Boxing; on the ropes?

I remember back when i was a kid, Jeff Fenech fighting for his world titles, and it seemed to me the whole nation would stop just to watch him do his thing. In both the media and on the streets there was an element of respect above that of the average sportsperson that was given to those men brave enough to step between the ropes, fights were shown live on free to air television, you didnt have to fork out for the pay per view rights or be old enough and keen enough to get to your local club (if theyre even showing the fight) to see your favourite fighters go toe to toe. I understand that money and profits have a lot to do with this and it will probably never return to that of days past, but what I would like to find your opinions on is why boxing (at least in Australia) doesnt have the respect it used to, why dont the world class fighters get the same amount of public adulation that they used to, where has the sport gone wrong, how can this be fixed, how can boxing gain back the credibility, respect and therefor the interest that it once used to hold???

My father informs me that up until about 1980 boxing was one of, if not the biggest, sport as far as media and public interest was concerned. Last week i couldnt even find a club showing one of my countrymens attempts at gaining a world title (my case in point being Calzighe v Bika). No matter where i looked or where i rang i recieved pretty much the same response "who's that?". Apart from a couple of minor lead up articles on the fight in the nations biggest paper there was no coverage either pre or post fight in any of the papers or on television. I only found out the result when I logged online here. This was obviously due to the lack of public interest, which made me ask myself the question "why is that? Why does no one care about boxing anymore?" Now, granted there are a few exceptions; Green v Mundine was the biggest fight inside Australia ever and Kostya Tszyu always had a fair audience but aside from that there is not much hype at all. Mundine Green wouldnt have been the spectical it was if there was no Mundine, love him or hate him, he is an exceptional promoter, he always finds a way to get people talking, and Kostya, in souch a rough sport, has remained through his career a complete gentleman which helps if you want to be well liked in this country at least.

It seems to me that as soon after the WBC split from the WBA and formed as a seperate boxing entity things have slowely gotten worse. Here are a few things i believe that have contributed to boxings gradual downfall:
- There are way too many organisations, it confuses your average punter, "so youre IBO world champion? ...and what does that mean exactly???"
- There are too many weight classes. Ideally, i'd like to see only 8 world champions in every organisation, if not 8 world champions in the one ruling organisation period (yeah...so i'm a dreamer...i know)
- There are too many dodgy people involved, too many disputed decisions, too many grey areas, too much politics. People i talk to see it as being plagued by controversy, and just one step above the WWE. This is sad, because often it might seem like it is true. There needs to be an independant and seperate body that governs, overviews and has juristiction over all of the boxing authorities, keeps them in check and makes sure they follow protocol. I don't know how this can be achieved but if it can be done then it should be.
- There needs to be more unification bouts, the television and boxing authorities need to set aside their differences and massive profit margins and do what is best for this sport because then there will be more fans, more interest and ultimately larger profits.
- Lack of a class heavy weight champ never really helps either.

I could go on for a while here but ive been ranting enough which i apologise for. But what i want to know your opinions on is...

Where has boxing gone wrong and what are the solutions? How can boxing regain the respect it once had and ultimately make the average joe blow interested again?

it is ironic that boxing being made up traditionally in america as a sport for poor minorities cant be watched by the poor minorities if they dont have cable

I don't mean to sound like a whinging git (but perhaps its already too late for that anyway) but for such a pertinent issue in our sport there certainly seems to either be a lack of care and/or ideas about what can be done to help resolve this issue that is crippling what is one of the most natural and traditional sports in the world today. There is no point in bitching and moaning about results, bias, the alphabet soup organisations etc etc if we cant stand up as fans and offer constructive criticism about the health of the sport today. Granted, discussing this is only a small step towards a solution but if enough fans step up and say "this is F'd, we've had enough" then maybe some some big wig hoity toits who control this game might begin to reevaluate...

...but, you know, its just a thought...

Honestly...IWO...the solution to fixing boxing is quite simple...less PPV's & more positivity in the sport.

More positive figures are needed in the game.

Now...that being said...I don't honestly think that the sport is in all that ruff shape.

I know that that sounds insane...but I truly think that, right now, we have some of the most skilled fighters in the game & some of the most personable personalities (even though the majority of them are thuggish mouthy bastards) that have come up in recent years.

Good post.

Welcome to the forum. Have the Obligatory Wacko Welcome Wagon :coolclick:

I can only agree. There is an absolute wealth of talent right across the board at the moment. It's extraordinary that fighters like Winky don't hold titles. As far as the quality of the fighters going around is concerned, i have no problems whatsoever. Its the lack of respect in the general community and ignorance of the media (i'm not sure what it is like outside of Aust.) that is of most concern to me. Boxing deserves more credibility than it is getting.

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Originally Posted by Raz

I can only agree. There is an absolute wealth of talent right across the board at the moment. It's extraordinary that fighters like Winky don't hold titles. As far as the quality of the fighters going around is concerned, i have no problems whatsoever. Its the lack of respect in the general community and ignorance of the media (i'm not sure what it is like outside of Aust.) that is of most concern to me. Boxing deserves more credibility than it is getting.

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I agree...I think that there's a boatload of trouble out there...& I hate to sound like a conspiracy theorist...but King also comes to mind as an issue.

The longer you sit around & dwell on it...the more issues you can come up with.

I can only speak as a fan in America but for the supposed dying sport we get for the most part a Friday night card on ESPN2, for about 3 months a year or more we get two ESPN cards a week, OLN is now showing boxing, Showtime has their regular cards as well as Shobox, HBO seems to be committing themselves to BAD again, as well as their regular cards. Some people get HBO latino which has Boxeo de Oro. Fox Sports could be more committed but they show cards here and there. The days of boxing on ABC or other big networks is probably over, but were not that bad off. Plus downloading fights is a revelation, a few weeks ago I watched a British fight between Jamie Moore and Matthew Macklin like two hours after it ended in England.

There's pretty good talent, I don't have a problem with loudmouth guys for the most part, if everyone was a choirboy, how boring would that be? Boxing is not that bad off IMO.

Man this guy knows his stuff.Welcome to the forum.

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Originally Posted by wacko3205

Honestly...IWO...the solution to fixing boxing is quite simple...less PPV's & more positivity in the sport.

More positive figures are needed in the game.

Now...that being said...I don't honestly think that the sport is in all that ruff shape.

I know that that sounds insane...but I truly think that, right now, we have some of the most skilled fighters in the game & some of the most personable personalities (even though the majority of them are thuggish mouthy bastards) that have come up in recent years.

Good post.

Welcome to the forum. Have the Obligatory Wacko Welcome Wagon :coolclick:

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I agree wacko.There is alot of talent now a days but boxers just dont know how to shut their fucking mouths.To me boxing has been entertaining since 99.Ever since then theres been alot of talent and whole lot of talking.

Its annoying that boxing gets no mainstream coverage as in sportscenter or, for the most part, newspapers, but the internet has been good for boxing, look at all the boxing websites. I'm in an area that's not a boxing area, newspapers never report on it, but who cares, there are so many boxing websites now like fightnews, maxboxing, boxingtalk, espn.com's boxing section, not to mention Saddo's.

As far as getting it back into the mainstream, I don't know, but things could be worse IMO.

Less PPV's is a good idea. You could say wait on that charismatic star but did Mike Tyson really save boxing?

It would be good if boxing could get back on the three big networks, again speaking as an American, I don't know the situation in Australia, but it probably won't. People have an idea of boxing as a crooked sport, maybe a national commision would help, or definitely stronger commissions in each state. Also penalize guys for excessive holding, but that's just me.

I do think the internet has helped.

Sounds like its a little healthier for you guys in the States than it is here. Hopefully things will brighten soon. Although, agreed...the internet is a godsend! Without it i would be absolutly in the dark in regards to 99% of fighting news.