What does boxing do after Mayweather retires?

[Beanflicker]

Nobody's bigger than the sport. Nobody.
And it's a world-sport. The sport moves on. Time does its thing as huge Draws become shadows in time...

Someone new comes along, electrifying the masses.
Someone always does.


That's Boxing...

There are a lot of guys bigger than boxing, because boxing as a sport isn't very big on it's own. Muhammad Ali is bigger than the sport of boxing, as is Ray Leonard, Mike Tyson, George Foreman, De La Hoya, Floyd Mayweather, and Manny Pacquiao. These guys carried the bloated corpse of boxing on their shoulders.

Boxing NEEDS these big draws to keep the money coming in. Boxing doesn't sell itself. And with the popularity surge of the UFC and MMA, it's starting to face new challenges.

The boxer is no longer considered the baddest man on the planet. That honor goes to the UFC champion. And with that downgrade in prestige, a lot of young kids who are potential future boxing greats are stepping into their local MMA gym instead of their local boxing gym, because they want to be Anderson Silva or Jon Jones instead of Andre Ward or GGG.

[Fenster]

Nobody's bigger than the sport. Nobody.
And it's a world-sport. The sport moves on. Time does its thing as huge Draws become shadows in time...

Someone new comes along, electrifying the masses.
Someone always does.


That's Boxing...

There are a lot of guys bigger than boxing, because boxing as a sport isn't very big on it's own. Muhammad Ali is bigger than the sport of boxing, as is Ray Leonard, Mike Tyson, George Foreman, De La Hoya, Floyd Mayweather, and Manny Pacquiao. These guys carried the bloated corpse of boxing on their shoulders.

Boxing NEEDS these big draws to keep the money coming in. Boxing doesn't sell itself. And with the popularity surge of the UFC and MMA, it's starting to face new challenges.

The boxer is no longer considered the baddest man on the planet. That honor goes to the UFC champion. And with that downgrade in prestige, a lot of young kids who are potential future boxing greats are stepping into their local MMA gym instead of their local boxing gym, because they want to be Anderson Silva or Jon Jones instead of Andre Ward or GGG.

100 years ago "boxing is dead" was being reported. You can trace the same articles throughout history.

When you, and everyone else on this forum, are long dead boxing will still be going. They'll just be a load of other nerds that have taken our place.

[Beanflicker]

100 years ago "boxing is dead" was being reported. You can trace the same articles throughout history.

When you, and everyone else on this forum, are long dead boxing will still be going. They'll just be a load of other nerds that have taken our place.

I'm not saying boxing is going to die. I know it will always be around in some capacity. My worry is how relevant it's going to be in the future.

Boxing has never had any direct competition before. It's had other sports and other forms of media to compete with for the public's attention, but it's never had another combat sport to compete with it. Kickboxing was supposed to kill it in the 80's, but it never took off like people thought it would.

MMA has dethroned boxing as the premiere combat sport. That's just the facts. And I can only see the distance between MMA and boxing widening as big stars like Floyd, Pac, Cotto, ect retire.

[ykdadamaja]

100 years ago "boxing is dead" was being reported. You can trace the same articles throughout history.

When you, and everyone else on this forum, are long dead boxing will still be going. They'll just be a load of other nerds that have taken our place.

I'm not saying boxing is going to die. I know it will always be around in some capacity. My worry is how relevant it's going to be in the future.

Boxing has never had any direct competition before. It's had other sports and other forms of media to compete with for the public's attention, but it's never had another combat sport to compete with it. Kickboxing was supposed to kill it in the 80's, but it never took off like people thought it would.

MMA has dethroned boxing as the premiere combat sport. That's just the facts. And I can only see the distance between MMA and boxing widening as big stars like Floyd, Pac, Cotto, ect retire.

MMA would never be bigger than boxing. Just like Rugby won't ever be bigger than Soccer/Football.

[Beanflicker]

MMA would never be bigger than boxing. Just like Rugby won't ever be bigger than Soccer/Football.

Believe me, as a long time fan of both sports, I was saying the same thing 8 years ago, but boy was I wrong.

MMA absolutely dwarfs boxing in terms of culture significance, and it's only getting stronger.

And I should clarify, it's the UFC that's massive, not neccessarily MMA as a whole.

The UFC has been amazing at expanding their brand and creating stars. True, larger than life, household name STARS. They have people going to MMA gyms instead of boxing gyms.

Now Floyd still out-earns the UFC (usually by a large margin), and pre-JMM KO so did Pac, but the UFC PPV's consistently outdraw everything else boxing related.

[ykdadamaja]

MMA would never be bigger than boxing. Just like Rugby won't ever be bigger than Soccer/Football.

Believe me, as a long time fan of both sports, I was saying the same thing 8 years ago, but boy was I wrong.

MMA absolutely dwarfs boxing in terms of culture significance, and it's only getting stronger.

And I should clarify, it's the UFC that's massive, not neccessarily MMA as a whole.

The UFC has been amazing at expanding their brand and creating stars. True, larger than life, household name STARS. They have people going to MMA gyms instead of boxing gyms.

Now Floyd still out-earns the UFC (usually by a large margin), and pre-JMM KO so did Pac, but the UFC PPV's consistently outdraw everything else boxing related.

I don't see it or feel it... it's gotten more than a cult following, but boxing can attract fans world wide.

Boxing will never lose out to mma. The rise of mma does not mean the loss of significance of boxing.

[bradlee180]

MMA has dethroned boxing as the premiere combat sport. That's just the facts.

Not even close!

In reality, this is the elephant and the ant, and the ant is in fact MMA.
Worldwide, MMA is basically invisible.

You should add "in the USA" when you post, because you're only speaking of your own country, you're a "USA-centric" person, but there's 195 other countries out there.

There's no arguing 220 pro fights per year compared to 20 thousand pro fights per year PLUS an international amateur system where 79 countries sent Olympic teams to the 2012 Olympics, and even womens' boxing is in the Olympics now.

And the money?! There's no comparing the money either for elite fighters in the respective combat-sports either.



Don't let dana white p!$$ down your back and tell you it's raining, son...

[bradlee180]

There are a lot of guys bigger than boxing, because boxing as a sport isn't very big on it's own. Muhammad Ali is bigger than the sport of boxing, as is Ray Leonard, Mike Tyson, George Foreman, De La Hoya, Floyd Mayweather, and Manny Pacquiao. These guys carried the bloated corpse of boxing on their shoulders.

Boxing NEEDS these big draws to keep the money coming in. Boxing doesn't sell itself. And with the popularity surge of the UFC and MMA, it's starting to face new challenges.

The boxer is no longer considered the baddest man on the planet. That honor goes to the UFC champion. And with that downgrade in prestige, a lot of young kids who are potential future boxing greats are stepping into their local MMA gym instead of their local boxing gym, because they want to be Anderson Silva or Jon Jones instead of Andre Ward or GGG.

MMA is tiny compared to the world sport of boxing.
The only MMA org that survives is the UFC, and the UFC puts on only about 220 pro fights per year.
Boxing puts on 20 thousand pro fights per year.

Boxing puts on about 220 pro bouts EVERY WEEKEND all year long.
Obviously people are making money in Boxing.

Every time Wladimir Klitschko defends his Heavyweight Title in Germany, he sells out a 60 thousand capacity German stadium, for $#!t's sake! He set tv records for most watched broadcast in the history of that country.

Yanks always think the USA is the whole world, but the USA is just 1 country, and there's about 195 other countries around the world. Too many young fellas happily swallow dana white's shovelfuls of bull$#!t when he's promoting his product, without looking at the cold hard facts. If anything, the uFC can't survive in it's present form. It's not sustainable under it's current system. Those MMA fighters' are completely ripped off financially, and their only recourse under the current system is to get organized and form an MMA Fighters Union. Right now, they get totally raped in the @$$ under the UFC's present business model which is a carbon copy of Vince McMahon's WWE pro wrestling. The UFC fights are real of course, but the business model is WWE all the way, baby, complete with non-compete clauses. The much, much larger payouts to top boxers is because there's competition between promoters to sign a fighter whereas in MMA, the UFC is really the only game in town, a monopoly, and the only org that survives...