It's incredible how quickly boxing changes.

[N/A]

It was only 10-15 years ago that boxing was largely controlled by Don King, Bob Arum, Dan Goossen, Gary Shaw, Murad Muhammad, Lou Dibella, Leon Margules, none of whom have any power anymore except for Arum.

It was only 10-15 years ago that boxing only had three recognized world titles (WBC, WBA, IBF), now it has five (WBC, WBA, IBF, WBO and Super WBA).

It was only 10 years ago that HBO ruled the sport with an iron fist and Showtime was a very distant second. Now the biggest fight of 2020 is being distributed by Fox and ESPN.

It was only 10 years ago that heavyweights had become completely irrelevant. Now there are three huge stars in Joshua, Wilder and Fury, with interesting contenders like Ruiz, Whyte, and Big Baby.

It was only 5 years ago that HBO level boxing was thought to be impossible to bring back to free TV. Now HBO is out of boxing completely and Fox is airing world title fights almost every month.

[N/A]

I feel really bad about not mentioning Cedric Kushner. He (along with Main Events) deserve to be on the list of powerful promoters from that era as well.

[Mammoth]

J Rock vs Rosario is on FOX, right? Lil BHop vs Corrales as co-main. That'll be a good card.

I just wish FOX had Showtime's commentary crew.

[TheMyspaceDayz]

I thought I was going to miss HBO more than this. At the time it felt like the money they put into production made the sport more accessible to casual viewers. The fighters story and style was fully explained and handed to you on a silver platter each time out. Now that it’s gone I see all the bells and whistles weren’t necessary. Just put on good fights and people will tune in.

[Kezzer]

Trying to claim people recognise the WBA has having two belts?? Stop smoking stuff buddy.

In terms of the heavyweights becoming relevant , and actually far more so - boxing in general - that is obviously largely down to the impact of Anthony Joshua and Eddie Hearn.

I would go further though and say one the key moments to the decade which has improved boxing significantly is Eddie Hearn signing Carl Froch.

Imagine if Carl Froch had continued being a largely unknown boxer ? If he didn’t get the Bute fight? If he didn’t fight Groves and start a rivalry which accumulated in a rematch in front of 80k at Wembley?

Prior to that match there had been only one fight at Wembley in about 50 years, since then It opened the door to around ten fights in a few years at open stadiums in the UK.

Eddie Hearn was laughed at by his own Dad that he could make a matchup that big it would sell out Wembley.

At the same time on the undercard was he upcoming Anthony Joshua in about his sixth fight - starting the build up which has helped converted multiple casuals in the UK and across the globe to begin watching boxing.

That relationship also encouraged DAZN to jump on board and produce in multiple countries at the back end of the year and arguably have the strongest portfolio of fights of any network during 2019.

To bring it back, Carl Froch and Eddie Hearn helped make each other big, make each other successful beyond any expectation at the time. Eddie kind of traded Carl in for a new bigger model in Joshua to turn it to new levels. The amount boxing has flourished in the back end is super and made even the likes of Fury and Wilder much more recognisAble despite many years prior with little support. The UK in particular has grown to the extent the first 4-5 years of the decade had about six fights live on bbc radio , in 2019 it had about double that in the one year alone.

[Real King Kong]

It was only 10-15 years ago that boxing was largely controlled by Don King, Bob Arum, Dan Goossen, Gary Shaw, Murad Muhammad, Lou Dibella, Leon Margules, none of whom have any power anymore except for Arum.

It was only 10-15 years ago that boxing only had three recognized world titles (WBC, WBA, IBF), now it has five (WBC, WBA, IBF, WBO and Super WBA).

It was only 10 years ago that HBO ruled the sport with an iron fist and Showtime was a very distant second. Now the biggest fight of 2020 is being distributed by Fox and ESPN.

It was only 10 years ago that heavyweights had become completely irrelevant. Now there are three huge stars in Joshua, Wilder and Fury, with interesting contenders like Ruiz, Whyte, and Big Baby.

It was only 5 years ago that HBO level boxing was thought to be impossible to bring back to free TV. Now HBO is out of boxing completely and Fox is airing world title fights almost every month.

Let’s not leave out the fact that a big portion of top fights are now on streaming services. Dazn is the biggest game changer...whether or not they’re successful in the long run, remains to be seen.

[N/A]

Let’s not leave out the fact that a big portion of top fights are now on streaming services. Dazn is the biggest game changer...whether or not they’re successful in the long run, remains to be seen.

I would disagree that a large portion of the top fights are now on streaming services. It's a much bigger story that so many big fights are on free TV (Fox) and basic cable (ESPN & FS1). That is what is attracting so many new boxing fans and bringing back so many former fans.

In the entire existence of DAZN, which fights would have been big PPVs in the old HBO/Showtime era? Canelo vs. Jacobs and Canelo vs. Kovalev. That's it. And neither would have really been that big of a PPV by Canelo standards.

[Real King Kong]

I would disagree that a large portion of the top fights are now on streaming services. It's a much bigger story that so many big fights are on free TV (Fox) and basic cable (ESPN & FS1). That is what is attracting so many new boxing fans and bringing back so many former fans.

In the entire existence of DAZN, which fights would have been big PPVs in the old HBO/Showtime era? Canelo vs. Jacobs and Canelo vs. Kovalev. That's it. And neither would have really been that big of a PPV by Canelo standards.

Well if you want to talk about fights that aren’t ppv worthy or wouldn’t have been ppvs, you might as well include almost all ppvs these days. Boxing entering the streaming era is a significant change and ground breaking. Boxing on free cable, while it’s awesome and could be better for the overall health of the sport, is a reversion to the past.

[N/A]

Well if you want to talk about fights that aren’t ppv worthy or wouldn’t have been ppvs, you might as well include almost all ppvs these days.

I'm sorry man, but you're dead wrong on that. Look at what the PBC PPVs are doing. In a 12 month span, PBC did 325,000 buys, 400,000 buys, 375,000 buys, 500,000 buys, 350,000 buys and 275,000 buys.

ALL of those fights would have been on PPV in the HBO/Showtime days. HBO put pretty much any fight they thought could do 200k buys on to PPV. HBO boxing went out of business in part because so many of their PPVs flopped and couldn't come anywhere close to 200k buys. They would have been doing BACKFLIPS if they had a one year run of 325, 400, 375, 500, 350 and 275.

Boxing entering the streaming era is a significant change and ground breaking. Boxing on free cable, while it’s awesome and could be better for the overall health of the sport, is a reversion to the past.

But it's a reversion to when BOXING WAS MORE POPULAR. Canelo's fights being $20 instead of $75 is ground breaking, but he hasn't had a fight yet for $20 that most people would have found compelling at $75. Canelo vs Jacobs and Canelo vs Kovalev wouldn't have been huge PPV fights. They'd have done respectable numbers because it's Canelo, but nothing like his biggest fights.

Showtime has been available as a separate independent app, with live fights, for many years. So there's nothing groundbreaking about DAZN beyond the top PPV fighter agreeing to fight on $20 shows. Which would be a big deal if it forced everyone else to fight on $20 shows, but instead it's just caused $75 PPVs to grow.

[Pigeons]

Trying to claim people recognise the WBA has having two belts?? Stop smoking stuff buddy.

Don't mind him. He's an idiot. Every real boxing fan knows that the WBA really has 3 belts: Super, Regular, and Gold. Just put him on ignore and call it a day.