What are your Top 3 reasons for your LOVE of Boxing?

[SlimTrae]

1. 1st sport I remember (Ali vs Spinks rematch...I think) hooked since

2. Mano Y mano. Wasn't a tough kid growing up, so I'd watch Ray Leonard in the amateurs beat up people-guess I lived vicariously through fighters.

3. I gravitate toward boxing statistics easily. I don't remember much about the Milwaukee Bucks or Green Bay Packers even though that was all that was ever talked about on playgrounds, school bus- heyday of Bucks were Lanier, Bridgeman, Johnson, Moncrief, Winters...I remember their names -but shit else. no moments comes to mind. Yet I remember the ring entrance of Ali, the commercials done with Larry Holmes & Ray Leonard pickup truck built Ford tough, Ali's Dcon roach commercials... during the amatuers I remember the interviews as well as who Ray Leonard fought. I remember no head gear...and his fro.

[TitoFan]

Totally agree with NoSaving on the ebb and flow of boxing. It was even more evident in the 15-round days, when fighters sometimes would seem to take turns taking the momentum in championship fights. Awesome.

The electricity for big championship fights is another factor for me. Not many things more exciting than the walk to the ring and intros being done on the fighters as the crowd goes wild in anticipation.

The last reason is a bit biased... but coming from a little island with such a huge boxing presence throughout the years has undoubtedly been a factor in my love of boxing. Having seen my share of boxing live here has been invaluable to me.

[Memphis]

You can sum this up with some notable quotes.

"You know why people get so excited at fights? It's the presence of death." - Jimmy Horn

Not for everyone of course but for most people watching live boxing they're not 'experts'. They're not there for the sweet science. They're there for violence. You can be fascinated by the literal life and death aspect of it without being a sicko who wants people to die. We subconsciously know it's there. I've searched for years to find the exact wording of a Chris Eubank quote called the killing time. It might not be his of course, but I heard him say it. Not literally talking about killing someone, but about the acknowledgement and acceptance of it's presence.

You screw up in tennis, it's fifteen love. You screw up in boxing, it's your ass - Tex Cobb (I think)

I think those two make the ebb and flow of boxing more pronounced than other sports. Most sports have ebb and flow. We can get excited about an end to end game of football or basketball. But nothing quite does it like the ebb and flow of a fight. Because the stakes are so high. In most other sports you get the opportunity to right the wrongs. You concede a goal, you get given the ball back generally. In boxing, you don't always get the ball back.

[NoSavingByTheBell]

Great points by Tito fan and Memphis and Slim

Yes the ring walk and the psychological game leading up to the ring and stepping through the ropes and the adrenaline and the heart pounding. That whole pre fight activity right up until the staredown. sometimes I thought I was going to pass out just watching it.

And no doubt the idea that a person could die or get seriously hurt is also a kind of weird background understanding we all have when we watch grown men throw punches with the force sometimes it seems of a bullet or a missile at someone else's face.

Some of those missed punches when we say HOLYSHIT THAT WOULD HAVE ENDED IT RIGHT THERE! I think that's when we really get the understanding that that really would have taken the guy's head off almost literally. Knowing at any moment it could happen....

[SlimTrae]

Every professional card I've attended, I found myself happy/proud to be among boxing fans-when an overmatched opponent is being exposed. Each fight like that, I can remember a collective gasp-that's enough! No one who I watched catching a beatdown, drew the crowd into-beat him some more.

1st/only time I saw Lateef Kayode- who turned out to be a huge letdown...I saw him deck a guy so hard, most of the fans was like...Throw in the towel! Man he cant take power!

To me boxing isn't about blood and beatdowns, rather that is the result of 1 of 2 things. 1.someone was overmatched (we rail against that) or 2. a great boxer got compromised with his skill -set so he threw caution into the wind- that is when I think us boxing fans love the gore and blood.
Not for the sake of seeing someone beaten to a pulp-that's what youtube is for.
Corrales vs Castillo, Leonard vs Benitez, Marquez vs Vazquez...events where the skill level got compromised so both fighters THEN obliged to fight it out.

I love boxing when two top notch well trained boxers cant get the upper hand due to ebb n flow, so they throw caution out window.

On the ring entrance good point. Only time I liked entrance in any other sport was during the run of the Unstop a Bulls...there ring/center court entrance was a mutha...hell it was event just to see what color hair would Rodman have!

[SlimTrae]

Not a ring entrance, but one helluva a court entrance. Only time I came close to getting goose bumps like Tyson-Spinks, Tyson-Holmes, Tyson-Berbick, or Ruddock.
I loved RJJ & Hamed entrance for the entertainment -but only Tyson's ring walk- had me nervous...like I am about to have a fight! Energy so tense, we cant even sit down in the house...truly an event! But Michael J...did that to me as well!

[Dia bando]

Remember watching Ali v Cooper in the 60s with my Dad on the TV.
My son boxed from the age of 11 I used to help out in his old club.
I now watch boxing with my son on TV and he has treated me to many live fights which we both go together to watch.🙂