How many of you are just fed up with the sport particularly the british scene despite everything

[Bricks]

I don't know . I have jekyl and Hide feelings on this

On the up side. We have a dedicated boxing channel 24/7. We live in a world of youtube and access to historical libraries and internet forums
the dedicated channel is good but...... than the flip side it seems so small rent so low level........... it makes the former sport of kings the richest prize in sports seem like some pub darts discussion a minority sport.

It was the same at Setanta under BUnce. His whole low level low rent "bring back bunce " campaign was dressed as bring back boxing . It felt lowlife and low grade.The whole approach is wrong. As is Adam smiths whole regime at SKY....it needs a fresh approach. The whole ringside perched up on stools was bs.....with its profile of ricky hatton "our former world champion" every 6 weeks like we didn't know who hatton is.
Things are also hyped up so much with so much talking u just want it to be like the old ITV in the 1980s days or sky in the 1990s before they lost their way when they just got on with it......

We have more british "world champions" than ever and we are seeing them in high profile fights

But I sometimes get the feeling boxing was so much better in the 1980s, and 2000s.

There was far more depth on the UK and American scenes.

We have the eastern Europeans involved for 25 years and boxing has expanded in Asia but at times it seems to me this is just about Britain, mexico, the fading USA and german based soviets. On the one hand it seems the sport has got bigger ,than on the other hand it seems the world scene and fighters worth watching, stars........... the pool is far far far smaller.


Eddie Hearn in particular sums up the schizophrenic feelings I now have for the sport and my apathy......apathy which I than question as being misplaced.

He has created more british world champs than ever and they are traditional WBA/WBC/IBF champs not IBC or IBO.

He created blockbusters like brook-GGG, Froch-Groves and unforgettable nights like Frochs fights, Ricky Burns several reigns which have been full of good calibre fights......he has taken a Bellew and when he failed at top level at LH made him a crusier champ....he is handling Joshua very well.....but on the flip , shite like dillian whyte and busted flushes like chisora and david price being sold to us as legitimate future foes for Joshua!! Brook also had some awful meaningless defences.....is the balance right between the best for the fighter and the fans. Also I have a problem with seeing some of these guys as "world champions" even tho they clearly hold good belts and are clearly top 5 in their weight at that weight.....take liam walsh as another example......I just don't see him beating a Gianfranco rosi , or even a Daniel Santos at 154...maybe the depth was far deeper not too long ago.

Hearn aside, there seem so few prospects worth getting excited about....the sport seems smaller.

The UFC as a spectacle is just so much more exciting. I watched 2-3 shows with the womens division that Rhonda rousey, Tate, Holm and others fight at and I was just hooked on their skill, the contrast in style and personalities and the amazing fights between them and who would win against who........I just don't get that with boxing anymore besides say the HW division which seems to be in gridlock thanks to that cxxt Fury,and Wilder not fighting anyone, haye pissing around......or GGG-Canelo which will never happen.........I didn't feel this way in the 2000s when we had stuff like the super 6.......

I just don't know.

How do the rest of you feel?

[Mimmy]

As im getting older my interest in boxing has declined over the years mainly through boxing not been available on terrestrial tv. The days of Benn v Watson etc would be ppv these days and not available to the man in the street unless he wanted to pay for the fight. Back in the 80's and 90's which was my period I never missed a fight if I could help it. I just think the fighters were different then. I dont think that we have the talent these days that we had in the dys of old (80's and 90's)

Im sure many blokes my age might feel that way, its just what we were brought up with. These days I can take it or leave it. I didnt watch an yboxing Saturday gone as i had my grandson and sleep was kore important than watching the action. Back 25 years ago I was up all hours watching fights when we have the old sat dishes that could pick up german channels such as TV1000, RTL and RTL plus etc etc. Saying that I stayed up to watch Tootie Fruiti too!!

[Dixonian]

I don't mind boxing looking a bit low budget. Much better a little rough around the edges than some slick, corporate, hyper-professional sport ala football. I gave up with football this year. The final nail in the coffin was rebranding the football league as the EFL.

But I'd love to see more free-to-air boxing...

[dalcumly]

Almost all the problems surrounding professional boxing are due to the movement away from fights being a sporting contest, between boxers of similar weight and ability, to simply a form of entertainment. And when this becomes the priority, the focus is purely money oriented.
So, you no longer have 'boxing fans ' attending venues or watching on TV, you have 'fans of boxers', the vast majority of whom no little about the 'boxing game' and don't follow it from week to week.
You then , at the lowest level, have inept boxers who can sell hundreds of tickets, and promoters struggling to find anyone on the planet who is so bad that the ticket seller can beat. Boxing fans no this and longer attend promotions. At the highest level, not a lot changes. The huge stars, who attract the big money , cause similar problems for the promoters, because, they, like those further down the pay scale, have to find a recognisable 'name', who they know will lose to their star.Hence the creation of a multitude of organisations claiming to be world sanctioning organisations.
All this leads to a continuing decline in people who could call themselves boxing fans , and what you are left with is a group of people who like to see 'boxing events' , but with no real interest in the sport. There is a steady drop in interest in boxing from the general public, with the occasional spike when a star appears. This popularity graph will hit the bottom eventually , and boxing will be a dead sport like quoits, and pigeon racing.

[keithmoonhangover]

I'm 46 y.o. and I've been a boxing fan since my dad made me watch The Thrilla in Manila. I don't really watch any other sprorts and I still love the sport. Back in the 80's, if you wanted to watch Leonard-Hagler or Tyson Spinks, you had to wait until it was on ITV the next night, Fast forward to today and we have a channel showing boxing 24/7. I will never take that for granted. Yes, there isn't too much live boxing on there, but I'll never get sick of watching old ESPN footage. As far as the current British scene is concerned, it's in fantastic shape. We have guys in the top ten in nearly every division. Back in the day, that was never the case. As I don't watch other sports, apart from the odd footy match, SKY isn't great value, but I'm happy to pay and I take the PPV's on a case by case basis. I will say this.... IF YOU STREAM BOXN4TION, YOU ARE NOT SUPPORTING BOXING, YOU'RE CUTTING FIGHTERS PURSES AND ROBBING THEM OF A LIVING The more subscribers, the better it is for the boxers.

[littlepug]

Almost all the problems surrounding professional boxing are due to the movement away from fights being a sporting contest, between boxers of similar weight and ability, to simply a form of entertainment. And when this becomes the priority, the focus is purely money oriented.
So, you no longer have 'boxing fans ' attending venues or watching on TV, you have 'fans of boxers', the vast majority of whom no little about the 'boxing game' and don't follow it from week to week.
You then , at the lowest level, have inept boxers who can sell hundreds of tickets, and promoters struggling to find anyone on the planet who is so bad that the ticket seller can beat. Boxing fans no this and longer attend promotions. At the highest level, not a lot changes. The huge stars, who attract the big money , cause similar problems for the promoters, because, they, like those further down the pay scale, have to find a recognisable 'name', who they know will lose to their star.Hence the creation of a multitude of organisations claiming to be world sanctioning organisations.
All this leads to a continuing decline in people who could call themselves boxing fans , and what you are left with is a group of people who like to see 'boxing events' , but with no real interest in the sport. There is a steady drop in interest in boxing from the general public, with the occasional spike when a star appears. This popularity graph will hit the bottom eventually , and boxing will be a dead sport like quoits, and pigeon racing.

good post, we just seem to be moving further and further away from 50/50 matchups and likes of Brook v GGG and the proposed Haye v Bellew fight are just more nails in the coffin for boxing, I can just about cope with the crazy build ups to fights we get these days but at the end of it all you have got to produce a product worth paying for

[Kilburn]

The UFC as a spectacle is just so much more exciting. I watched 2-3 shows with the womens division that Rhonda rousey, Tate, Holm and others fight at and I was just hooked on their skill, the contrast in style and personalities and the amazing fights between them and who would win against who........I just don't get that with boxing anymore besides say the HW division which seems to be in gridlock thanks to that cxxt Fury,and Wilder not fighting anyone, haye pissing around......or GGG-Canelo which will never happen.........I didn't feel this way in the 2000s when we had stuff like the super 6.......

Couldnt agree more on the UFC. The female talent on display is pretty incredible at the moment. The depth of the UFC cards is on another level as well, look at UFC 205 coming up - there has to be no less than 8 fights on there that could potentially throw up any kind of result.

Boxing just isn't moving with the times. Record padding seems to be worse than ever, undercards rarely much cop even on a PPV. The jumbled up combination this year of Alvarez v Khan and Golovkin v Brook just sums things up. Intriguing but ultimately pointless match ups.

Deontay Wilder's record before and after Stiverne is pretty horrific. Luis Ortiz will be 40 by the time he gets a real shot. Joshua v Klitschko could be interesting if the unreliable Wladimir finds a ruthless streak. Haye clearly never planned to still be boxing at 36 so now appears a bit desperate.

Kovalev v Ward is good but it's not going to be another Ian Darke barn burner.

Lomachenko v Walters is just about the only boxing match on the horizon that I'm really anticipating. UFC on the other hand...

[Tarkus]

Almost all the problems surrounding professional boxing are due to the movement away from fights being a sporting contest, between boxers of similar weight and ability, to simply a form of entertainment. And when this becomes the priority, the focus is purely money oriented.
So, you no longer have 'boxing fans ' attending venues or watching on TV, you have 'fans of boxers', the vast majority of whom no little about the 'boxing game' and don't follow it from week to week.
You then , at the lowest level, have inept boxers who can sell hundreds of tickets, and promoters struggling to find anyone on the planet who is so bad that the ticket seller can beat. Boxing fans no this and longer attend promotions. At the highest level, not a lot changes. The huge stars, who attract the big money , cause similar problems for the promoters, because, they, like those further down the pay scale, have to find a recognisable 'name', who they know will lose to their star.Hence the creation of a multitude of organisations claiming to be world sanctioning organisations.
All this leads to a continuing decline in people who could call themselves boxing fans , and what you are left with is a group of people who like to see 'boxing events' , but with no real interest in the sport. There is a steady drop in interest in boxing from the general public, with the occasional spike when a star appears. This popularity graph will hit the bottom eventually , and boxing will be a dead sport like quoits, and pigeon racing.

Well said. Show busyness side of boxing dominates sporting side far too much these days. Proper fights cant be made. Even now Joshua/Klitschko deal is on hold because of American TV war. Some of the best prospect that are coming from outside of USA/Mexico/UK have hard time making it in the pros because they are commercially unattractive to American or British public. And the local divas refuse to take risky fights. The world of boxing is fractured with no proper structure. So its indeed 'boxing events' what we are left with and lots of it is freak shows rather then proper fights like much discussed Bellew/Haye.

[Boxing Prospect]

I'm not fed up with the sport, more fed up with some of the "fans". The sport is exciting, almost every week there is some bout of interest, but we have some idiotic fans with allegiances to promoters or fighters rather than the sport. Fight fans say they want this or that but when they get this, or that, they tend to still pick flaws.

For example-"We want the best to fight" - It happens in the lower weights yet the same fans often say "I'm not interested in them, they are the size of my kids"

That's not to say the sport doesn't shoot it's self in the foot, constantly, but there sport also has so many exciting developments and great matches. It's never been easier to follow the sport around the world, to watch fights from every region of the globe, and to get the chance to enjoy both the rich history, the present and the potential future of the sport. We're seeing a rise of fighters who are determined to run their careers (Lomachenko, Usyk, Bivol, Inoue and Maruta) and not be told that they have to waste years doing what they can do from their debut.

The British scene is one where it seems to be about shooting it's self in the foot. The promise of allegedly has pretty much failed, and whilst I understand some people supporting it, it's something that has repeatedly shot it's self in the foot by show so little live content, Sky have a lot of potential to do great things but keep pricing fans out. The less said about some of the officiating the better. But there is things to be excited about, and the rise of certain fighters has been great.

[magwitch]

Almost all the problems surrounding professional boxing are due to the movement away from fights being a sporting contest, between boxers of similar weight and ability, to simply a form of entertainment. And when this becomes the priority, the focus is purely money oriented.
So, you no longer have 'boxing fans ' attending venues or watching on TV, you have 'fans of boxers', the vast majority of whom no little about the 'boxing game' and don't follow it from week to week.

All this leads to a continuing decline in people who could call themselves boxing fans , and what you are left with is a group of people who like to see 'boxing events' , but with no real interest in the sport.

Someone on my social media whose slaver I’ve been seeing the last two or 3 years went to his very first live show - Kell versus Golovkin. Paid over 500 quid for 2 tickets.
Anyway the other day he said he was looking forward to trying to get tickets for Klit versus Joshua - and his criteria seemed to be “because it’s a 30 million pound fight”............... I thought what a strange reason to want to see a fight
For me - Joshua Klit doesn’t really interest me. Heavyweight boxing hasn’t interested me for a good bit but whether the competitors are on 30 million or 600 quid each is a bit irrelevant to me.

Also this weekend ....social media again....some bird had posted her nice bf “posing” alongside a smiling Eddie Hearn. Fair enough, a Scouser on a Scouse show in Scouser land, but to me it’s akin to tracking down Joey Essex for a photo!.....No disrespect to Mr Hearn, but I find him an odd idol. I think for some people, if you merely tell them someone is “famous” it’s enough for them. Bloody weird I think.

[Stuffs]

Far from fed up with the sport. Fed up with a lot of gobshites too though. Especially those who brand themselves as "hardcore" on social media** as they claim to be so deeply rooted in the sport, but only ever talk about (read: slag off) what was on Sky or BN that weekend.

**Yes, I know I can unfollow these types, and I have most of them.

[Bricks]

I don't mind boxing looking a bit low budget. Much better a little rough around the edges than some slick, corporate, hyper-professional sport ala football. I gave up with football this year. The final nail in the coffin was rebranding the football league as the EFL.

But I'd love to see more free-to-air boxing...

Lol I don't like the super slick corporate stuff.....but its quite an extreme the "in a bland tiny broom cupboard with an obsese version of chas and Dave rabbiting away".....Id take the slick corporate stuff I reckon

[Bricks]

Theres no imagination anymore. Golden Boy are the absolute pits. Don King who always made things interesting is long finished.

Back in the late 90s and early 2000s when I had no access to SKY and there was no boxing whatsoever on terrestrial TV. I had access to Eurosport and I loved the heavyweight explosion shows by Cedric Kushner....neat interesting little shows......and Steve Holdsworth's commentary was entertaining.

ESPN fights is another example of a great way to do things.....admittedly I haven't had access to it the last couple of years but they promoted things very well in an entertaining package in good venues and teddy atlas and joe tessitore were a big part of that.

[Asterix]

I'm another who is enjoying the UFC more than boxing nowadays. There aren't many boxing fights to get excited for at the moment. Even a superfight like Ward vs Kovalev could be a stinker due to Ward's style. Anthony Joshua is someone who I'll always watch, but there aren't many.

If we had someone like Conor McGregor as a boxer, happy days. A big puncher with a personality.

[Autobarn]

I think some people haven't got over the move from terrestrial TV to cable and digital.

I think some people get so bogged down and disillusioned and paranoid about the politics, that they don't enjoy good fights when they do get them.

We've had outstanding fights between Brits and visitors like Burns v Reilekh, Warrington v Amagasa, Crolla v Linares and Bellew v Makabu this year, and not long ago Mitchell v Linares, and I've not seen too much positivity, usually something to cry about.

Honourable and exciting away defeats, like Burns v Figueroa and Cleverly v Fonfara, to boot which didn't kill the career of either man, despite coming in sensitive periods for both.

We've had an amazing little run winning tough fights away, Brook v Porter, Jamie McDonnell v Tomoki Kameda twice, Degale v Dirrell, Fury v Wladimir, Frampton v Santa Cruz, but people seem to be forgetting already.

Always felt that things that actually happened end up completely being taken for granted.

We got the domestic fights we demanded, like Joshua v Whyte, Quigg v Frampton although two fell through, Brook v Khan and Selby v Warrington that could still happen.

No, we don't have any of the Benn, Eubank, Watson personalities and rivalries, or an absolute class act like Lewis about. But, in any other era, how often did we?

Been a rough recent time with Fury failing to hold it together, and there's been high profile defeats to the very, very best like Golovkin, Alvarez, going back Terence Crawford, but the British scene isn't getting bogged down with Joshua v Wladimir in the works.

[rossij8]

'Home Cooking' does my head in - not sure its always been the same??

[mullenman]

Massive boxing fan but ufc is better as they have stacked cards with 50-50 match ups. McGregor is more exciting than any boxer at present.

[coneye]

Got to agree with most of what been said already ,, Too much record padding and 80-20 fights , look Bellew and Haye . To much rubbish in general I myself after being involved one way or another since 10 years of age , can't be arsed any more have lost a lot of interest , I find myself just really looking at the bigger fights , I;ve become a casual .

I do like Hearn i think he's been pretty good for British boxing , he is trying to make the big fights , whilst keeping his stable winning ,and making money , very long tight rope to walk ,, but its a classic example of boxing changing when the promoter feels he needs a fan club

[dalcumly]

There is an answer to the problems boxing faces, but the solution would never be accepted due to the fact that the uncontrolled gravy train will come to an end for some.

Football has its problems with the corruption of senior officials being exposed over the last year, but the rules are established, and enforced equally on all. The best meet the best on a regular basis, and the fans are well aware of who the champions are. There is standardisation of training and qualifications of officials, with incompetence or bias resulting in banishment.
So - boxing's answer is the establishment of one world governing body with all countries signing up as affiliates. One agreed set of rules, and a recognised training system for officials. The only way to force out the WBC,WBA, WBO etc is by government legislation in all countries involved, and of course this is never going to happen.
However, this is basically, a 'British ' thread. Our own Board could make a significant start without government involvement. It could begin by deciding that the ONLY world body it would accept would be the WBC. Any fights in this country involving another organisation would not be sanctioned, meaning that no Board licensee could take part. The next step would be to invite a retired High Court judge to be the new Chairman, and demand that the Chairman has a position of influence on the WBC 'Board of Directors'. The WBC constitution would have to alter to allow full independent auditing of their accounts, and a movement of their Headquarters to the USA or Europe, from Mexico. The WBC ratings system could be monitored very closely with strict rules about defences by champions and how a boxer can enter the ratings.

[Counter-puncher]

The WBC constitution would have to alter to allow full independent auditing of their accounts, and a movement of their Headquarters to the USA or Europe, from Mexico. The WBC ratings system could be monitored very closely with strict rules about defences by champions and how a boxer can enter the ratings.

[mickey1975]

Massive boxing fan but ufc is better as they have stacked cards with 50-50 match ups. McGregor is more exciting than any boxer at present.

Is he? I thought his tactics were pretty negative last time out. Clever, but no different to a boxer sticking to a game plan for twelve rounds.

[coneye]

I find UFC good to watch on a screen , where you can see the intricate moves and relize what there doing , what hold there going for ect ect ,And that interest comes from a few years ago when i done some grappling with a very high ranked judo guy ,, He tied me up in knots and gave me a healthy respect for the sport .

But live it would be horrible to watch , unless they were striking

[Ketchel]

Massive boxing fan but ufc is better as they have stacked cards with 50-50 match ups. McGregor is more exciting than any boxer at present.

Is he? I thought his tactics were pretty negative last time out. Clever, but no different to a boxer sticking to a game plan for twelve rounds.

To be honest I felt that there appeared to be something wrong about that fight. That Diaz may have been told not to try and take the fight to the floor where he had won it in the first fight. McGregor is the main face of the UFC these days and brings a lot of dough and therefore had to get the win.

Sorry for being cynical, but it was how I felt watching it.

[whiskey]

We seem to be getting a lot of fights that fighter's are asking for , rather than what fans are asking for.

Nobody asked for Brook vs GGG and nobody is asking for Bellew vs Haye either.

[boxingknockout]

I'm 46 y.o. and I've been a boxing fan since my dad made me watch The Thrilla in Manila. I don't really watch any other sprorts and I still love the sport. Back in the 80's, if you wanted to watch Leonard-Hagler or Tyson Spinks, you had to wait until it was on ITV the next night, Fast forward to today and we have a channel showing boxing 24/7. I will never take that for granted. Yes, there isn't too much live boxing on there, but I'll never get sick of watching old ESPN footage. As far as the current British scene is concerned, it's in fantastic shape. We have guys in the top ten in nearly every division. Back in the day, that was never the case. As I don't watch other sports, apart from the odd footy match, SKY isn't great value, but I'm happy to pay and I take the PPV's on a case by case basis. I will say this.... IF YOU STREAM BOXN4TION, YOU ARE NOT SUPPORTING BOXING, YOU'RE CUTTING FIGHTERS PURSES AND ROBBING THEM OF A LIVING The more subscribers, the better it is for the boxers.

Tyson-Spinks was live as I remember? I had to sit through the sleep fest before it - Williams - Berbick I think