Comments Thread For: Boxing and The Public Trust

[LCRUMMY36]

Boxing needs a do over. No one is paying to see fights anymore because boxing is lacking star. You can say Canelo is a star but he a star to his fan base. A big fan base but outside of that he's just another name. Boxing need to put hype up matches on free T.V. Let the casual people see the fight and start developing a bond to the current crop of fighters.

PPV is just milking the same customers. PPV model should only be used for a mega super fight only.

[DinoCop]

Too many belts are out there that no one cares about champions or championship fights. 18 weight divisions with 5 big organizations (WBO, IBF, IBO, WBC, WBA) brings the audience 95 champions who are contstantly chancing, plus out there stuff like lineal or somethingall titles I don't even know.

[Thickback]

IMHO....the PPV buys potential or lack there of is not what made this the biggest fight since May-Pac. It's the fact that 2 dudes in their prime had the nuggets to face the best in the division in a fight that us hardcore fans wanted to see.

Regarding public trust, casuals expect more than real fans and as someone said before, the ridiculously high ppv fee drives a big wedge between the success of a fight like this.

[xxlefthookxx]

True about the rotten results. Boxing needs to make changes to both make the product better and build trust. The main culprits are the judges and the ref. You cannot have a better product (more exciting) by allowing hugging in a sport that is supposed to be known for punching. You fix that part by deducting points early and often (see Figueroa vs Burns--excellent job by Cole). You also cannot build trust by allowing poor judging. I think that you fix that part by moving judges to seats further back with a better view, and eliminate the notion that somebody automatically gets the round...they must WIN the round. Nearly all of Ward's rounds were "I think he did more" rounds, rather than obvious "This guy did much more" round. My personal feeling is that you first get rid of judges who turn in ludicrous scores, then you tell them 10-9 for close round, 10-8 for commanding round, 10-7 or worse if the round contains knockdown(s). That way a fight shouldn't be swayed by really close rounds, but by the fighter who won the most rounds convincingly.

[aboutfkntime]

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.

MOST of the problems within boxing started with the advent of the 2nd (>3rd/4th) sanctioning body.

GREAT call !

[StrangerInTown]

When Alvarez decided to milk his PPV base instead of fighting GGG, the sport suffered a credibility and enthusiasm deflation. The Ward and Kovalev numbers may have suffered from this ailment.
The pursuit of glory has given way to the business of caution.
At $75 a pop, the casual observer is taking no chances.

[Hewito]

MOST of the problems within boxing started with the advent of the 2nd (>3rd/4th) sanctioning body.

GREAT call !

I dont know why people seems to have so much trouble understanding or maybe trying to find what went wrong in boxing,IMO is quite easy.Too many belts,too many "stars",too much money for less than stellar opposition,everybody seems to be ducking everybody,people saying that A should jump to a different division to fight B,catchweights,definitely the new,old style of boxing,no more barreras ,morales,castillos,corrales and in my humble opinion,the bad decisions,here is why..I have a few friends,like 10,they arent boxing fans,nor MMA,they are more like football,basketball,etc.WE all watched the mayweather pacquiao fight and they all,and their wifes said it was a boring fight,was it?debatable,but it turned them away,like i am sure it turned millions,but now,we all got together and watched ward fight,with kovalev,and when fight was over,there was not one single person who said ward won,was it a lack of knowledge?could be(I had kovalev winning)specially when everybody saw wards beat up face and surprised look,but what did happened it lost those 10 people forever,they arent interested on watching another boxing fight,the problem is that you might say who cares,but it did the same for millions of people and all the A side fighters are the ones that put butts on seats,mostly casuals,who can forget de la hoyas screaming ladies?

[TexasCowBoy]

I dont know why people seems to have so much trouble understanding or maybe trying to find what went wrong in boxing,IMO is quite easy.Too many belts,too many "stars",too much money for less than stellar opposition,everybody seems to be ducking everybody,people saying that A should jump to a different division to fight B,catchweights,definitely the new,old style of boxing,no more barreras ,morales,castillos,corrales and in my humble opinion,the bad decisions,here is why..I have a few friends,like 10,they arent boxing fans,nor MMA,they are more like football,basketball,etc.WE all watched the mayweather pacquiao fight and they all,and their wifes said it was a boring fight,was it?debatable,but it turned them away,like i am sure it turned millions,but now,we all got together and watched ward fight,with kovalev,and when fight was over,there was not one single person who said ward won,was it a lack of knowledge?could be(I had kovalev winning)specially when everybody saw wards beat up face and surprised look,but what did happened it lost those 10 people forever,they arent interested on watching another boxing fight,the problem is that you might say who cares,but it did the same for millions of people and all the A side fighters are the ones that put butts on seats,mostly casuals,who can forget de la hoyas screaming ladies?

Great Post....samething happened to me with the Crawford vs Postol fight....lack of action and my guests were (ufc fans) turned off....I didn't invite them for the Kov vs ward fight because I knew ward was gonna run more than engage .....granted they always invite me to the ufc fights and always ask my advice on boxing....great thing I told them the dud of the century was gonna be a dud an we passed on that $100 deal.

[THC]

Unlike hard-core followers, casual fans don't have the patience to stick with boxing when the product itself is largely inconsistent and oftentimes reeks with the stench of corruption. It requires wading through too much crap to get two top prime fighters to share a ring due to political silos created by managers, promoters, broadcasters, and sanctioning bodies. With reduced chances of a marquis fight being made on a regular basis, it's hard to grow and maintain a popular fan base.

The sport needs to evolve. Tradition is useless when nobody tunes in.

[TexasCowBoy]

I read everybodies comments and everybody has fantastic ideas...from the ref not deducting points for hold , hugging and running to the judges explaining ludicrous scores....sanctioning bodies....everything was right on........this sport will always rock........its family tradition to watch boxing.......Go CowBoys!!!!!!