Too much "Science of Boxing" not enough "Entertainment"

[Sweet Jones]

Its a fighter job to win fights. To fight in a manner that helps them win.

You want to see Tom Brady scrambling every play? Want to see Shaq shooting threes?

Exactly.

I'm sure Falcons and Seahawks fans felt great the day after the Super Bowl because their team's insistence on 'entertaining' the 'fans' by continuously throwing the ball with a huge lead or trying to throw slants at the goal line instead of handing it to one of toughest backs to bring down in NFL history.

And I'm sure Golden State fans felt better about losing in the Finals as Steph Curry continued to 'entertain' with behind-the-back pass attempts/turnovers and terrible shot selection.

Boxing has to be the only sport that demands such silliness from its participants.

[Dean_Razorback]

Nah, it's a professional fighters job to entertain people. Which is why mediocre fighters who have balls and are exciting make millions while Guillermo Rigondeaux can't fill a McDonalds parking lot in Miami, and that's the way it should be.

If the general public doesn't find it entertaining, boxing will continue to see less money and lower viewership and we'll have fewer and fewer cards on TV in America.

Saying all of that, I didn't think any of the fights last night were too "sweet science." Thurman just felt he was ahead and got on the De La Hoya bike the last three rounds.

nothing but the truth

[Biolink]

Nah, it's a professional fighters job to entertain people. Which is why mediocre fighters who have balls and are exciting make millions while Guillermo Rigondeaux can't fill a McDonalds parking lot in Miami, and that's the way it should be.

If the general public doesn't find it entertaining, boxing will continue to see less money and lower viewership and we'll have fewer and fewer cards on TV in America.

Saying all of that, I didn't think any of the fights last night were too "sweet science." Thurman just felt he was ahead and got on the De La Hoya bike the last three rounds.

Rigondeaux would largely not be able to fill an arena anywhere unless he was Mexican or he lived in Asia. People that watch boxing barely give a **** about the midget classes much less any casual.

[-PBP-]

Unfortunately boxing is a sport. If this sport doesn't entertain you go to the circus or watch WWE

[Eff Pandas]

Boxing isn't really setup in a way to reward risk. For an easy example in the UFC guys get official bonuses & unofficial "locker room" bonuses for making fun fights. Boxing has no such setup. If you are in a life or death Corrales vs Castillo fight at any level of the sport you get nothing extra on fight night & you could end up getting the same or less money for your next bout so some sort of implied future value for being a more fun fighter to watch isn't there either. If you are a B side guy you could even end up having a harder time getting a fight in the future cuz you've shown yourself to be "too tough" or "too risky" for many higher ranked or considered guys to wanna agree to fight you.

Boxing for sure needs to get to a more mainstream sports place & have a elite level league that can watch over boxing & reward fighters who deserve rewarding for being more appealing to fans. Til that happens we are going to have winning valued over entertainment which from a business point of view is backwards.

And I'm even for better rules that'll make for more entertaining fights. I think clearly won &/or dominate rounds without a knockdown should be scored better than rounds won, but not clearly. Right now both rounds tend to be 10-9 which is f#cking ******ed & largely why the Thurman vs Garcia fight was as close as it was. I'm also for lighter gloves to give us more KO's. Deducted points for holding more often in particular when trying to survive from being hurt or after a KD. And loss of points for non-engagement which almost never happens. This is something that rarely even gets discussed, but I think it should. The rules of boxing make boxing more or less entertaining & the rules of boxing & scoring criteria have changed numerous times, but somehow people act like the rules as they are today are some set in stone biblical sh^t.

[Loque-san]

Nah, it's a professional fighters job to entertain people. Which is why mediocre fighters who have balls and are exciting make millions while Guillermo Rigondeaux can't fill a McDonalds parking lot in Miami, and that's the way it should be.

In most sports - if you exclude endorsement deals - the highest paid players are the best players, not the most exciting ones. Tennis is an individual sport like boxing. There are boring tennis players but the ATP/WTA don't put them on the shelf just because there are boring. I wonder why boxing has never managed to work like that, like a real sport, where the money athletes made is based on merit rather than on entertainment value. Maybe because crooked promoters found people like you since day one and managed to make them believe that's the way it should be.

[Ham Porter]

Not true, pro fighters job is to win. As for Guillermo Rigondeaux it's bob arum that created an image for the general fans that don't watch boxing on a regular basis not to "fill a McDonald's parking lot in Miami" cuz Rigondeaux beat his fighter he had plans for so he tarnished his career (not cool, that should be some personal beef if I was Rigondeaux) and the general public is so gullible that if you keep speaking on a agenda (like he's boring) they actually believe it instead of coming to their own conclusion. Last nights fight was competitive, I had Thurman winning by 2 rounds.

Was it Bob Arum's fault that he **** the bed against Agbeko, too? Or when he was given another chance on a big ppv platform to impress against a handpicked bum and looked even worse?

And nobody who doesn't watch boxing on a regular basis has a clue who Rigondeaux is.

[Ham Porter]

Unfortunately boxing is a sport. If this sport doesn't entertain you go to the circus or watch WWE

Boxing is not a sport and gave up such pretences a long time ago. In no legitimate sport are you allowed to pick and choose who you face, avoid the biggest challenges and openly manipulate rankings to the extent that it happens in boxing.

Boxing is, as a certain boxer and his army of cultists used to argue, a business.

[Tom Cruise]

Sport is entertainment. Fans get invested in fights and fighters and they will be entertained no matter how much smack talk or KO's are delivered.

Games like Darts, Snooker and sports like Golf get huge audiences over here because fans care about the outcome and that makes it exciting.

Boxing struggles often because the lack of structure to the sport means that sporting achievement is impossible to follow and quantify, so promoters have to create isolated narratives (grudge matches, national rivalries etc) to give the fights meaning.

[alexguiness]

Thurman has become cautious, he no longer looks for KOs against the higher calibre opposition.

He needs a new nickname.