What is it about Boxing that you love so much?

[Andre]

There just is a balance to it. The most talented guy doesn't always win. The best strategy doesn't always win. The guy with the most heart doesn't always win. And yet - all of that comes together and it is great to try to predict what will happen in any given fight. I love watching fights unfold, and a lot of people who have watched fights with me will tell you that I like watching the strategy of both fighters, seeing the openings in the defense of both fighters, and I love being able to predict what strengths in one fighter will exploit the weaknesses in the other. It's the mixing of the styles and watching a guy maximize what he can do on any given night... it's just really enjoyable to me.

What's missing lately is that I like to see guys step outside of their comfort zone and challenge themselves to do things that are even somewhat scary in the name of trying to be great. That is rare now... but I love it when it happens.

Yeah good point, adding to it:
In the ring remains the same for the most parts but the thing that has wrecked some of the gloss for me is like you suggest:
Theres a calculated risk and a pre fight strategy to who will fight who and when and if they will fight a 'certain opponent or risk' at all, sometimes the whole shamoo is for all the wrong reasons these days.

[greynotsoold]

I grew up hearing boxing stories from both my parents. my father was born in the 1920s, in Pittsburgh, so he told me about Billy Conn and fritzie Zivic. Rocky Marciano was also a favorite of his, and he taught me the value of turning your body into your punches and punching short. He never ever wanted me to be involved in boxing in anyway.
My mother came to LA from Butte (where I live now) at 18, and boxing was huge in LA at the time. There were multiple fight cards every night of the week, and my mother went often. So I heard about Art Aragon and lauro Salas from her, from the time I was 3,4 years old. She used to take me, by bus, to the fights at the Olympic Auditorium; this was when the bus station in downtown LA was hell on earth. Bums, winos and general low lifes would come up and proposition my mother and she'd tell them to get lost. I was 4,5,6 years old and would stand there trying to look tough. Then, after the fights, we'd take the bus to a friend's house on Alpine and my dad would pick us up there at 2am after he got off work.
I love boxing because it has always been in me; when I was a kid I wanted to box from the time I could walk. When you start doing it, you can approach it like a barbarian and get hit all the time. Or you can understand it as an exercise in the utilization and control of distance, and that takes most of the risk factor out of it. I love teaching it- at 10 I had my three year old sister and my 5 year old cousins gloved up and working off the jab. It bothers me that, for the last decade, just about every time I watch the fights I get disappointed, but I can still sit for hours watching videos of guys that know how to fight.

[Master]

History, legacy, excitement, knock outs, careers being made and you being part of it.