What does boxing do after Mayweather retires?

[bradlee180]

Mayweather only became a Draw known to the mainstream public in 2007, and from then to now is a small blip in the long, glorious, whorish history of Prizefighting since 1867 when gloved Boxing under Marquess of Queensberry rules came into effect, gradually supplanting Bareknuckes under London Prize Ring Rules by 1892.


No Boxer gets very long to make his mark in the sport...

Pacquiao's a much more widely-known global figure.
Some fighters are much more than just fighters, they are symbols for say human rights or some other cause. They're rare. Muhammad Ali, Joe Louis, Dempsey. Pacquiao is one of them. The boxers that are remembered are the ones that transcend the sport.

[El Kabong]

As small as boxing has gotten in the US boxers still make tons of money and there are still gigantic fights happening in the US. Granted Mayweather is a big part of that but before him there were stars and since those stars have faded others have come around.

One has to look no further than Eastern Europe to see boxing's future. Tens of thousands attending fights, millions watching on TV, boxing is still strong but it's changing.


The Americans will once again produce great fighters for the simple reason that we HAVE to. Also with brain damage becoming a bigger deal in football and other contact sports boxing will no doubt get more participants because it's no longer the worst sport for your brain.

[IamInuit]

I think it will be one of the best things that ever happened to boxing and on multiple levels.

[zhubin]

Mayweather only became a Draw known to the mainstream public in 2007, and from then to now is a small blip in the long, glorious, whorish history of Prizefighting since 1867 when gloved Boxing under Marquess of Queensberry rules came into effect, gradually supplanting Bareknuckes under London Prize Ring Rules by 1892.


No Boxer gets very long to make his mark in the sport...

Pacquiao's a much more widely-known global figure.
Some fighters are much more than just fighters, they are symbols for say human rights or some other cause. They're rare. Muhammad Ali, Joe Louis, Dempsey. Pacquiao is one of them. The boxers that are remembered are the ones that transcend the sport.

I think it's ludicrous that you would mention Pac in the same breath as an Ali or Louis...in terms of transcending the sport.

[Fenster]

Outside of America Mayweather is a virtual nobody.

He's a boxer, he's not that big a deal in the US either. It's hard to find anything about boxing in a newspaper these days. It's all about team sports, except during the Olympics.
What would happen if Froch, Groves and Khan all retired? Would boxing in the UK stutter step, stumble and grind to a halt?
They're athletes, they have the potential to make a lot of money and entertain us, but none of them are bigger than boxing. They all can and will be replaced by and by.* Have faith, you will survive!

*Broner is the one exception. How could that piss pot ever be replaced?

If you are saying - not a fucking thing will change when Mayweather retires. That was basically my point too.

[Beanflicker]

Nobody's bigger than the sport. Nobody.
And it's a world-sport. The sport moves on. Time does its thing as huge Draws become shadows in time...

Someone new comes along, electrifying the masses.
Someone always does.


That's Boxing...

There are a lot of guys bigger than boxing, because boxing as a sport isn't very big on it's own. Muhammad Ali is bigger than the sport of boxing, as is Ray Leonard, Mike Tyson, George Foreman, De La Hoya, Floyd Mayweather, and Manny Pacquiao. These guys carried the bloated corpse of boxing on their shoulders.

Boxing NEEDS these big draws to keep the money coming in. Boxing doesn't sell itself. And with the popularity surge of the UFC and MMA, it's starting to face new challenges.

The boxer is no longer considered the baddest man on the planet. That honor goes to the UFC champion. And with that downgrade in prestige, a lot of young kids who are potential future boxing greats are stepping into their local MMA gym instead of their local boxing gym, because they want to be Anderson Silva or Jon Jones instead of Andre Ward or GGG.

[smashup]

Baffles me the fight game!!!
It was only a few months ago that Floyd became the richest and highest earning althete in history

[Tam Seddon]

It baffles me that kids want to go to a gym and learn how to hug each other on the floor. Next level boring if you ask me. Nothing is ever going to be as exciting as 12x3 min championship rounds of boxing. Glory k1 is something new and very exciting though, k1 is miles better than MMA. This is a short video of Tyrone Spong in an amazing 30 secs of action. http://youtu.be/JRkQZfw9DSI

Holyfield was at the last glory show and he was very impressed with the action on show.

[Beanflicker]

I'm disappointed that so many people here are that niave to think Floyd leaving the sport is a good thing, or will have no impact on boxing. It's EXTREMELY short-sighted.

During Floyd's time with HBO, his PPV's generated nearly 10 million buys and well over half a billion dollars in revenue. Floyd makes a lot of money for himself, but he also generates a lot of money that goes DIRECTLY back into boxing. Because HBO (and now Showtime) and GBP can make a gaurenteed fortune off of a Mayweather PPV, that gives them the capital to put off other boxing shows. It gives them the ability to invest in trying to create new stars. It stands to reason that the more money that a company generates, the more room it has to produce and expand. Floyd is the biggest cash generator in the history of boxing. The revenue generated by Floyd made it possible for other fighters to be paid and featured on GBP cards.

Right now it's hard enough to even find a boxer outside of Floyd and Pacquiao that's PPV worthy, let alone a guy who can generate over 2 MILLION PPV BUYS like he did with Canelo. And Pac's fight with Rios only did 500k, so he's lost a lot of steam himself with the JMM KO.

So where is the revenue going to come from after Floyd is gone? JMM/bradley did around 300k I think. Even when Floyd fought an opponent nobody gave a fuck about in Guerrero, he reached 1 million.

With no real large draws left, don't be surprised to see TV networks and boxing promotions tightening their belts in regards to the number of shows put on and the purses of the boxers.

[Beanflicker]

It baffles me that kids want to go to a gym and learn how to hug each other on the floor. Next level boring if you ask me. Nothing is ever going to be as exciting as 12x3 min championship rounds of boxing. Glory k1 is something new and very exciting though, k1 is miles better than MMA. This is a short video of Tyrone Spong in an amazing 30 secs of action. Michael Duut vs Tyrone Spong round 1 Glory 9 - YouTube
.

Tyrone Spong actively trains and competes in MMA.

Back in the day, kickboxers would switch to boxing because they could make a lot more money and get more recognition.

Now they're going to MMA.

[Tam Seddon]

It baffles me that kids want to go to a gym and learn how to hug each other on the floor. Next level boring if you ask me. Nothing is ever going to be as exciting as 12x3 min championship rounds of boxing. Glory k1 is something new and very exciting though, k1 is miles better than MMA. This is a short video of Tyrone Spong in an amazing 30 secs of action. Michael Duut vs Tyrone Spong round 1 Glory 9 - YouTube
.

Tyrone Spong actively trains and competes in MMA.

Back in the day, kickboxers would switch to boxing because they could make a lot more money and get more recognition.

Now they're going to MMA.

I know he does but he's had a hell of a lot of kickboxing fights. Glory is getting really big though and is growing in popularity all of the time. I'd prefer to watch that over MMA.

[Fenster]

Nobody's bigger than the sport. Nobody.
And it's a world-sport. The sport moves on. Time does its thing as huge Draws become shadows in time...

Someone new comes along, electrifying the masses.
Someone always does.


That's Boxing...

There are a lot of guys bigger than boxing, because boxing as a sport isn't very big on it's own. Muhammad Ali is bigger than the sport of boxing, as is Ray Leonard, Mike Tyson, George Foreman, De La Hoya, Floyd Mayweather, and Manny Pacquiao. These guys carried the bloated corpse of boxing on their shoulders.

Boxing NEEDS these big draws to keep the money coming in. Boxing doesn't sell itself. And with the popularity surge of the UFC and MMA, it's starting to face new challenges.

The boxer is no longer considered the baddest man on the planet. That honor goes to the UFC champion. And with that downgrade in prestige, a lot of young kids who are potential future boxing greats are stepping into their local MMA gym instead of their local boxing gym, because they want to be Anderson Silva or Jon Jones instead of Andre Ward or GGG.

100 years ago "boxing is dead" was being reported. You can trace the same articles throughout history.

When you, and everyone else on this forum, are long dead boxing will still be going. They'll just be a load of other nerds that have taken our place.

[J_Undisputed]

It celebrates. Don't get me wrong, he's a superb fighter. However boxing is better served without the circus. I dont need half hour reality snippets of the of the guy shopping and counting money. That doesn't promote the sport, it promotes mayweather. I understand the popularity of one fighter brings casual fandom and money. Still the part of me that's a boxing purist that says enough. Nitpicking weight drains, silly outfits, silly music video walkouts...3 months of nickle and diming over who does the drug test.... and above all mediocre talents winning 1 title fight after just losing 2 and then holding out and freezing divisions and championships, vacating or breaking contracts in hope of winning the mayweather sweepstakes. Once the circus is over and the moneys all spent.. we can get back to fights. Good bad or whatever.

Now it may be unfair to lay this all at the feet of Mayweather when there are so many other offenders, but with his status in the sport, he sets the example and mayweather doest do anything for boxing. He does it for mayweather...

[zhubin]

It celebrates. Don't get me wrong, he's a superb fighter. However boxing is better served without the circus. I dont need half hour reality snippets of the of the guy shopping and counting money. That doesn't promote the sport, it promotes mayweather. I understand the popularity of one fighter brings casual fandom and money. Still the part of me that's a boxing purist that says enough. Nitpicking weight drains, silly outfits, silly music video walkouts...3 months of nickle and diming over who does the drug test.... and above all mediocre talents winning 1 title fight after just losing 2 and then holding out and freezing divisions and championships, vacating or breaking contracts in hope of winning the mayweather sweepstakes. Once the circus is over and the moneys all spent.. we can get back to fights. Good bad or whatever.

Now it may be unfair to lay this all at the feet of Mayweather when there are so many other offenders, but with his status in the sport, he sets the example and mayweather doest do anything for boxing. He does it for mayweather...

Love or hate his persona...there is NO ONE in boxing who is better and more dedicated at their craft than Floyd. So as a boxing "purist" myself...i appreciate Floyd...his skill, boxing IQ, and dedication/discipline are things any boxing fan should appreciate. Boxing is as much a business as other professional sports...the fact that Floyd has maximized his business potential in a sport that is notorious for leaving it's fighters used and broke...don't see where he deserves blame for that. "That doesn't promote the sport, it promotes mayweather"?! He generates more money for Vegas and HBO/Showtime as he does for himself. His opponents make the biggest paydays of their careers. He draws huge PPV numbers and "casual" boxing fans. Sorry to say...these are things that keep boxing ALIVE. Of course boxing will go on and thrive without him. But to diminish what he has done for the sport is just sounding like a hater.

[Xwetie]

I miss the old days when someone could come out of their garage and whop some asses, they been taking boxing to far. to much money involved now, that attracted other people which didn't have a interest for boxing til teh money came along. So much corruption, bets, news, adds, tickets and bullshit behind it all. it makes me sick of it. but on the otherhand it's a sport that love and have passion for. seeing myself grown into this sport, it just to much to just throw away. All if this chit-chat about cheating, drugs, roids im not interested, when my grandpa took me to fights i didn't know anything of that, all i knew was those two in the ring are gonna give it all they have tonight, one will win one will lose. time will tell. and it was interesting. If you cheat it will be always someone who will find out, always someone that knows, and it up to you to separate it from the truth and the rumours. by all of this i wanted to say, a good fight is a good show, we came for the show.