How boxing can regain it's popularity

[NoCalMike 0]

It wasn't too long ago, 10 years maybe that Boxing was featured all the time on Wide World of Sports on ABC I believe, and a lot more people would watch boxing. There are too many PPVs nowadays due to there being so many belts. Get rid of 75% of the belts, unify them and melt them into one or something. Also, less coverage of shitbag promoters, and we simply need more access. I mean there are so many fighters that get to records like 35-2, before we even know who they are, and by then it is up against the clock to promote them properly for the big fight. ESPN Friday Night Boxing is good, as is HBO Boxing after dark, but they need help from other networks to promote the great fighters before they are great. I remember when David Tua was coming up through the ranks, and he seemed to have a fight on a different network every few months or so, and he turned out to be an overrated reckless puncher, but still THAT was the way to promote young and upcoming fighters.

[MrRant 0]

Deathmatches.

[Guest Agent of Oblivion]

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

Ward/Gatti I

 

[Red Hot Thumbtack In The Eye 0]

I watch that fight at least once a month. Round nine gives me chills every time.

[Guest Agent of Oblivion]

A woozy Gatti standing up to that five or six shot combination that rearranges his face is my favorite moment.

[Crimson Platypus 0]

I am eagerly anticipating Ward and or Gatti being guest color commentator for some fights so that I can laugh at how completely punch drunk they are. Those guys just pounded each other so ridiculously hard. Just an awesome fight.

[Guest Agent of Oblivion]

What made me think of it actually was watching the Friday Night Fights replay last night at some wee hour. They were doing an Irish themed evening, what with it just being after St. Patrick's Day and all. They had Micky Ward in the studio making comments about some of his fights, and other fighters of Irish heritage. Pretty good show, really. He's not exactly eloquent, but c'mon, he's a guy named Micky that's been hit in the skull a great deal. He doesn't have any trouble forming sentences or anything though.

 

The most garbled but still sentient boxer award goes to Evander Holyfield.

 

"Firbebalah Liketethang God.."

 

Riddick Bowe was completely unintelligble after the second Golota incident.

[Lei Tong 0]

Quck thoughts:

 

-Ring's rankings have become a complete and utter fucking joke, selling out their own ranking systems as an excuse to overrate fighters of the right pigment (Gatti & Klitschko come to mind) and/or one-hit wonders (Antonio Tarver).

 

-The Barrera/Morales Trilogy > The Gatti/Ward Trilogy

 

-Boxing isn't really that bad off at 154lbs and below, but most American fans don't like watching skilled little guys fight when they can "watch a couple of proper heavyweights gas out and such."

[MrRant 0]

No. American's want to see the possibility of someone suffering brain trauma by a punch.

[Crimson Platypus 0]

I can't stand heavyweight boxing in general. I find most bouts to be slow, plodding clutch-fests with little action and even less skill. Morales/Barrera was an awesome series of bouts, as was Ward/Gatti, but for different reasons. Morales/Barrera was more about skill, punching and counter-punching. Ward/Gatti was just brutal. I found both to be highly entertaining. That silly American fans comment is trash.

[Sass 0]

If Lennox Lewis would have come out and said "fuck America" after 9/11 then boxing would have gotten the wrasslin pub.

[Lei Tong 0]

Honestly, I never found the Gatti/Ward series as great as many people did. The fights were pretty sloppy, and both guys were pretty much 2nd tier guys, which makes you realize there have been even greater brawls between other secondary fighters.

 

Entertaining fights? Definitely. Great fights? No.

[Crimson Platypus 0]

So how about giving examples of other great brawls between secondary fighters?

[Lei Tong 0]

Even amongst themselves (and trying to show I'm not being unfairly biased), Gatti/Ruelas, Gatti/Rodriguez & Ward/ Burton were all easily on par with Gatti/Ward I.

 

EDIT- Also, though they showed a lot of skill in the fight, I think Barrera/Morales I could still classified an awesome brawl as well as overall fight.

[A Happy Medium 0]

Ward and Gotti were just three awesome brawls that featured two tough as nails men.

 

My idea is to unify the belts, shift more emphasis towards the lighter guys, as heavyweight fights are usually boring. And get a weekend show on one of the four networks to showcase one big fight, or two smaller ones.

[Lei Tong 0]

Good luck getting more than a handful of divisions unified. The promoters love having a plethora of "World Champions" to advertise, most fighters are more than happy having a single alphabet belt, and each of the organizing bodies are willing & ready to sell rankings to whomever is willing to buy them.

[Guest Agent of Oblivion]

Heavyweight fights are only boring if they're shitty heavyweights. There's a whole different sort of risk involved with guys that big. A smaller man just doesn't hit as hard as a jacked up heavyweight, therefore you'll see more grabbing, because there isn't the freedom to get in there and swing. Show me a "boring" Mike Tyson fight, or an Ali fight..I'd argue they're the two most exciting fighters, and they were heavyweights. Bad boxing's bad boxing. Doesn't matter what weight class. Akinwande/Grant stunk as bad as any awkward clash between smaller men.

[Lei Tong 0]

No doubt there have always been entertaining heavyweights, but compared to most other divisions, the Heavyweights usually have a higher proportion of boring fighters, usually due to the simple fact that you're not going to see many big, plodding guys be successful at any other weight like you will at HW.

[Guest Agent of Oblivion]

Name a successful big plodding slow guy.

[A Happy Medium 0]

George Foreman...not counting his early days.

 

David Tua was quite flat footed.

[Lei Tong 0]

Even in the past few years guys like Tua, Mesi, SSS, Whitaker, Rahman, Johnson, Skelton, Brewster etc. have had some measure of success (all ranked at some point in the top 20), and that's not even counting guys who though less often than these guys, could often trudge their way around the ring like Williams or Klitschko.