Has Boxing become 75% buisness and 25% sport?

[holmcall]

I think it's more like 100% business. When was it not?

How much influence did the mob have in the good old days? How many fixed fights have there been? How many horseshoes in gloves?

The best only fight the best when the MONEY is right.

As James Toney said - "you don't play boxing"

(Ouma stop rolling your eyes.. i can't help repeating myself. Fact.)

I'm not disagreeing with your points, but if boxing is all business, what about other pro sports? Same?

[Mar]

Of course it is. Try and collect sports cards these days they can't even put actual jerseys on the guys anymore they switch teams so much.There's no loyalty to the any of these sports...ask these guys to play or fight for free and see how much they "love" the sport they play. It's all about the cash and you know what.... i don't blame them. Pbf and floyd were used as good examples but they aren't doing anything different than anyone else. Margo was down to fight anyone yes..but with loaded gloves, pac excites the masses fighting people floyd has already beaten and no one has a problem so for one guy it's the greatest thing ever and for others it's beating over the hill guys anyhow, Look at where ricky hatton stands right now, how many of his fans appreciate all the hard work and ass whoopins the guy took, not very many. Before there were people would bear his child if asked (some guys too) now say his name and ........ ! The main fan these guys should care about is themselves first, then all of us later. It's not the individual guys it's sports as a whole. For the money that is at stake for some of these guys especially given how hard times are i don't blame them. I don't like it but it's easy to sit here and say i'd do this and i'd do that, i'd fight this guy then this one. Yea right. When it's all said and done reguardless of the sport what's been made more important, winning a title or belt or whatever for a bunch of fans and owners who won't give a crap about you when you cant talk or pay your medical bills or taking care of yourself and your family as best as possible. These guys being ALLOWED to cherry pick is the problem, not that they do it. Both tasks being equal seems silly not to milk as much cash as you can out of whatever you do in life.....lord knows you're gonna need it. I bet the family of vernon when those bills come will wish he did. A year or so after this tradgedy dies down ask the vipers family how many fans are taking up the slack for his family and the special needs kids he helped. Then see how many of those collectors care who he fought or how many belts he got. Try to hand them one for payment and see what is most important in sports. Sad but true. Sorry if this is all jumbled and what not i'm writing on my wife's phone while i'm with a boring customer.

[Fenster]

I think it's more like 100% business. When was it not?

How much influence did the mob have in the good old days? How many fixed fights have there been? How many horseshoes in gloves?

The best only fight the best when the MONEY is right.

As James Toney said - "you don't play boxing"

(Ouma stop rolling your eyes.. i can't help repeating myself. Fact.)

I'm not disagreeing with your points, but if boxing is all business, what about other pro sports? Same?

No I don't think other pro sports are the same.

The best in the world would still play their chosen sport without the huge money rewards - Tiger Woods would still play golf, Federer would still play Tennis, Ronaldo would play football (soccer) etc...

Millions of people PLAY these sports everyday for the love of it.

Pro fighters NEED the incentive of big riches/money. You don't put your life on the line for the fun of it. From the best to the worst they don't do it for free, for the love of fighting, getting hurt (well apart from the odd nutter ).

[killersheep]

I think it's more like 100% business. When was it not?

How much influence did the mob have in the good old days? How many fixed fights have there been? How many horseshoes in gloves?

The best only fight the best when the MONEY is right.

As James Toney said - "you don't play boxing"

(Ouma stop rolling your eyes.. i can't help repeating myself. Fact.)

I'm not disagreeing with your points, but if boxing is all business, what about other pro sports? Same?

No I don't think other pro sports are the same.

The best in the world would still play their chosen sport without the huge money rewards - Tiger Woods would still play golf, Federer would still play Tennis, Ronaldo would play football (soccer) etc...

Millions of people PLAY these sports everyday for the love of it.

Pro fighters NEED the incentive of big riches/money. You don't put your life on the line for the fun of it. From the best to the worst they don't do it for free, for the love of fighting, getting hurt (well apart from the odd nutter ).

No offense to Zelenoff

[Fenster]

I'm not disagreeing with your points, but if boxing is all business, what about other pro sports? Same?

No I don't think other pro sports are the same.

The best in the world would still play their chosen sport without the huge money rewards - Tiger Woods would still play golf, Federer would still play Tennis, Ronaldo would play football (soccer) etc...

Millions of people PLAY these sports everyday for the love of it.

Pro fighters NEED the incentive of big riches/money. You don't put your life on the line for the fun of it. From the best to the worst they don't do it for free, for the love of fighting, getting hurt (well apart from the odd nutter ).

No offense to Zelenoff

[Kirkland Laing]

When did it become 25% sport? That's a big jump from zero.

[holmcall]

I think it's more like 100% business. When was it not?

How much influence did the mob have in the good old days? How many fixed fights have there been? How many horseshoes in gloves?

The best only fight the best when the MONEY is right.

As James Toney said - "you don't play boxing"

(Ouma stop rolling your eyes.. i can't help repeating myself. Fact.)

I'm not disagreeing with your points, but if boxing is all business, what about other pro sports? Same?

No I don't think other pro sports are the same.

The best in the world would still play their chosen sport without the huge money rewards - Tiger Woods would still play golf, Federer would still play Tennis, Ronaldo would play football (soccer) etc...

Millions of people PLAY these sports everyday for the love of it.

Pro fighters NEED the incentive of big riches/money. You don't put your life on the line for the fun of it. From the best to the worst they don't do it for free, for the love of fighting, getting hurt (well apart from the odd nutter ).

Good stuff!

[Kev]

I think it's more like 100% business. When was it not?

How much influence did the mob have in the good old days? How many fixed fights have there been? How many horseshoes in gloves?

The best only fight the best when the MONEY is right.

As James Toney said - "you don't play boxing"

(Ouma stop rolling your eyes.. i can't help repeating myself. Fact.)

I'm not disagreeing with your points, but if boxing is all business, what about other pro sports? Same?

No I don't think other pro sports are the same.

The best in the world would still play their chosen sport without the huge money rewards - Tiger Woods would still play golf, Federer would still play Tennis, Ronaldo would play football (soccer) etc...

Millions of people PLAY these sports everyday for the love of it.

Pro fighters NEED the incentive of big riches/money. You don't put your life on the line for the fun of it. From the best to the worst they don't do it for free, for the love of fighting, getting hurt (well apart from the odd nutter ).

Good postings Fenster. Boxing is different from any other sport. In any other sport participants get to compete in maybe thousands of matches, games or events over the course of their careers.

In boxing a fighter may only compete 30-40 times at the pro level, and only a handful of elite fighters will fight past 50 fights.

That's their ENTIRE career. How do they have time to fight in leagues like in other sports?

When a top boxer can fight maybe 3 or 4 times a year he wants those fights to be meaningful and above all well paid.

It's not like tennis or golf where they can enter dozens of events a year and lose badly in many of them with no ill effect.

Every fight matters, and so it will always be more political and a business than other sports.

[Fenster]

I'm not disagreeing with your points, but if boxing is all business, what about other pro sports? Same?

No I don't think other pro sports are the same.

The best in the world would still play their chosen sport without the huge money rewards - Tiger Woods would still play golf, Federer would still play Tennis, Ronaldo would play football (soccer) etc...

Millions of people PLAY these sports everyday for the love of it.

Pro fighters NEED the incentive of big riches/money. You don't put your life on the line for the fun of it. From the best to the worst they don't do it for free, for the love of fighting, getting hurt (well apart from the odd nutter ).

Good postings Fenster. Boxing is different from any other sport. In any other sport participants get to compete in maybe thousands of matches, games or events over the course of their careers.

In boxing a fighter may only compete 30-40 times at the pro level, and only a handful of elite fighters will fight past 50 fights.

That's their ENTIRE career. How do they have time to fight in leagues like in other sports?

When a top boxer can fight maybe 3 or 4 times a year he wants those fights to be meaningful and above all well paid.

It's not like tennis or golf where they can enter dozens of events a year and lose badly in many of them with no ill effect.

Every fight matters, and so it will always be more political and a business than other sports.

Good post back.

Boxing really can't be compared with other major sports but naturally it is.

Because fighters generally only ever meet once, when a close contest happens, it's basically impossible to establish the better fighter. To get a true reflection you would need them to meet like 10 times. Give them a chance to exploit different tactics etc..

This is the reason almost every boxing match is tainted with excuses before and after - too old, too green, too small, too fat, past his prime, weight-drained, corrupt judges, dodgy ref, bad training camp, flu, wrong socks...excuses, excuses, excuses.

[holmcall]

No I don't think other pro sports are the same.

The best in the world would still play their chosen sport without the huge money rewards - Tiger Woods would still play golf, Federer would still play Tennis, Ronaldo would play football (soccer) etc...

Millions of people PLAY these sports everyday for the love of it.

Pro fighters NEED the incentive of big riches/money. You don't put your life on the line for the fun of it. From the best to the worst they don't do it for free, for the love of fighting, getting hurt (well apart from the odd nutter ).

Good postings Fenster. Boxing is different from any other sport. In any other sport participants get to compete in maybe thousands of matches, games or events over the course of their careers.

In boxing a fighter may only compete 30-40 times at the pro level, and only a handful of elite fighters will fight past 50 fights.

That's their ENTIRE career. How do they have time to fight in leagues like in other sports?

When a top boxer can fight maybe 3 or 4 times a year he wants those fights to be meaningful and above all well paid.

It's not like tennis or golf where they can enter dozens of events a year and lose badly in many of them with no ill effect.

Every fight matters, and so it will always be more political and a business than other sports.

Good post back.

Boxing really can't be compared with other major sports but naturally it is.

Because fighters generally only ever meet once, when a close contest happens, it's basically impossible to establish the better fighter. To get a true reflection you would need them to meet like 10 times. Give them a chance to exploit different tactics etc..

This is the reason almost every boxing match is tainted with excuses before and after - too old, too green, too small, too fat, past his prime, weight-drained, corrupt judges, dodgy ref, bad training camp, flu, wrong socks...excuses, excuses, excuses.

This exchange is giving me some great grist for an article I will soon write. Great insights here.