Boxing has lacked it's superstars. I admit that but there have been big ppvs in recent years. Mayweather-Canelo did a giant number. I don't think boxing cares to be relevant. Not the way the casual fans seem to think it should be. There is plenty of money and great fights being made. You Just need to enjoy the sport to care. Most people just don't care to follow boxing so it's funny to see them critique it in such an unfair way or have unrealistic expectations for one fight when all they have to is follow it for a few months and they'll see some great fights. There has been some amazing, relevant, top competition fights the last 3 months. If only the casual fan tuned in to watch them. I remember when people used to complain that buying a Tyson fight was a waste of money bc it only lasted 30secs. Boxing can never win with a casual fan because they only follow about 1% of what's actually going on.
It's a dangerous road to take as a spectator sport to basically go all hipster and say boxing doesn't care to be relevant. And we can kid ourselves about all this 'casual fan' bullshit, but there are plenty of people who used to be serious fans who just don't give a shit anymore. Why? Because boxing has far more problems than 'casual fans' just not being smart enough or cool enough to understand it or care.
The lack of superstars isn't some that just happens to occur, it's a byproduct of the state of the sport. Young people just aren't getting into boxing like they once did. Lot of reasons why they aren't, I suppose, but one seems to be that boxers don't make a living like they used to. Sure, those on the high end get rich (again, because the sport is so starved they become top heavy and throw the bulk of money and promotion into the very few fighters). But for boxing to be successful you need a lot of pretty good fighters there making a living pos interesting competition. Sure, they hope they may end up great, or win the fight of their life, but the reality is they were the foils. Boxing had a lot of pretty good fighters to fill these ranks traditionally. But now, it seems to be a constant stream of chumps being murdered by the few great fighters left, which just isn't exciting. So, we get a lot of foreign born fighters who are still buying into the dream of boxing, but that only goes so far, as American youth don't give a shit and there ends up a distinct lack of quality pool of fighters to make the typical fight pretty entertaining.
Also, fuck any sport that lets the participants themselves deciding who they'll compete against, when and on what terms. It's gotten worse than ever, with so many belts and so many fights not happening due to all the segregation and divide with just about everything. One huge advantage the UFC has is the fighters actually fight, and when they're told. I mean, they have the choice to refuse and have their career fucked, of course, but it's stark contrast to boxing where fighters can simply refuse to fight anyone of substance anytime they want. And when they lose in the UFC they don't drop off the face of the earth nearly as quickly as in boxing because they're expected to lose sometimes, since they're constantly pitted against high competition and come back to fight again. Boxing, you lose, and it's a huge hit to your ability to draw a crowd/purse unless you're one of the top fighters, because the won/lose records are so bullshit contrived, and everyone assumes that if you lost you have shit management or are SO bad you can't even win the fights that are practically staged for you to win.
I mean, I can't remember the last meaningful boxing match where I truly wasn't sure who would win. It's practically WWE at this point, and you assume if a big fighter like Mayweather agrees to a fight, he's 90% sure it'll be a cake walk, and 10% he'll still be able to pull it out if the other fighter shows some surprises. Think about it, it's true even for the biggest names, like this recent fight.
If Mayweather and Pacquiao were in the UFC they'd probably have more losses, because they'd be fighting actual competition, like each other far more than ONCE in the twilight of both their careers, and the fans and the sport would be better off for it. Sure, they wouldn't have made as much money, but fuck them for making hundreds of millions on an irrelevant fight like that shit the other day.
Saying boxing is dead is over board. The problem is fight promoters, managers and fighters have a stranglehold on the sport and they benefit while the sport and fans suffer. The business model of boxing has turned to shit. It's caused the potential competition to turn to shit. And the actual competition is also shit because nobody wants to fight anyone that might actually beat them.
I love boxing and don't think it's dead. But until they fix the issues it's going to continue on the decline.
imo, etc.
