Will Boxing ever make a comeback as a sport?

I haven't been a boxing fan since the late 90's, ever since all the heavy weights of that time either got in trouble with the law, retired, or just got too old to fight (ahem, George Foreman).



Anyone here catch boxing these days? I rarely hear about bouts being televised anymore or big Pay Per View matches. These days, cage fighting seems all the rage which I am not a fan of.

I was a huge boxing fan during the 70's and 80's and there were some great fights back in those days. The difference back then was that the big pay per view fights would be shown on free tv a couple weeks later. Back then, the casual boxing fan could actually follow the sport without spending a small fortune.

Nowadays if you don't pay to see them, you're outa' luck. The greedy boxing promoters all but killed the business in my opinion, well that and the fact that there are now multiple champions in every weight division doesn't help either.

Still every once in a while a pay per view boxing event rises above all the competition in the P.P.V. field and gets the biggest P.P.V. ratings of the year so I guess there's still hope.

Originally Posted by Tim58hsv

Nowadays if you don't pay to see them, you're outa' luck. The greedy boxing promoters all but killed the business in my opinion, well that and the fact that there are now multiple champions in every weight division doesn't help either.

Still every once in a while a pay per view boxing event rises above all the competition in the P.P.V. field and gets the biggest P.P.V. ratings of the year so I guess there's still hope.

Yep, promoters got the best of the sport and unfortunately took advantage of the boxers too.

A bit off topic but I never cared for any of the heavyweight fighters that came before Jack Dempsey. Some of them like Jack Johnson are almost always rated in the top ten greatest of all time list but I swear none of them would graduate to the level of club fighter nowadays.

From the fight films I've seen those guys were hard hitters and did have fast hands but little else. They threw abut 30 punches per round on average or about 10 punches a minute for each three minute round. That's why they could go for 20, 30, 40 rounds or more.

On 5/21/1891 World Champion Jim Corbett fought to a 61 round draw with black contender Peter Jackson. Sounds impressive that two guys could go that long but it's a safe bet (even without any film footage) that there was very little action during those 61 rounds.

Anyway, that's my opinion for what it's worth.

I just think that the recent boxers don't have as much personality or generate as much excitement as a guy like Ali or Foreman would have, and there just aren't that many boxers which stand apart from the crowd anymore. That coupled with rising PPV prices, and it's just not what it used to be.

Originally Posted by AstralEclipse

I just think that the recent boxers don't have as much personality or generate as much excitement as a guy like Ali or Foreman would have, and there just aren't that many boxers which stand apart from the crowd anymore. That coupled with rising PPV prices, and it's just not what it used to be.

This time Astral I beg to this agree, I guess you are not watching boxers today. Have you watched the number one pound for pound king of today? The name is Manny " Pacman " Paquiao. He is the only boxer that got 7 world titles from different weight divisions.

The last fight that he had was this month and it was in Dallas and was sold out.

I have seen Manny Pacquiao before, and I don't care how many titles he's won...but he really doesn't impress me all that much. He seems to be a talented boxer and everything, but I do not really consider him to be on the same level as the boxing greats such as Ali and Foreman.

I liked Ali, but I hate boxing. It's a dangerous sport, as I've said before. Ali and Cosell - they created more buzz and excitement for boxing than anyone/anything else, ever, and that won't be recreated.

The current state that Ali is in these days says it all for what boxing is capable of doing to a person, even one as dedicated and passionate as he was.

Although there are risks of serious injury in other sports, Boxing seems to be the most dangerous in that regard.