Comments Thread For: Boxing and The Public Trust

[SugarAnt05]

I have a few casual boxing friends and the one question I get asked all the time " How can there be multiple champs in one division?". This kills boxing as the best dont always fight the best.

[-PBP-]

The state of boxing is the classic case of blaming other people for your mistakes.

Boxing is in the condition it is in because of us.

1. We purchase and watch **** fights

2. We allowed fights to become 10x more profitable by marinating for 5 years

3. We excuse mismatches for entertainment purposes

4. We gave all of our attention to 2 fighters for 5 years and ignored every other up and coming fighter. All resources were spent towards 2 out of hundreds of fighters. Now nobody knows who these new guys even are

5. We reward fighters for ducking

You get the point. Fans, promoters and media killed boxing. Fighters just do what they are advised to do.

[Bronx2245]

The PPV is dead! R.I.P.! Thurman vs. Garcia on CBS is a great idea! LSC vs. Frampton on CBS would be great too!

[HURTFEELINGS]

First look at this place...EVERY DECISION IS A ROBBERY! If youre a good "boxer" thats horrible, the announcers, media, ref and everyone involved is paid off, if you let the fans on this site tell it...

[davidw9785]

Yes more eyes on boxing needed.

One thing I noticed the other day was that a PPV in the UK (example GGG v Brook) was around 20-25 USD, whereas Kovalev/Ward was 70 odd I think. That a big difference.

GGG/Brook did 600k buys, Kov/Ward 160k.

The cheaper model ended up with 440k pairs of eyes more on boxing, and the article suggests part of the solution is 'more eyes on boxing' however achieved.

The old model of 3 inept judges has to change too. I stay watching, but my trust that the judges will score in an unbiased, correct way is about zero. Last example being Adalaide Byrd scoring the 6th round for Walters, it just seems like the scoring system doesn't work at all any more (Ward/Kovalev, Sosa/Walters, sooo many more down the years, and as the article mentioned, Whitaker/Chavez too).

Its a system guaranteed to continue delivering rotten results. eg WHAT IF Loma had slipped and broken an ankle at the end of the 7th, and chosen to carry on to the end. Walters could have been totally re-animated in seeing the complexion of the fight change dramatically, and gone on to outpoint a 1 legged Loma over the final 5.

So everyone has Loma 7-5 up, but then we see two scorecards call it a draw. We start looking at why Trowbridge gave Walters the 1st, and why Byrd gave him the 6th, and the controversy is yet another black eye for boxing. Trowbridge scoring the first for Walters isn't so bad considering it was a feel-out round, but even then, I don't remember Walters landing a single punch while it was all about Loma feeling walters out and Walters getting felt out - so what Walters win the round on ? And as for the 6th, well, nothign to say really, except Byrd should be called to account, rewatch the 6th with the commission and point to what she saw that she felt Walters won the round. The judges can't just walk away from stuff like this without being accountable.

Don't forget the straight up robbery that was Perez-Hooker. An absolute stinker to lead into Kovalev-Ward.

[masterpatric09]

BOXING needs to Adapt

[IMG]//fitness-******.tumblr.com/image/145768098203[/IMG]
Boxing needs to adapt and change the knock down scoring system from 1 to 2 points plus the round, add technology to prove fake knockdowns. Low blows should be enforced 2 LB and you are DQ, Journalists from all over the world in attendance must act as judges as well and people watching the fight must be allowed to vote via apps like american idol.unless boxing evolves, it will suffer from the same corruption we have from the last 200 years.

[masterpatric09]

[hitking]

I've never bought into the commentary that boxing is dead......until now. 10-15yrs ago, a fight like Ward-Kovalev would have done 300K-350K PPV buys easily. A fight like Crawford-Matthysee would have had no issues cracking 250K buys. I blame the decline on the Floyd-Manny soap opera that became the face of boxing. It brought a lotta fake fight fans that don't understand good match-ups. And the years of Floyd and Manny dancing around each other. Which trickled down to other top fighters at or around their divisions dancing around each other, trying to position themselves for a Floyd or Manny shot. Combine that with the nearly decade long graveyard the heavyweight division has been. And boxing is in serious trouble. We have a generation of top fighters that wanna be paid premium dollar$ to fight other top fighters. But, the public is no longer paying premium dollar$ to see those fights.

[NEETzsche]

Nice article

Boxing isn't producing a consistently good product and casuals don't have the will nor the ability to distinguish in advance the good from the bad, so they've thrown the baby out with the bathwater

Hyped events that end up as duds could be easier forgotten if hyped events weren't so few and far between

Every top fighter should be taking two to three meaningful fights per year

[LCRUMMY36]

Also true - any dynamic where Saunders can hold a belt hostage like he has is a broken one.

Any system where Jacobs can't make December, so GGG isn't allowed to stay active without being stripped because Jacobs is hiding under a rock somewhere - broken.

The commissions don't regularly make the other belt holders mandatories (so we don't get the best fighting the best mandated most of the time) - broken.

Promoters wanting to protect fighters zeros, so not matching them with the best - broken.

The boxing world needs more heros, eg Ali, he didn't implement a rancid MBA business plan where every move was calculated to his advantage (looking at you de la hoya), he went out on a mission and got there. eg his claim of 'prettiest' was silly if looked at in isolation, but was all part of the mission, get bigger than boxing itself.

Let Canelo take on GGG at 160. Canelo didn't duck - de la hoya didn't allow it - advising him to drop the belt instead- dumb) - we don't care if he loses, he's a hero for going there.

I saw Santa Cruz say he wants to beat Frampton, then he WANTS to go to Belfast and do it again (probably mandated in the contracts anyway, but I liked the WANT part). We WANT Andre Ward to say he wants to beat Kovalev in a rematch, then go to Moscow and do it there - thats hero stuff. Instead we get a boxer who has never strayed further away from home than Atlantic City (ignoring a couple of early fights in the Caribbean), and a supposed p4p No. 1 who wouldn't dare do that.

Ali went into Henry Cooper's home territory and took on a national icon on his home ground. Thats hero stuff right there.

Damn,,,,, I like your style