Quote Originally Posted by wacko3205
Quote Originally Posted by Beanflicker
Personally I think they need to start advertising guys better and introducing them to the general public, because all that really makes a superfight is the general publics interest in it. I mean Pavlik vs Miranda could have been the megafight of the decade if people knew who these guys were.

I mean people S*** on the HW division all the time. I agree, it isn't as good as it was back in the 70s (but then again, what other decade was as good as the 70s?), but we have some potential stars there. I mean Wlad Klitchko is just knocking everyone the F*** out recently, he's big, he's strong, he's exciting and he can box. Sam Peter is simply a monster who hits like a truck, another exciting fighter because he delivers big KOs. Lamon Brewster is balls to the wall excitement. Chagaev has a devistating punch. Hell even Valuev is someone the general public could rally behind, even if it is for the "freak show" effect (but to be fair to the big lug, he has skills). Now we possibly have Vitali coming back, 34 kos in 35 wins, another exciting fighter...

...but the problem is, the general public has no idea who these guys are. They are just names. How can you get excited after hearing that two guys you never heard of before are fighting. When me and my buddies watched Mayweather/De La Hoya at a local bar, I asked everyone there if they could name a HW champ. Out of 20 people or so, NO ONE could. One guy answered "Lennox Lewis", another jokingly said "Muhammad Ali". IMO if you let the general public know about these guys (and guys in all the other weightclasses) you'll have more megafights. The talent is there IMO. Look how the UFC exploded in popularity once the general public got to know the fighters through the TV show.
Very well said.

As for the question...NO. I don't think that the big fights are that hard to make anymore.

In the last 5-6 years wev'e seen Hopkins vs Tarver. Klitschko vs Peter, Lewis vs Klitcshko, Taylor vs Hopkins, Oscar vs Hopkins, Morales vs Pacquiao, Barrera vs Marquez, Jones vs Tarver, and many many more.

I think that everyone is just a bit to "doom & gloom" as far as boxing is concerned.
Totally.
It's easy to look back at the great fights that were made without taking into consideration how long they took to come together, and compare it to who isn't fighting who right this second and say nobody is fighting anyone nowadays.
I mean how long did it take for Leonard-Hagler to happen??
And people are already complaining about Taylor not immediately agreeing to fight Pavlik two days after his fight with Spinks??
20 years from now we'll be looking back thinking, remember when guys like Oscar would fight Floyd? Or back when Barrera/Morales/Pac would all fight each other? I miss those days!
In a sport where star fighters only fight a couple times a year (if we're lucky), we will never see every fight we want. I don't think we're necessarily seeing less match-ups than we want to compared to twenty years ago.
Maybe just appears these fights are more dispersed in the present day, as opposed to being able to youtube 7 years worth of boxing history in minutes.