WISH TODAY'S BOXERS WOULD TAKE MORE RISKS

[Rfrazer33]

I grew up in a boxing home, my father was a former Olympian in 84 so I got my fair share of ppv fights in the 90's, And even old tapes from the 80's. Looking at boxing thru that time and looking at it now is truly disappointing. The talent is great in boxing right now, but between the negotiating and fighters wanting to build slow hype, we the fans are suffering. I understand the main prize in this sport is money but as a fighter if you feel you are truly the best, don't you want to make that statement by fighting against the very best. I just want to know how the boxing world feels, This is strictly my opinion and nothing more.

[tigermoth87]

I agree. It's why I respect Crolla who didn't fanny about with easy defences. Went for Barroso (exposed as overrated but coming off an impressive KO win over Mitchell so it was a good defence) and then Linares. I also give credit to McDonnell. Went to America to face Kameda twice, just defended against Solis.

Compare them to the likes of Flanagan who keeps defending against bottom feeders and Billy Joe Saunders.

[Enlightened-One]

WISH TODAY'S BOXERS WOULD TAKE MORE RISKS

Fighters are known as “PRIZE” fighters, not “PRIDE” fighters, because their priority is to provide for their family and themselves, whilst doing their upmost to protect their long-term career earning potential.

It takes a certain amount of blood, sweat, and tears for fighters to reach the very pinnacle of their sport and there are inevitably occasions where unpopular business decisions take priority over pleasing the fans’ short-term whims.

It’s easy to say someone should do something else when you’re on the outside looking in, but you may have made precisely the same business decisions as the fighter you criticise if you had been walking in their shoes at the time.

After all, it seems that casual boxing observers become easily outraged by their frustration about not seeing some of the biggest fights being made, the cost of PPV’s, the price of cable subscriptions, the size of paydays etc., whilst refusing to give a damn if their favourite fighters end up going broke during their retirement.

[world ranked]

I chalk it up to the promoters. I can't see MOST fighters telling there manager or promoter I don't want to fight someone. Boxing is too hard of sport to box and not want to challenge yourself. Promoters goal is too make the most money out of fighter and sometimes avoiding is a part maximizing potential earnings.

[In the know 85]

I'll sum it up for real quick and really easy! I love floyd mayweathers boxing ability! But the man has set a template for disaster in boxing! The amount of money he has made and the high regard he is held in not only because of his boxing ability but the fact he has never lost has set a trend of fighters thinking they need to stay unbeaten to earn big money and a loss is the end of their big money dreams and titles! Not everyone can be a mayweather, but they are all certainly trying! The fear of losing is now the biggest downfall of boxing today. A sad but true fact!

[Enlightened-One]

I'll sum it up for real quick and really easy! I love floyd mayweathers boxing ability! But the man has set a template for disaster in boxing! The amount of money he has made and the high regard he is held in not only because of his boxing ability but the fact he has never lost has set a trend of fighters thinking they need to stay unbeaten to earn big money and a loss is the end of their big money dreams and titles! Not everyone can be a mayweather, but they are all certainly trying! The fear of losing is now the biggest downfall of boxing today. A sad but true fact!

I have a theory... I reckon the loser of the Kovalev-Ward fight will not receive any admiration or praise for his fearless attitude, for daring to compete against the very best available opposition, but instead he'll be heavily criticised for being overly-hyped, past their prime, was never that good in the first place etc. and the size of their next payday (assuming they don't retire) will be diminished significantly as a result of their defeat.

If my prediction is accurate, the blame for this situation falls squarely on the shoulders of casual fight fans, not Floyd Mayweather Jr... and it'll justify the reason why many fighters prefer to decide the direction of their careers using business reasons instead of targeting sporting goals.

[world ranked]

I'll sum it up for real quick and really easy! I love floyd mayweathers boxing ability! But the man has set a template for disaster in boxing! The amount of money he has made and the high regard he is held in not only because of his boxing ability but the fact he has never lost has set a trend of fighters thinking they need to stay unbeaten to earn big money and a loss is the end of their big money dreams and titles! Not everyone can be a mayweather, but they are all certainly trying! The fear of losing is now the biggest downfall of boxing today. A sad but true fact!

I have a theory... I reckon the loser of the Kovalev-Ward fight will not receive any admiration or praise for his fearless attitude, for daring to compete against the very best available opposition, but instead he'll be heavily criticised for being overly-hyped, past their prime, was never that good in the first place etc. and the size of their next payday (assuming they don't retire) will be diminished significantly as a result of their defeat.

If my prediction is accurate, the blame for this situation falls squarely on the shoulders of casual fight fans, not Floyd Mayweather Jr... and it'll justify the reason why many fighters prefer to decide the direction of their careers using business reasons instead of targeting sporting goals.

Good Point, but it usually happens in every big fight in boxing. The loser was overrated.

[Evander]

It's complicated ... if I had my way I'd have mandatory unifications every two and a half years for starters.

[caldo2025]

Boxing is a copycat sport. All that it needs are some boxers leading by example and changing the climate in boxing. Brook is one of those boxers that decided his undefeated record means nothing unless he sets his mark in big fights against the best. Now he's rumored to want Spence Jr instead of passing up the mandatory. Brook got beaten up by GGG but I'd argue that his stock is higher than it was as a result. That's what you want to see. You want to reward people for nutting up and taking on these tough fights.

It will be interesting to see what shakes out for the loser of Kov/Ward this weekend. A lot has to do with HOW the loser loses but if it's a close and entertaining fight, my hope is that the loser will gain more fans and more people will want to see them fight again. That's what we need. Floyd put so much importance on his undefeated record that it became other boxers goals to behold even though if you made a list of top 10 boxers of all time, none of them would be undefeated. That attitude needs to change.

[Kalan]

I'll sum it up for real quick and really easy! I love floyd mayweathers boxing ability! But the man has set a template for disaster in boxing! The amount of money he has made and the high regard he is held in not only because of his boxing ability but the fact he has never lost has set a trend of fighters thinking they need to stay unbeaten to earn big money and a loss is the end of their big money dreams and titles! Not everyone can be a mayweather, but they are all certainly trying! The fear of losing is now the biggest downfall of boxing today. A sad but true fact!

I have a theory... I reckon the loser of the Kovalev-Ward fight will not receive any admiration or praise for his fearless attitude, for daring to compete against the very best available opposition, but instead he'll be heavily criticised for being overly-hyped, past their prime, was never that good in the first place etc. and the size of their next payday (assuming they don't retire) will be diminished significantly as a result of their defeat.

If my prediction is accurate, the blame for this situation falls squarely on the shoulders of casual fight fans, not Floyd Mayweather Jr... and it'll justify the reason why many fighters prefer to decide the direction of their careers using business reasons instead of targeting sporting goals.

I have a different and better theory... If neither get knocked out---and most likely they won't---Kovalev and Ward might fight 3 times... With each fight they will make much more money because their names will be bigger.. If the 1st fight is really good - and even if it's NOT so good they'll just get bigger.. Because they're a great and logical matchup whatever happens.. Pacquiao lost a lot of fights.. May-Pac was the biggest fight ever because they were the biggest names ever...NOT because of their records.. The De La Hoya-Mosley rematch was bigger.. The Ali-Frazier rematch and rubber matches were bigger.. Ali-Norton III was the biggest of the three.. Their names were bigger.. NOBODY cared about Ali-Norton 1.. Who TF was Norton???

Tex Rickard knew this principle.. Build the fighter's name.. When Dempsey lost to Tunney everyone was in mourning but Rickard... He said, "I want you to fight Jack Sharkey." .. Dempsey's miserable loss to Tunney didn't matter that much.. You couldn't get a ticket for Dempsey-Sharkey... Promoters nowadays have no damned imagination.. "Adviser" Al Haymon is the worst idiot out there.. Get Floyd out promoting and he might do a lot better because he understands raw publicity and public appeal.. Every time you fight a big fight -- win or lose -- you have a bigger name to sell.

You can't build fighters by having all the big name fighters fighting the no-name fighters instead of each other... There's no excitement when there's no risk... Everyone thinks Floyd was so big because he was undefeated.. WRONG!!! Was he an exciting fighter??? Not the most.. Who made more money in the Mayweather vs De La Hoya fight??? The fight was terrible but who cares??? They made more money than any other fighters to that point.. Was Dempsey-Tunney 1 a blockbuster thrill generator??? Hell NO.

[Enlightened-One]

Boxing is a copycat sport. All that it needs are some boxers leading by example and changing the climate in boxing. Brook is one of those boxers that decided his undefeated record means nothing unless he sets his mark in big fights against the best. Now he's rumored to want Spence Jr instead of passing up the mandatory. Brook got beaten up by GGG but I'd argue that his stock is higher than it was as a result. That's what you want to see. You want to reward people for nutting up and taking on these tough fights.

It will be interesting to see what shakes out for the loser of Kov/Ward this weekend. A lot has to do with HOW the loser loses but if it's a close and entertaining fight, my hope is that the loser will gain more fans and more people will want to see them fight again. That's what we need. Floyd put so much importance on his undefeated record that it became other boxers goals to behold even though if you made a list of top 10 boxers of all time, none of them would be undefeated. That attitude needs to change.

The real problem is the fickle nature of the fair-weather fans, who prematurely generate hideously-absurd hype trains and then quickly disembark when things go sour.

For example: up until last Saturday morning, ‘King Kong’ was granted an honorary rite of passage to being regarded as the best heavyweight fighter on earth, without actually having earned his stripes inside the ring, but following the Malik Scott debacle, people are now labelling him as an overrated hype job.

There doesn’t seem to be any middle ground with casual fight fans, as fighters are either boldly proclaimed to be totally awesome or they're utter garbage, where the objective truth of reality usually lies somewhere in between.

Like I said before, if the loser of the Kovalev or Ward bout receives a lot of criticism from fight fans, resulting in their subsequent paydays being diminished significantly, then it’ll go an awful long way to justify the reasons why many fighters treat the sport as a business, resulting in them being reluctant to risk defeat if it’ll inevitably reduce their future income.

[IKSRTFO]

WISH TODAY'S BOXERS WOULD TAKE MORE RISKS

Fighters are known as “PRIZE” fighters, not “PRIDE” fighters, because their priority is to provide for their family and themselves, whilst doing their upmost to protect their long-term career earning potential.

It takes a certain amount of blood, sweat, and tears for fighters to reach the very pinnacle of their sport and there are inevitably occasions where unpopular business decisions take priority over pleasing the fans’ short-term whims.

It’s easy to say someone should do something else when you’re on the outside looking in, but you may have made precisely the same business decisions as the fighter you criticise if you had been walking in their shoes at the time.

After all, it seems that casual boxing observers become easily outraged by their frustration about not seeing some of the biggest fights being made, the cost of PPV’s, the price of cable subscriptions, the size of paydays etc., whilst refusing to give a damn if their favourite fighters end up going broke during their retirement.

And that is precisely why MMA has been prevalent over boxing in the last five years.

[Enlightened-One]

WISH TODAY'S BOXERS WOULD TAKE MORE RISKS

Fighters are known as “PRIZE” fighters, not “PRIDE” fighters, because their priority is to provide for their family and themselves, whilst doing their upmost to protect their long-term career earning potential.

It takes a certain amount of blood, sweat, and tears for fighters to reach the very pinnacle of their sport and there are inevitably occasions where unpopular business decisions take priority over pleasing the fans’ short-term whims.

It’s easy to say someone should do something else when you’re on the outside looking in, but you may have made precisely the same business decisions as the fighter you criticise if you had been walking in their shoes at the time.

After all, it seems that casual boxing observers become easily outraged by their frustration about not seeing some of the biggest fights being made, the cost of PPV’s, the price of cable subscriptions, the size of paydays etc., whilst refusing to give a damn if their favourite fighters end up going broke during their retirement.

And that is precisely why MMA has been prevalent over boxing in the last five years.

From a global perspective, what you’ve just said is preposterous.

[Kalan]

There are TOO MANY undefeated Heavyweights: Ortiz, Joshua, Wilder, Parker, Ruiz, and Browne...

With Parker-Ruiz next month there'll be 1 less undefeated Heavyweight -- which is great news... I can remember times when there were 1 or 2 or NO undefeated Heavyweights, from the champions, to any of the top contenders from 1 to 10... That's good because it means all the top guys have fought dangerous opponents..

Last year I looked at the Welterweights.. Brook, Thurman, Spence, and Garcia were undefeated.. You think "Terrific, that's 6 potentially great matchups providing any of them get made -- and at least a couple GOTTA get made." ... Well over a year later none of them have been made.. And Pacquiao, Bradley, and Khan certainly aren't going to fight any of those young guys, so there's no interesting fights... The Thurman-Porter matchup was a great fight, and a tremendously competitive fight that I really enjoyed -- but it was like pulling teeth to get it done.. They both promised a rematch would be done, no problem, but nothing happened.. Are we going to get 1 great matchup every year in each division -- and 27 terrible dogs???