Jones vs. Tarver

[Guest Agent of Oblivion]

The problem is all in organization. Boxing doesn't have any sort of a season, really, so the promoters would have to sell individual events to a network, instead of saying "Hey, here's a few months of guaranteed ratings."

 

The public also tends to have mixed opinions about the sport.

 

HBO has to pull in all kinds of money from boxing, though...

 

It's fucked up, I'd like to see boxing on a national level like football or baseball, but something tells me it wouldn't work, and that's why everyone's afraid to try.

[Guest pinnacleofallthingsmanly]

One reason that it won't work is because people like to see knockouts and the division that's tailor made for that is the heavyweight division. How many quality heavyweights are there? One of the reasons for the decline in great boxers is because you have most of the good athletes playing other sports. I think that's one of the factors that has contributed to the slow decline in good boxers. Take Lennox Lewis for example. He's what 6'4? 6'5? Where are most of the good athletes that height? In the NBA or the NFL. If Ben Wallace would have been boxing instead of playing basketball, we would probably be discussing him as one of the great heavyweights instead of great rebounders.

[EVIL~! alkeiper 0]

Lennox Lewis is the exception. Wladimir Klitschko has been bombed his last two fights. Tall fighters are usually terrible, and little more than novelty acts.

[Guest Agent of Oblivion]

Also, being a great athlete doesn't make you a great, or even good boxer. Being a good or great boxer will make you a phenomenal athlete though.

[Guest pinnacleofallthingsmanly]

Is there a correlation between tall fighters being bad and tall athletes playing other sports though?

[Guest Agent of Oblivion]

I don't think so. Fights come down to what goes on up close, and a shorter fighter has the advantage there. Tall guys have to use their range to their advantage, instead of being big targets.

[Guest Redhawk]

I don't think its necessarily that people want to see knockouts. Sugar Ray Leonard was popular with the mainstream and he wasn't a KO artist by any means. Heavyweights are usually the most popular not because of KOs, but because they're almost larger than life. Just looking at it size-wise, the heavyweight champion of the world should supposedly be able to kick anyone's ass. Whereas the middleweight champ of the world -- to the public -- can only kick ass on people his size or smaller.

 

If boxing allowed shows like Sportscenter to show more highlights, I'd bet shows like Sportscenter would eventually begin to feature boxing more often. But the way it is now, PPV fights only allow ESPN to show still photos. For HBO/Showtime fights, they allow video, but it's never the really significant exchanges. Sportscenter, like every news show, is all about having captivating video. If they were allowed to show the best exchanges during the, say, James Toney-Vassily Jirov fight, it would have been on Sportscenter. If they were allowed to show Tarver's KO punch, it would have been on Sportscenter. The way it is now, ESPN only mentions the most important or most bizarre fights, because everything else either lacks name power or good video footage.

 

With allowing better video footage to be shown to the national basic cable audience, the public's interest in boxing -- and the PPV buys -- would go up for sure.

[NoCalMike 0]

The main reason I never buy boxing ppvs, is because of the chance of 1-3rd round knockouts. I don't care who the fighters are. It is not worth $50 to see 3 rounds of boxing.(not counting the undercard).