Quote Originally Posted by Lyle View Post
Right on man!


The deal with boxing not developing quality heavyweights is more of a MARKETING issue.

Love it or hate it, UFC is KILLING boxing in marketing right now! They are on cable tv (and big time boxing is not), they have shows dedicated to finding new talent (boxing fucked that up as well...thanks Stallone) and UFC is the hot hand right now no doubt about it and although top tier boxers will make more money for right now, the sport has become less appealing due to rampant corruption, bad pub, and really fans and sports writers/commentators just giving up on the sport all we hear these days is "Boxing was so much better back when _____" take a listen to UFC they are all very positive about the NOW because the sport is still evolving......but so is boxing however subtlely
Absolutely spot on about the marketing issue. Boxing could learn a thing or 2 from the UFC.

And another thing I think is the problem is that boxing has severely limited it's audience by putting very good fights on just premium cable channels like HBO and Showtime, and that is an luxury.

Put it this way, the college and pro football are considered to be the king sports in America, but if the powers that be wanted to really kill it, just put it on premium cable channels where the audience is narrowed and put the college bowl game and Super Bowl on Pay per view, I guarantee in a few decades football could turn into just a niche sport.

My dad was talking about how back in the '70s and until the mid '80s you could watch a Marvin Hagler, Tommy Hearns, Ray Leonard, Pernell whitaker, Holyfield, a young Tyson fighting their way up the ranks on ABC, NBC, and CBS. At least weekly back in the day there would be 1 good fight where you watch the up and comers and a few championship matches of the lower weights on regular tv.

IMO, putting most of the best boxing talents on just HBO and Showtime has really narrowed the audience of boxing in terms of fans and participants of the sport. That is the more of an issue than just the corrupt ABC organizations.