And TV doesn't help either. Even in the eighties when there was free national TV coverage of big fights. Because fights were on national TV for everyone to see they got commensurate coverage in other media. Big fights were a watercooler topic.

Now it's all PPV and satellite/cable. People have to pay money and this automatically removes boxing from the mass market and turns it into a niche interest. Which means almost zero mass media coverage of the buildup/participants etc. It means nobody discussing it at work and that you have to hit the "specialist" option on your remote. Which is the same option for certain kinds of films, isn't it.

But no heavyweight to impinge on national conciousness and no free-to-air TV coverage of the really big fights means we're a niche sport. It's a bugger but there you go.

In a few years when computer processor power/broadband connections are advanced enough to function as TV, the potential market for PPV boxing events goes from a few million homes worldwide to a few billion. Then we're eventually going to see billionaire boxers. Hopefully. Better that than billionaire UFC/similar people.