would be bad for boxing. I know big fights need time in order to develop the proper buildup and publicity. It's part of boxing. But like ALL anticipated events, there's a very real curve of public interest in there. Interest builds and builds, until the time is right for the matchup. But continue to make the public wait.... and interest starts to wane. Not only that, but conditions begin to deteriorate. "So-and-so" is now past his prime. The other guy got injured. One of them lost a meaningless tuneup fight. And so on and so on. Not to mention that people just get fed up and move on to other interests. I don't know about anybody else, but it seems to me we've been recirculating all these who's ducking who threads for a decade now.

All we have are opposing promoters, fighting mind games and doing all kinds of sh*t to gain the upper hand. They could care less about the boxing fans.... they're just out for their own selfish interests. So why not have an arbitrator, whose main objective would be to settle issues that are keeping fights from happening? We've seen that in other sports, like baseball for instance.... where player strikes have been averted because an arbitrator sits between the player reps and the team owners, and irons out the differences.

Maybe it wouldn't work in boxing, I don't know. What i DO know is that boxing continues to suffer, and boxing fans continue to be dangled on a string, arguing and fighting amongst ourselves about hypothetical situations that in the end..... will probably never happen anyway. And if and when the fights DO happen, circumstances will have changed, and excuses will be more plentiful. But maybe that's just the nature of boxing I guess.

good idea dude

I'm not so sure about that... How do you confirm the neutality of such a person?

I mean things can go from bad to worse when a person finds them self up against two parties.

Whats the solution there?

Does it work in other sports?

Like the idea if they had to go with the ruling.

They may have these already called courts.

Originally Posted by TitoFan

A year from now.... two years from now.... are we STILL going to be posting about who's ducking who in the Pacquiao-Mayweather, and Wlad-Haye potential matchups? Not only would that be sad... it would be bad for boxing. I know big fights need time in order to develop the proper buildup and publicity. It's part of boxing. But like ALL anticipated events, there's a very real curve of public interest in there. Interest builds and builds, until the time is right for the matchup. But continue to make the public wait.... and interest starts to wane. Not only that, but conditions begin to deteriorate. "So-and-so" is now past his prime. The other guy got injured. One of them lost a meaningless tuneup fight. And so on and so on. Not to mention that people just get fed up and move on to other interests. I don't know about anybody else, but it seems to me we've been recirculating all these who's ducking who threads for a decade now.

All we have are opposing promoters, fighting mind games and doing all kinds of sh*t to gain the upper hand. They could care less about the boxing fans.... they're just out for their own selfish interests. So why not have an arbitrator, whose main objective would be to settle issues that are keeping fights from happening? We've seen that in other sports, like baseball for instance.... where player strikes have been averted because an arbitrator sits between the player reps and the team owners, and irons out the differences.

Maybe it wouldn't work in boxing, I don't know. What i DO know is that boxing continues to suffer, and boxing fans continue to be dangled on a string, arguing and fighting amongst ourselves about hypothetical situations that in the end..... will probably never happen anyway. And if and when the fights DO happen, circumstances will have changed, and excuses will be more plentiful. But maybe that's just the nature of boxing I guess.

Your mixing apples & oranges and calling them vegetables. The arbitrator your referring to in baseball is a contract negotiation between the collective owners and the collective player's union. This type of relationship doesn't exist in Boxing.

With Boxing it is Promoter vs Promoter where they argue about the event particulars and profit split. And the fighters argue about the fight particulars and purse split.

Making match-ups in Professional Boxing is so convoluted it is in complete disarray. Sanctioning bodies have overlapping 'jurisdictions' (for lack of a appropriate term.) and can't control fighter match-ups as it did some time in the past. If they want to co-exist, they should get together and draw lines, otherwise eventually the weaker ones will die or play minor roles.

Originally Posted by fan johnny

Originally Posted by TitoFan

A year from now.... two years from now.... are we STILL going to be posting about who's ducking who in the Pacquiao-Mayweather, and Wlad-Haye potential matchups? Not only would that be sad... it would be bad for boxing. I know big fights need time in order to develop the proper buildup and publicity. It's part of boxing. But like ALL anticipated events, there's a very real curve of public interest in there. Interest builds and builds, until the time is right for the matchup. But continue to make the public wait.... and interest starts to wane. Not only that, but conditions begin to deteriorate. "So-and-so" is now past his prime. The other guy got injured. One of them lost a meaningless tuneup fight. And so on and so on. Not to mention that people just get fed up and move on to other interests. I don't know about anybody else, but it seems to me we've been recirculating all these who's ducking who threads for a decade now.

All we have are opposing promoters, fighting mind games and doing all kinds of sh*t to gain the upper hand. They could care less about the boxing fans.... they're just out for their own selfish interests. So why not have an arbitrator, whose main objective would be to settle issues that are keeping fights from happening? We've seen that in other sports, like baseball for instance.... where player strikes have been averted because an arbitrator sits between the player reps and the team owners, and irons out the differences.

Maybe it wouldn't work in boxing, I don't know. What i DO know is that boxing continues to suffer, and boxing fans continue to be dangled on a string, arguing and fighting amongst ourselves about hypothetical situations that in the end..... will probably never happen anyway. And if and when the fights DO happen, circumstances will have changed, and excuses will be more plentiful. But maybe that's just the nature of boxing I guess.

Your mixing apples & oranges and calling them vegetables. The arbitrator your referring to in baseball is a contract negotiation between the collective owners and the collective player's union. This type of relationship doesn't exist in Boxing.

With Boxing it is Promoter vs Promoter where they argue about the event particulars and profit split. And the fighters argue about the fight particulars and purse split.

Making match-ups in Professional Boxing is so convoluted it is in complete disarray. Sanctioning bodies have overlapping 'jurisdictions' (for lack of a appropriate term.) and can't control fighter match-ups as it did some time in the past. If they want to co-exist, they should get together and draw lines, otherwise eventually the weaker ones will die or play minor roles.

Meanwhile, fan interest goes the whole cycle. It builds.... it peaks... it holds for awhile... then begins to decline. Eventually, no one gives a shit. And when the fight finally DOES happen... it's far beyond the time when it SHOULD have happened... and the whole thing smells like week-old fish.

It may not be realistic to compare organized sports with boxing promoter vs. promoter. But something needs to be done, rather than just sitting on our hands and fret about the decline of boxing. Don't you think?

Might be a bit like trying to herd cats. Promoters are so entrenched and anything far of a Federal intervention ala McCains efforts etc would fall short. The ultimate arbitrator has to be the fans. As usual though they are the ones screwed in the end. I sometimes wonder how much the fighters actually count on promoters BS. Too many divas in this sport now, need to get back to enjoying the sport of it first and backseat the personality-glory boy mindset....clamoring for Pac vs Mayweather and every conversation centering around a few chosen exclusive names. No one or two divas make this what it is. Its their legacy that will suffer and more and more fans see thru that stuff. Its redundancy and I think it hurts the sport also. All the while so many willing and able guys just hope for exposure and we miss out...its like a bait and switch. I just want a good solid professional contest in the end.

There's another side to this. As fans we want a guy to take on all comers and we want the best fights to happen. But the hardcore boxing fans tend to forget 1 thing. This is still a brutal sport. ANd in a sport where a guy in his 20s can lose many years of his prime in just 1 bout or be seriously injured or killed, I can see why the fighters want to get as much as they can and why fighters take money fights instead of the hard ones until they definitely have to.

Because at the end of the day, you and I ain't in that ring making a living taking blows to the head and body. So I can't really fault a fighter trying to get as much money as possible or negotiationg for some type of advantage.

Originally Posted by generalbulldog

There's another side to this. As fans we want a guy to take on all comers and we want the best fights to happen. But the hardcore boxing fans tend to forget 1 thing. This is still a brutal sport. ANd in a sport where a guy in his 20s can lose many years of his prime in just 1 bout or be seriously injured or killed, I can see why the fighters want to get as much as they can and why fighters take money fights instead of the hard ones until they definitely have to.

Because at the end of the day, you and I ain't in that ring making a living taking blows to the head and body. So I can't really fault a fighter trying to get as much money as possible or negotiationg for some type of advantage.

Thats a good point. We as fans should never assume them. Why I crinch every time you hear "he quit" or the coward phrase thrown around. We dont get hit in the face for a living.

I think in some cases it does have to do with guys not wanting to risk the mystic or persona though. Reputation. Mindset of one loss and its all back to the drawing board or in some fans eyes 'over'. As brutal a physical toll... the psyche has to take a huge hit after such a public display. Man I respect Roy but I always think of him repeating that mindset "Show me the money" when talks of fighting the better guys in division came up.

Originally Posted by Spicoli

Originally Posted by generalbulldog

There's another side to this. As fans we want a guy to take on all comers and we want the best fights to happen. But the hardcore boxing fans tend to forget 1 thing. This is still a brutal sport. ANd in a sport where a guy in his 20s can lose many years of his prime in just 1 bout or be seriously injured or killed, I can see why the fighters want to get as much as they can and why fighters take money fights instead of the hard ones until they definitely have to.

Because at the end of the day, you and I ain't in that ring making a living taking blows to the head and body. So I can't really fault a fighter trying to get as much money as possible or negotiationg for some type of advantage.

Thats a good point. We as fans should never assume them. Why I crinch every time you hear "he quit" or the coward phrase thrown around. We dont get hit in the face for a living.

I think in some cases it does have to do with guys not wanting to risk the mystic or persona though. Reputation. Mindset of one loss and its all back to the drawing board or in some fans eyes 'over'. As brutal a physical toll... the psyche has to take a huge hit after such a public display. Man I respect Roy but I always think of him repeating that mindset "Show me the money" when talks of fighting the better guys in division came up.

I think that's my biggest pet peeve when words like coward, chicken, pussy gets thrown around because certain fights are made for money and a more dangerous fight for the boxer gets delayed for whatever reason. Floyd, Manny, Haye, Wlad or any other boxer is no coward, certain fights don't get made for a variety of reasons. As fans we don't like it and the whole negotiating process pisses us off but looking at it from their point of view, we can understand why.

Like I've said, we as hardcore boxing fans don't take blows to the head and body for a living, so it really irks me to no end when I hear the word coward and any derivation of it is used to describe a fighter.