Is Boxing a couple years away from a huge decline?

[Kev]

I'm trying to think who the big stars will be in two years time and I'm guessing it will be Dawson, Ward, Gamboa.

The fact that I was once hugely in to boxing and now I don't know any of these names rings alarm bells.

I now only tend to watch the fighters you mentioned like Mayweather, Hatton, Mosely, Pac Man and so on. I've lost interest in up and coming fighters.

The problem is this the people here seem to be afraid to talk about anything to do with MMA and the impact it has had on boxing. Anytime somebody tries to start a thread comparing MMA to boxing it gets instantly stopped or sent to the MMA section out of sight. This is usually justified by saying "boxing and MMA are two completely different sports" when the reality is MMA has taken a large audience away from boxing.

I was once so into boxing I'd watch the undercard fights with as much interest as the main fight. Now I'll only watch boxing if it's a megga fight. With the UFC you don't get ridiculous mismatches, there's no bullshit waiting years for two fighters to fight like pac v Mayweather and a loss doesn't have such an impact as in boxing. You can have two great fighters fighting three times in the space it takes to make one match up in boxing. Not mention the undercard fights are just as good as the main card. I could go on all day giving reasons as to why it has adverted peoples attention away from boxing but I doubt the moderators are keen on this kind of free speech. (not all of them of course)

Yeah I think this WILL be significant. It's easy for people to say they can create stars but I don't really think that is true.

The true test of a boxing star is revealed in his PPV sales. Take away Floyd and Manny, and with Oscar long gone and no heavyweight scene to speak of who is going to sell?

I just can't see anyone on the horizon who could be a big star.

The guys who appear to be the stars of tomorrow, well let's look at them.

Chad Dawson
Andre Ward
Lucian Bute
J M Lopez
Yuriorkis Gamboa
Tim Bradley
Amir Khan
Andre Berto

Really can you see ANY of these guys being PPV stars?

I just cant' picture it.

I feel there is a real possiblity that once Manny and Floyd have departed, in probably a year to 18 months time we may not see even a 1 million buy PPV for a number of years. Where will it come from?

In the meantime MMA may well continue to grow?

I think the potential is there for UFC PPV's to smash boxing's in 2012 and 2013 unless something phenomenal happens.