Separating The Serious From The Casual.

[Taansend]

Often on here I've been called a "casual" by a "serious boxing fan" because I'm not irate about a boxing match up.

So how do you get into the exclusive "Serious Boxing Fan" Club?

I've been watching boxing for over 40 years, boxed (badly) myself at the Samuel Montague in Kidbrooke, been to dozens of amateur contests and travelled all over the UK following fighters like Duke McKenzie on bouts in leisure centres, as well as going to plenty of Benn & Eubank bouts (I think I first saw Benn on the undercard of a Terry Marsh bill). I even went to plenty of Kirkland Laing bouts including a crazy one in Brixton with an MC saying things like "Boo-ya" when a punch landed

I went to New York to visit Madison Square Garden, Boston so I could walk the same streets as John L Sullivan (& scour local 2nd hand book shops for old boxing volumes), went to Lennox Lewis's 1st pro bout in 1989 & was in L.A. for his last one in 2003. I even went to Galveston, Texas to see if there was a statue or memorial to the great Jack Johnson. There wasn't. There's a street named after him in a ghetto part of town though. I didn't dwell.

So despite all this how do I get into this clique full of "serious boxing fans". Do I need to be more cynical?

[Stuffs]

To be hardcore, on Twitter at least, it's pretty easy. All you have to do is:

i) Profess regularly how much knowledge you have.
ii) Never go to fights
iii) Only ever talk about what's on Sky or Allegedly
iv) Hate every British fighter

[Counter-puncher]

I'm loving the thought of the mc shouting 'boo-ya' at the Laing fight

[smiling assassin]

I think if your on this forum then your more than a casual surely. Casuals only care about big name fighters who are generally only on sky or big in America. Me cousin has got a slight interest in boxing and he had never heard of Lomachenko which I found a bit strange as he knows a bit more than the general "AJ would spark Ali in a round" fans

[freddydoesdallas]

Do you 'the secret'?

[Andrew]

If you watch Russian cards on stream ( Ryabinskys Povetkin v Wach card a year ago was so fvcking good) or watch fights from Japan.

Or know your history really well.

Name every current world champion.

Along those lines I reckon.

[Taansend]

I'm loving the thought of the mc shouting 'boo-ya' at the Laing fight

It was this http://boxrec.com/show/37689

Very weird night. Got well stoned though

[Boxerbeetle]

If you watch Russian cards on stream ( Ryabinskys Povetkin v Wach card a year ago was so fvcking good) or watch fights from Japan.

Or know your history really well.

Name every current world champion.

Along those lines I reckon.

Name every current world champion? That's not hardcore, that's fvcking insanity

[Taansend]

Name every current world champion.

I'm not f*cking Rainman

[Andrew]

If you watch Russian cards on stream ( Ryabinskys Povetkin v Wach card a year ago was so fvcking good) or watch fights from Japan.

Or know your history really well.

Name every current world champion.

Along those lines I reckon.

Name every current world champion? That's not hardcore, that's fvcking insanity

Naming every WBA world champion is insanity.

[banjo]

I don't even think the WBA could name every titlist they have.

[dalcumly]

You don't need to have been a boxer, but you need to have some general idea of how quick punches are thrown and avoided, and how hard a professional boxer , at any weight, can punch. Basically you have to appreciate the skill involved, and the levels of fitness required.
Having this knowledge would then naturally cause you to have a look at boxers from the present and past , and consider how you would rate them in terms of their ability.
When attending a 'live' professional boxing show you should be able to identify the 'survivor' and the local ticket seller, and realise that the local lad is utterly hopeless, but he needs to keep winning so that future promotions don't lose money. Sorry, is that cynical?
Once you've got over that hurdle then you'll appreciate that Willie Warburton, Kevin McAuley, Matt Seawright, and Kristian Laight are the 'real' stars of professional boxing and yet they never win. When you can understand why these guys can fight every week and never get knocked out or severely battered, then you are a 'real ' hardcore boxing fan.
Welcome to the club.

[Tarkus]

If you think Haye/Bellew is a fight you are a casual.

[Taansend]

If you think Haye/Bellew is a fight you are a casual.

And so speaks the "Serious Boxing Fan"

[banjo]

Casual fans are football fans, a football fan can never be a serious boxing fan apparently.

Oh and all other sports are inferior to boxing and it must be made known by the serious boxing fan that no other sport can be as brutal or as dangerous to your health as boxing even though I can think of several which are way more perilous, one of which literally happens at the end of my driveway every year.

Casuals only go to big arena/stadium shows, to be a 'serious' boxing fan you have to have been to York Hall to watch a 4 rounder between a couple of unknowns.

Casuals drink, serious don't.

Casuals buy PPV, serious fans get angry at PPV, call Fast Eddie a womans front bottom, slag Sky off with references to Murdoch being evil and end up buying it anyway.

[Andrew]

You don't need to have been a boxer, but you need to have some general idea of how quick punches are thrown and avoided, and how hard a professional boxer , at any weight, can punch. Basically you have to appreciate the skill involved, and the levels of fitness required.
Having this knowledge would then naturally cause you to have a look at boxers from the present and past , and consider how you would rate them in terms of their ability.
When attending a 'live' professional boxing show you should be able to identify the 'survivor' and the local ticket seller, and realise that the local lad is utterly hopeless, but he needs to keep winning so that future promotions don't lose money. Sorry, is that cynical?
Once you've got over that hurdle then you'll appreciate that Willie Warburton, Kevin McAuley, Matt Seawright, and Kristian Laight are the 'real' stars of professional boxing and yet they never win. When you can understand why these guys can fight every week and never get knocked out or severely battered, then you are a 'real ' hardcore boxing fan.
Welcome to the club.

No that's not cynical at all that's a good post.

[magwitch]

Casuals buy PPV, serious fans get angry at PPV, call Fast Eddie a womans front bottom, slag Sky off with references to Murdoch being evil and end up buying it anyway.

[milpool]

Is it possible to be a serious casual?!

[boxingknockout]

I think there are four types of boxing fan:

1. I know nothing about boxing really but will watch a big fight that has been talked about for example Joshua vs say Klitschko

2. Oh I love boxing! Who would win between Amir Khan and Joshua?

3. That Joshua is a ledge! He's knocked out everyone he's ever fought! I'm definitely gonna get tickets to his next fight!

4. Joshua is overrated, stiff, hasn't been hit yet, reminds me of Bruno, I hate the hype, Eddie Hearn is ruining boxing, there are no good fights anymore, Joshua isn't fit to lace Larry Holmes's jockstrap, Sky are sh1t, I long for the old days of ITV big fights, boxing ain't what it used to be, Joshua is just a media creation, he didn't even deserve to win the gold medal, boxing is sh1t, I hate boxing..... oh hang on I just bought the Joshua-Molina PPV...... just so I can whinge on a forum about how sh1t it was blah blah

[Ricky_]

Just score every Floyd fight 117-111 and wax lyrical about how his holding/crabbing/fouling/running/pot-shotting is actually the holy grail of pugulistic greatness. That should propell your arse well into the ranks of boxing snobbery i find.

[Tarkus]

I think there are four types of boxing fan:

1. I know nothing about boxing really but will watch a big fight that has been talked about for example Joshua vs say Klitschko

2. Oh I love boxing! Who would win between Amir Khan and Joshua?

3. That Joshua is a ledge! He's knocked out everyone he's ever fought! I'm definitely gonna get tickets to his next fight!

4. Joshua is overrated, stiff, hasn't been hit yet, reminds me of Bruno, I hate the hype, Eddie Hearn is ruining boxing, there are no good fights anymore, Joshua isn't fit to lace Larry Holmes's jockstrap, Sky are sh1t, I long for the old days of ITV big fights, boxing ain't what it used to be, Joshua is just a media creation, he didn't even deserve to win the gold medal, boxing is sh1t, I hate boxing..... oh hang on I just bought the Joshua-Molina PPV...... just so I can whinge on a forum about how sh1t it was blah blah

Accurate.
1. Normal human being. 2. Casual. 3. Serious. 4. Hardcore

[Taansend]

Just score every Floyd fight 117-111 and wax lyrical about how his holding/crabbing/fouling/running/pot-shotting is actually the holy grail of pugulistic greatness. That should propell your arse well into the ranks of boxing snobbery i find.

Spot on

[kbackup408]

Every hardcore starts a casual you don't randomly wake up and become a hardcore fan of boxing. That being said the public now days are paying for the most ridiculous match ups the March bout between Haye and Bellew frustrates me beyond belief !

[Taansend]

Every hardcore starts a casual you don't randomly wake up and become a hardcore fan of boxing. That being said the public now days are paying for the most ridiculous match ups the March bout between Haye and Bellew frustrates me beyond belief !

Boxing has always been this way.

Did George Carpentier seriously have a chance against Jack Dempsey? He'd fought as light as flyweight

I have mates who are still p!ssed off because they went to bed rather than stay up with us to watch Tyson Douglas.

Mismatches & upsets happen in boxing. It's all part of the fabric of the sport.

We can all say how great Joe Louis & Ali were but both their reigns were full of blokes who had no chance of winning. There was no way a 7 fight novice like Spinks is going to beat Ali.

I can understand the frustration of these type of fights in the PPV days but there is an option

[samwbr]

Dislike everything