Legendary Boxing Prices

[travrosty]

MMA and boxing are two different animals and the collectors are different.

Most of the higher priced stuff in boxing is collected by old time collectors and I don't know any of these collectors who also collect MMA stuff or have abandoned boxing for MMA.

I have had people tell me that the average age of a boxing collector is over 50 years old. It might be true. Once they collect boxing, I don't think they are going to say, 'well, I am going to stop because I like this MMA'

Most older boxing collectors I know either don't care for MMA or like me, might watch a fight here or there if it is a big fight and it's on free tv but otherwise I couldn't really care less.

I just don't think they overlap. Only the younger guys who might have started to collect boxing, but instead are interested in MMA might affect the hobby, but that paradigm wouldn't be realized until several years from now as they mature and spend their bigger dollars on MMA instead of boxing. But that's off in the future. I just don't see it though. I don't see one taking away from the other.

Boxing in general is struggling for interest in most weight classes however, because there haven't been too many exciting fighters that are interesting except for the Pacman/Mayweather and boxers in those weight classes. Heavyweight division is lethargic but it only takes another tyson/holyfield/bowe/lennox lewis type rivalries and it would be on again. the Klitschko era will pass and someone needs to step up and make it exciting again. I don't know people who are pining for Klitschko stuff. But there are Tyson collectors out there as well as Ali/Foreman/Frazier obviously. But the last dozen years are a snoozer for the heavyweights as far as collecting goes.

[Exhibitman]

Well, yes and no. We tend to be too egocentric as fans. Boxing in the USA is suffering from lack of an American heavyweight and American superstar [Mayweather is the closest domestic product and he's not only an a-hole, he's a convicted child and woman beater, so he ain't gonna win any popularity contests], but is globally a giant brand. Just because we don't like the Klitschkos doesn't make them non-entities. They are superstars in Europe, routinely selling out sports arenas in Germany for their shows. Boxing is huge in Mexico and with Mexican-American fans. Put a great Mexican fighter into the ring in the southwest and you can sell out a football stadium, as Juan Manuel Marquez-Pacquiao showed. The English and Canadians also have fighters capable of selling out arenas. The Bute-Froch fight later this year in Nottingham is going to be a huge ticket and tv draw. Of course there's Pacquiao in the P.I., and Nonito Donaire looking to follow on. There are several world-class Asian fighters who pull huge numbers in Asia, like Chris John in Indonesia or the Japanese lower weight champs.

Now, as to what it means for cards, that is hard to say. I am hearing the same things about boxing cards as baseball cards--the collecting base is aging, new tech and amusements are taking over, etc. I have to wonder, though, why it hasn't spelled doom for coin collecting, stamp collecting, art collecting, antique collecting etc. New blood comes into the fan base and then migrates to the collecting field. The fight fan base is certainly not all over 50, and as they move from casual fans to more interested in the sport they will start collecting. Once there they aren't going to stop with the shiny crap, they're going to head to vintage cards.