Boxing, boxing everywhere - 1930 compare with now...

[Alex]

By Miles Templeton

In March 2011 there were 23 professional boxing promotions in the UK and Ireland. This is a higher than average number compared with recent years and, on the face of it, British boxers currently have plenty of scope for activity. In March 1930 there were 484 professional promotions.

To say that domestic boxing has changed out of all recognition in the last 80 years is to state the obvious. The dramatic decline in the number of active boxers and promotions demonstrates this extremely clearly.

What might be hard to fathom these days is the sheer number and range of towns and cities that held regular boxing events in the old days. Colne in Lancashire currently has a population of around 20,000. In 1930 it was a mill town in the depths of an industrial depression and with about the same number of inhabitants as today. During March 1930 this small town managed to sustain nine professional boxing promotions. West Stanley, a pit village in Durham, held 13 such events within the month. Boxing occurred more than once per week in places as far afield as West Hartlepool, Salford, Preston, West Bromwich, Norwich, Morecambe and Leicester, as well as in the major cities of Manchester, Newcastle, Glasgow and London.

On the evening of 7 March one could have chosen from any one of three professional boxing shows held in Preston, at the Marathon Stadium, the Majestic Rink or the Prince’s Theatre. Of the twelve contests that took place in the town that night, six were over 10 rounds, five were 12-rounders and one was a 15-rounder. None of them were less than ten rounds. Hard times bred hard men.

Weekly shows took place at Alfreton, Ammanford, Ashton-under-Lyne, Aston, Bedminster, Belfast, Birmingham, Bishop Auckland, Bradford, Catford, Castleford, Chesterfield, Coventry and Crewe. And these are only the towns, cities and districts beginning with the letters A to C that held weekly shows. The full list covers 60 different venues across Britain where one could see boxing every week. There is nowhere in the UK doing the same today.

Boxing took place during March 1930 at towns that have rarely seen boxing at all since the war. These include the likes of Torquay, Penrith, St Ives, Edenbridge, Sevenoaks, Treorchy, Blyth, Rugby, Kidderminster, Barnoldswick, Sidcup, Tylorstown, Helston, Dartmouth, Swindon, Rhyl, Goole and Weston-super-Mare.

Continue reading:

http://blog.boxinghistory.org.uk/2011/1 ... where.html

[Ambling Alp]

That is similar to what has happened in the United States as well. There are certainly less towns that put on boxing cards. The major fights have been almost always in Atlantic City or Las Vegas which has hurt the sport greatly.

[dempseyfire]

It's what's happened not just in the US and UK but globally. I always hear "well now boxing is big in eastern europe" blah blah . . it's actually not. Boxing is as much of a 'fringe' sport in Russia as it is in the U.S., if not moreso.
Boxing is currently doing decently in the German market but it's still not nearly as popular in Germany as it was pre-1980s.