Honest Question re: Boxing

[travrosty]

mma isn't killing boxing, boxing declined on its own and its resurgence wont really depend on mma.

the flagship division, (heavyweights) is in the doldrums because all the fights are in europe and the klitschkos arent exciting to most.

i cant watch mma, its so boring. there is something about boxing that makes it exciting, you know the boxers cant just try to snap each others neck or bite an opponents ear off to win.

mma is more organized because it is a league owned by one person and he signs fighters to the ufc and each month they force the good matchups. not so with boxing. promoters sign boxers and dance around and a lot of the time they are more interested in their champions fighting in the "safe" fight for 5 million against lesser competition. they would rather do that 10 times in a row and reap 50 million than to fight another top guy for 20 million but have a chance to lose and then the big paydays are over.

Plus 4 sanctioning bodies issuing belts to ever increasing divisions only separated by 3 or 4 pounds now is not helping things. 4 champions at 18 different divisions.

so more boxing matches on tv more frequently with top fighters and a renewed heavyweight division would help.

mma doesnt really have anything to do with it. I don't know any of my friends that are big boxing fans who have scrapped boxing altogether to watch mma instead.

[travrosty]

boxing autographs will always hold their worth. there will be younger guys taking up the hobby, if prices fall too low, some will just see it as an opportunity to buy.

boxing is part of the history of the u.s. , it wont go away, and boxing collecting will ebb and tide, but don't throw away your robert fitzsimmons autographs just yet.

[D. Bergin]

Originally Posted by travrosty

mma isn't killing boxing, boxing declined on its own and its resurgence wont really depend on mma.

mma doesnt really have anything to do with it. I don't know any of my friends that are big boxing fans who have scrapped boxing altogether to watch mma instead.

Yup. MMA hasn't stolen any of the boxing audience. If anything they've eaten into the WWE crowd who have grown out of that phase and are looking for something a bit more realistic, legitimate and competitive they can hang their hat on.

It's no coincidence that Dana White has patterned his business template to be more like the business and marketing monopoly of Vince McMahan and the WWE, and less like the competitive hagglings of King, Arum, Golden Boy, Kushner and others.

Dana leaves himself a much bigger piece of the pie, and not to be over-looked, a much smaller piece for his fighters then top boxers are used to, in comparison to the revenues being brought in.

[travrosty]

the top boxers and promoters like the current system, but fans don't. they want the top boxers matched up each month so they can watch a great card.

ufc has good matchups for what they do, and even the undercard has championship bouts and pretty good matchups. The fans want boxing to do the same, but unless it makes $ sense for the promoters to do it, they won't.

the ufc owns and issues their own championships and belts, so they can force whoever they want to fight each month. ufc makes the money for the pay per views, so if the belt switches hands, it is still within the ufc.

if a big belt switches hands from one boxing promoter's fighter to another boxing promoters fighter, a large chunk of $ switches too, then that promoter and fighter stand to lose money so the great matchups aren't always made.

If boxing were structured like the ufc, then mayweather and pacquiao would have fought a couple years ago and might have had a rematch or two already. There are several problems with the way boxing is set up but i wish the people in control would at least try to fix one of them at a time. The last heavyweight fight with a top name on regular free tv as far as i can remember was mike tyson versus buster mathis jr. on fox in 1995. time flies.

[D. Bergin]

Originally Posted by travrosty

the top boxers and promoters like the current system, but fans don't. they want the top boxers matched up each month so they can watch a great card.

ufc has good matchups for what they do, and even the undercard has championship bouts and pretty good matchups. The fans want boxing to do the same, but unless it makes $ sense for the promoters to do it, they won't.

the ufc owns and issues their own championships and belts, so they can force whoever they want to fight each month. ufc makes the money for the pay per views, so if the belt switches hands, it is still within the ufc.

if a big belt switches hands from one boxing promoter's fighter to another boxing promoters fighter, a large chunk of $ switches too, then that promoter and fighter stand to lose money so the great matchups aren't always made.

If boxing were structured like the ufc, then mayweather and pacquiao would have fought a couple years ago and might have had a rematch or two already. There are several problems with the way boxing is set up but i wish the people in control would at least try to fix one of them at a time. The last heavyweight fight with a top name on regular free tv as far as i can remember was mike tyson versus buster mathis jr. on fox in 1995. time flies.

The only way for that to work would be for a monopoly to be established. Dana White essentially drove all other major organizations out of business. With King and Arum becoming elderly, Golden Boy is trying their damndest to do that right now.

I can't say I am rooting for them, to be honest.

[travrosty]

Originally Posted by D. Bergin

The only way for that to work would be for a monopoly to be established. Dana White essentially drove all other major organizations out of business. With King and Arum becoming elderly, Golden Boy is trying their damndest to do that right now.

I can't say I am rooting for them, to be honest.

true, ufc is a monopoly, strikeforce and the other group that was on tv are either a nonfactor or extinct now.

king has no champions left in his stable, tavoris cloud was the last one i believe and king has been on the ropes for awhile downsizing. if all the boxers were under one promoter, maybe more fights would materialize because it would be kept all in the family, but you have to trust the person running it to do it right. With boxings track record, i dont.

i dont know what the answer is i just want a few decent boxing matches now and then that generate interest and pits the two top guys together in a match with something on the line.

[JimStinson]

Originally Posted by D. Bergin

The only way for that to work would be for a monopoly to be established. Dana White essentially drove all other major organizations out of business. With King and Arum becoming elderly, Golden Boy is trying their damndest to do that right now.

I can't say I am rooting for them, to be honest.

Does anyone but me find it odd that , Bernard Hopkins knocked Oscar out with a body punch, and then amazingly after being counted out Oscar was strolling around the ring like he just got back from the candy store and doing an interview.

Any fighter will tell you that a body punch that renders you unable to beat a 10 count will hurt 10 times as bad AFTER the count.

But if that wasn't weird enough Oscar then signs Hopkins to a contract with "Goldenboy" promotions , coincidence ??

While we are on the subject of the demise of boxing lets not forget that they are STILL counting the money from the De La Hoya -Mayweather fight trying to figure out how much money they made in that the largest money making fight in history , The PPV revenue alone was over 150 million , Oscar was paid 52 Million and Floyd received 25 Million. Imagine how much they would have made if boxing was POPULAR .......
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[travrosty]

over 100,000 people in the stadium in mexico for a julio cesar chavez fight, is mma going to do that?


But the idea that ufc(mma) steals away boxing fans i dont think is factual. it's a global sport. mexico lots of interest. u.s will come back just in a different way than the golden age of television brought boxing to every neighborhood and there was 1 champ. Marciano was the champ. everybody knew it.