How boxing can regain it's popularity

[spman]

Now boxing is a sport I do love dearly, but over the past 10 years, it has fallen off the pedestal, and is for the most part off the radar of Mainstream Sports. The Contender is doing a good job in trying to spark some interest back in the sport, but my idea is, why not start up a whole new boxing promotion. You can take all the wacky ideas from Wrestling, but apply them for boxing. You can have tag team fights, fatal four way bouts, even a Royal Rumble. Sure it'd be dangerous as all hell, but I bet if it caught on, it could be really popular.

[Guest LooneyTune]

Vince McMahon would jump on that idea in half a minute.

[Vern Gagne]

Build the heavyweight division back up, if even possible. Focus more attention on the other weight classes, and create one belt for each class. Also, a boxing commission would be a good idea.

[EVIL~! alkeiper]

The problem with boxing now is its lack of legitimacy. I could not see an idea like this taking off. What boxing needs to do is gain more exposure for big fights. Pay Per View may bring in money, but it severely limits the potential audience. That in turn cuts down the potential talent pool. Boxing will always have lighter weight fighters, but what heavyweight is going to box when there is baseball, football, basketball as options as well?

[spman]

Yeah, if we're gonna get into a serious discussion on how to save boxing, then that's exactly it. They need to unify the titles and have one governing body. There's like what now, twelve different belts now with even more divisions? Also, get Boxing back on Television. The end of Tuesday Night Fights on USA was a pretty heavy blow to the sport, that was all their mainstream coverage right there. Showcase some of your up and comers on the Cable shows, have them fight legitimate opponents on the Premium Channel shows, and save guys like Mike Tyson for the Pay Per Views.

[Vern Gagne]

You really only need 1 or 2 outstanding heavyweight boxers to make the division popular and respectable again.

[2GOLD]

How many belts are there?

Like 20?

 

I won't care about boxing again until the number of belts decreases.

[Guest LooneyTune]

WBA, WBF, WAF, WBC... there's so many damn belts, and each group has 1 for all 12-13 weight classes. I was reading through one of the boxing magazines recently at a drug store and was shocked to see so many different rankings for a bunch of belts. I gave up when I noticed it was 6 pages long and in small print.

[razazteca]

Boxing needs a Fight of the Week show on a major network in primetime to make it popular again. The only way to get boxing on top again is to somehow cross promote with HBO or Showtime and put the big fights on NBC or FOX. It would'nt hurt to get Don King to do some pro wrestling style promoting either.

[EVIL~! alkeiper]

How many belts are there?

Like 20?

 

I won't care about boxing again until the number of belts decreases.

The problem is that people just can't let the belts go. Give it up. To me, the alphabet titles mean absolutely nothing. Ring magazine publishes their own champions, and while their system is not perfect, it is the best thing going right now. The ABCs are not going to give up their pieces of tin, and we can either sit back and bitch, or we can tell them to stuff it and ignore their champions.

[2GOLD]

How many belts are there?

Like 20?

 

I won't care about boxing again until the number of belts decreases.

The problem is that people just can't let the belts go. Give it up. To me, the alphabet titles mean absolutely nothing. Ring magazine publishes their own champions, and while their system is not perfect, it is the best thing going right now. The ABCs are not going to give up their pieces of tin, and we can either sit back and bitch, or we can tell them to stuff it and ignore their champions.

 

Yeah, but then people have to buy Ring Magazine to figure out who the top champion is right?

 

Until the belts go and the prices drop (seriously, 50 bucks?) then I don't see boxing returning to glory. There are some great fighters but some are just buried in the muck or they say "screw this" and give it up cause it's not worth it.

 

How often does the #1 contender in boxing get the next title shot? Maybe if they added requirements like "#1 contender gets the next shot" instead of "oh, I want to fight THIS guy", I might start to care again.

 

The problems I have with boxing isn't the boxers. It's the prices, the worthless tin and how the fights are even organized.

[EVIL~! alkeiper]

Yeah, but then people have to buy Ring Magazine to figure out who the top champion is right?

 

USA Today prints them, and you can view their standings online.

 

Until the belts go and the prices drop (seriously, 50 bucks?) then I don't see boxing returning to glory. There are some great fighters but some are just buried in the muck or they say "screw this" and give it up cause it's not worth it.

 

Agreed on the prices.

 

How often does the #1 contender in boxing get the next title shot? Maybe if they added requirements like "#1 contender gets the next shot" instead of "oh, I want to fight THIS guy", I might start to care again.

 

Depends on who determines the #1 contender. I will say that Chris Byrd has deserved a shot for a long time now.

[bobobrazil1984]

It needs a new big popular star. A Mike tyson, a muhammad ali, a smokin joe fraser, even a george foreman.

 

Find that and you'll draw in scads to see it. kinda how nba is hoping LeBron can bring more pop back to nBA.

[CanadianChris]

The big problem is that a lot of the championship-potential athletes are playing other sports, because that's where the big money is potentially. No one is boxing.

[Your Paragon of Virtue]

But how do you know guys that are capable of being world-class boxers are just dropping everything and being world class athletes in something else. Unless you mean picking up from a young age and choosing something before you are even good at anything.

[Prophet of Mike Zagurski]

I agree that boxing PPV are expensive. Fifty dollar is a lot of money which is used on the purse of the main event. I miss Mike Tyson. After he bit Holyfield's ear off, his career plummeted. I liked his character because that is something a wrestler would do. I don't think that British guy had a lot of fans (uh I know he retired a year ago and he walked the British Bulldog to ring side for Summerslam '92 but I can't remember his name. Boxing should steal Vince's ideas like custom theme music and pryo. Another thing, those popular boxers (De La Hoya, and uh... thoses guys who retired) only fight usually one or two fights a year. It's easier to follow a wrestler and get attached to him and his character week in and week out. I know if they fought every week, all of them would retire sooner. If there was weekly show that would follow up what they are doing to prepare for their match that would work. I won't spend money if I am not attached to you in someway.

 

I hate paying for a PPV that ends with a DQ (wrestling) or judging (boxing). You want me to pay 50 bucks then two men enter and one man leaves. I hate when decision comes down to numbers. The only reason matches end with judging is so they can have a rematch at the next PPV.

[EVIL~! alkeiper]

But how do you know guys that are capable of being world-class boxers are just dropping everything and being world class athletes in something else. Unless you mean picking up from a young age and choosing something before you are even good at anything.

That's correct. When a person is big enough to compete, he can play football, baseball, basketball or hockey. Those sports are the most popular, so they attract the most interest in youth sports. The lighter weight classes in boxing don't have the same problem because when you're 126 pounds, where else can you play in sports?

 

Also, boxing has always been the way out of the ghetto for the lower classes, so to speak. As youth programs and sports grow, boxing becomes a less attractive option because let's face it, it is not that fun.

[Guest Agent of Oblivion]

These are some incredibly bad ideas. Boxing is legitimate, and it does get enough attention. Lucrative deals with PPV and premium stations ensure that it remains profitable. They have good fights, too. ESPN has a weekly boxing show of nothing but up and comers and lower echelon veterans. The pro-wrestling cross pollination is just asinine though, as everyone knows wrasslin' is a complete fucking joke. How is that going to make boxing seem more legit? There once was a show called Thunderbox that ran with that concept. Worst sports show ever.

 

Tag Team, and four way boxing matches? That's probably the dumbest thing in the thread, as it takes all of one shot to the jaw to knock someone out or worse.

 

Take that back, it's complaining about the friggin' POINT SYSTEM that is actually the worst idea here. Boy, it sure sucks when two guys give it their all and can't drop each other, but still have a decisive winner. Sometimes it's a tie. Deal with it.

 

Here's an idea: find good matchups and put them on tv for people to watch! Let the competitors actually compete without a bunch of superfluous bullshit. Two guys beating each other bloody sells itself.

[EVIL~! alkeiper]

Take that back, it's complaining about the friggin' POINT SYSTEM that is actually the worst idea here. Boy, it sure sucks when two guys give it their all and can't drop each other, but still have a decisive winner. Sometimes it's a tie. Deal with it.

 

People would be more comfortable with the judging system if it did not seem so random. Boxing needs to train their judges better, and consider going back to 15 rounds for its biggest fights.

[Guest Agent of Oblivion]

I wouldn't mind seeing 15 rounds come back. I don't see why a couple deaths should've knocked it down to 12, when it's just as possible to get pummelled into a cerebral hemmorage in that amount of time anyway. Hell, around the turn of the century, it wasn't unheard of for fights to go TWICE as long.

 

The longest fight ever (with gloves) was 110 rounds (1893)

 

under Queensbury rules, 42 rounds. (1903)

[EVIL~! alkeiper]

I wouldn't mind seeing 15 rounds come back. I don't see why a couple deaths should've knocked it down to 12, when it's just as possible to get pummelled into a cerebral hemmorage in that amount of time anyway. Hell, around the turn of the century, it wasn't unheard of for fights to go TWICE as long.

 

The longest fight ever (with gloves) was 110 rounds (1893)

 

under Queensbury rules, 42 rounds. (1903)

That was the longest TITLE bout. Jim Corbett fought Peter Jackson to a 61 round draw in 1891, under Queensbury rules.

[Guest Agent of Oblivion]

Point is, today's athletes can sure as shit go fifteen.

[EVIL~! alkeiper]

Absolutely. Heck, they could go twenty, if they trained.

[Guest Salacious Crumb]

I think too many people have been burned by paying $50 for a PPV only to have it all end in a screwjob where the end of the fight comes across like it was fixed. This is why none of my friends bother with boxing anymore. And some of the recent PPVs were a joke. Klitchko vs. Williams?

 

I think the UFC is going to be a big problem for boxing in the future. There's only one champion per division, they always have a big name on PPV and the PPVs are $15 cheaper. From what I've seen of the judging it's less random than boxing.

[Your Paragon of Virtue]

The UFC also carries bigger cards featuring top fighters in more than one division. If one fight you're looking forward to doesn't pan out, odds are there will be more that will.

[iggymcfly]

The reason boxing's fallen off so far is totally due to lack of exposure. A good fight's far more intrisically entertaining than a basketball or football game, but the top guys hardly ever fight, and when they do, it's on PPV.

 

If every major heavyweight fought every three months, with at least one fight a year being hyped up on NBC or something, the interest would come back in no time.

 

I know that whenever a major fight does happen on HBO or Showtime, (when I'm home where I get those channels), it takes precedence over pretty much anything else on TV, but the big fights are so rare that it's really hard to keep track of what's going on.

 

Oh, and the dipshit that wants to make boxing more like wrestling is retarded. Boxing's a great sport, and it draws fine when people can actually watch it.

[2GOLD]

I'm curious how a four way boxing match would even work? First fighter to score a knockout wins? Cause if you catch someone with a cheap punch in boxing, you can do tons of damage to them. Moreso than in a regular straight on fight.

 

And tag team boxing matches? The hell, how would that work?

[spman]

I dunno, it was just meant to be stupid and goofy, not serious. Anywyas, the last time I remember a really high profile fight that I heard everyone talking about was Tyson vs Lewis, and even that ended up being a major dissapointment. Unfortunatly, all the really well known names in boxing are either retired, (Lennox Lewis, George Foreman) or washed up (Mike Tyson, Evander Holyfield). What should have happened was that back when Boxing did have well known fighters that were active, they should have used them as a draw, while trying to establish new guys on the Undercard, but instead they would take every new up and comer and feed them to Tyson or Lewis who would destroy them in three rounds or less. It's not terribly unlike Wrestling really.

[Mole]

The only way I'd watch boxing is if the matches were just like those out of Rocky. THOSE are good boxing matches.

[iggymcfly]

Actually, the problem was that they didn't feed the up-and-comers to Lewis, so he got to retire as the champion. If Klitschko had beaten him in a rematch, he'd have way more potential as a draw.