And people start talking about the boxers like they have been following their career their whole life? And then after the match no one talks about it anymore. Until the next match.

And what is the deal with traffic jams?

toucan82 said:

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And what is the deal with traffic jams?

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And what's the deal with ponies? Why do they even exist? Have you ever seen a cop use a pony. All right people move along, don't hold up the traffic.

I am rewatching Seinfeld these days.

Don King and pay-per-view ruined the sport.

If they'd put championship bouts on regular tv, it would make a comeback.

Slicer97 said:

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Don King and pay-per-view ruined the sport.

If they'd put championship bouts on regular tv, it would make a comeback.

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Isn't bball and football going the same way? Streaming only or need cable subscription with the premium channels. Not sure how many people have bunny ear antennas anymore.

Not to the tune of $50+ per game the way fights have been.

Also, I think the increase of available alternative sports have hurt boxing. 100 years ago, the NBA didn't exist, the NFL was the equivalent of professional wrestling until the late 60s, and a lot of MLB players worked regular jobs in the off season to make ends meet. At the same time, one could make a decent living as a journeyman boxer.

Fewer folks getting into boxing since football, baseball, hockey, basketball, soccer, bowling, golf, etc. all can pay very well.

Slicer97 said:

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Also, I think the increase of available alternative sports have hurt boxing. 100 years ago, the NBA didn't exist, the NFL was the equivalent of professional wrestling until the late 60s, and a lot of MLB players worked regular jobs in the off season to make ends meet. At the same time, one could make a decent living as a journeyman boxer.

Fewer folks getting into boxing since football, baseball, hockey, basketball, soccer, bowling, golf, etc. all can pay very well.

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And the fact it's two princesses dancing around for 30-40 minutes instead of two guys in a nonstop beat down for 15 minutes like mma

This one of the greatest of all times in my book:

Depends on the fight. Weren't no dancing in the Hagler v Hearns fight.

I don't ever remember seeing boxing on network TV (live, at least). I can remember watching 15 rounds of Holmes/Cooney at my grandmother's house on ABC, but it wasn't live. As far as I can remember, the big fights were always live on closed-circuit/PPV.

I was curious after reading this thread, and seems like PPV for big fights has been the norm for 50-60 years at least. I think even both of the Ali-Liston fights were PPV.

100 years ago there were only three major sports people took an interest in. Boxing, horse racing and baseball. The NFL and NBA did not exist.

bagger05 said:

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I was curious after reading this thread, and seems like PPV for big fights has been the norm for 50-60 years at least. I think even both of the Ali-Liston fights were PPV.

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HBO had some of the biggest fights in the 80's and they were not PPV, but you did have to subscribe to HBO.

https://boxrec.com/wiki/index.php/HBO_Televised_Fights_-_1980s

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Why did HBO stop showing boxing?


Various issues in the boxing business, including the influx of streaming options (such as DAZN and ESPN+) and issues with promoters, along with declining ratings and loss of interest in the sport among HBO's subscribers, made continued carriage of the sport untenable.

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Later in the 90's they went to PPV.

Quote:

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HBO AND SHOWTIME CLIMB INTO THE PPV RING Both networks announce plans for monthly boxing series Within a day of each other, pay television rivals Showtime and HBO expanded their competitive battlefield, and turned into pay -perview rivals as well, with each announc- ing plans to create a monthly PPV boxing series, and each using boxing talent once exclusive to the other. Showtime Networks Inc. and flamboyant boxing promoter Don King have formed a joint venture to distribute fights via PPV and other cable outlets, begining with a March 18, 1991, PPV matchup between former heavyweight champion Mike Tyson and Donovan (Razor) Ruddock. Tyson's move to Showtime marks a significant victory for the premium TV service, which lured the boxer away from a 14 -year relationship with rival HBO. HBO and parent Time Warner are cer- tainly not fleeing from the ring. HBO, having managed to sever the long- standing relationship between Showtime and heavyweight champion Evander Holy - field, has signed a deal with Holyfield's promoter, Dan Duva, for a series of bouts involving fighters represented by Duva. In addition, Time Warner Sports announced that like Showtime, it too is creating a monthly pay -per -view boxing event.

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https://www.worldradiohistory.com/hd2/IDX-Business/Magazines/Archive-BC-IDX/90-OCR/BC-1990-12-24-OCR-Page-0028.pdf

Man that would've been a good time to be a boxing fan. I know next to nothing about boxing but even I recognize a ton of those fighters. Guess that kinda proves the point -- probably the reason I know those boxers is because they were the big names when it was more mainstream.

Txhuntr said:

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Slicer97 said:

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Also, I think the increase of available alternative sports have hurt boxing. 100 years ago, the NBA didn't exist, the NFL was the equivalent of professional wrestling until the late 60s, and a lot of MLB players worked regular jobs in the off season to make ends meet. At the same time, one could make a decent living as a journeyman boxer.

Fewer folks getting into boxing since football, baseball, hockey, basketball, soccer, bowling, golf, etc. all can pay very well.

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And the fact it's two princesses dancing around for 30-40 minutes instead of two guys in a nonstop beat down for 15 minutes like mma

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The majority of MMA is just rolling around on the ground. Hence the reason they are now affiliated with WWE. LOL

Slicer97 said:

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Don King and pay-per-view ruined the sport.

If they'd put championship bouts on regular tv, it would make a comeback.

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I agree with your sentiment.

At least Don King PPV cards were typically stacked with great match-ups all the way down the card. In my opinion, boxing has become a fringe sport for a number of reasons:

1 - It's expensive to be a boxing fan. For the last 40 years, boxing has basically been contested on tv behind a paywall. HBO and Showtime are now out of the boxing business, but DAZN and ESPN+ are still subscription based services. PPV events are now usually $85 before taxes/fees, with a far lesser number in the $50-60 range. This decreases casual fans and makes gaining new fans dang near impossible.

2 - lack of top match-ups. The major promoters are not willing to match their guys up against fighters from other promotions because they don't want to risk their guy getting a loss and lessening his value to their TV partner (two more problems - promoters being directly tied to a tv platform and fans being overly concerned if a fighter has a loss…UFC fans don't care about this, which is smart).

3 - too many weight classes and too many sanctioning body championship belts. There are 17 weight divisions in boxing, there used to be 8 (I think that is how many the UFC has, although their divisions differ in poundage than the original 8 in boxing). There are 4 major sanctioning bodies in boxing that each have a champion, and then those sanctioning bodies may have interim, or "regular" world champions in the same weight classes. Of course titles get unified, but at one point a couple of years ago there were well over 100 "world champions." It's basically impossible to keep track of all the champions, much less the contenders and prospects. This is done so the sanctioning bodies (IBF, WBA, WBC, & WBO) can collect their 3% of a fighter's purse if he is a "Champion". In MMA, the UFC has what, 90% of the top fighters? In boxing it's spread out.

4 - main events don't typically start before 10 pm Central time, and often closer to 11 or even later if it is a west coast fight. Way too late for most people, and forget about kids staying up to watch it with their Dads.

I realize I wasted 10-15 minutes typing this out, because like the thread title implies "nobody cares about boxing." It's my favorite sport and can be absolutely infuriating to be a fan; but when there is a great or even excellent fight, nothing is like it.

Finally a conversation that's in my wheelhouse!

lancevance said:

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And people start talking about the boxers like they have been following their career their whole life? And then after the match no one talks about it anymore. Until the next match.

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Safe to assume you don't normally associate with any Mexicans, Puerto Ricans, Cubans or Filipinos.

used to watch it when it was on HBO.

lancevance said:

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toucan82 said:

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And what is the deal with traffic jams?

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And what's the deal with ponies? Why do they even exist? Have you ever seen a cop use a pony. All right people move along, don't hold up the traffic.

I am rewatching Seinfeld these days.

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The majority of MMA is just rolling around on the ground.

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lol, no. And if you had any knowledge of grappling, the "rolling" part would be at least as interesting to you as the striking.

I'm still wondering why the sport has its own holiday.