why did fights stop becoming so global

[margaret thatcher]

you used to have big name world champs fight in locations all over the world, stuff like ali fighting foreman and frazer in kinshasa and manila, tyson in japan etc,,...and obviously before this, even in the days that travel wasnt so easy!

did the site fees in the usa simply get so big as to end all that? loss of worldwide popularity of the sport?

though we do see perhaps a resurgence, with saudia arabia getting joshua - ruiz and bandied as the frontrunner for aj-fury

[Jeff_lacy_ko]

Those dictator regimes threw out huge sums of cash to legitimize their crimes

[Jeff_lacy_ko]

In manilla and zaire

[Ambling Alp II]

Gambling was a big factor. Las Vegas and Atlantic City started getting many of the big fights. As the sport declined in popularity, it became harder and harder to have fights in many areas.

[Onetimeonly]

Site fees and HBO.

[p4p1]

you used to have big name world champs fight in locations all over the world, stuff like ali fighting foreman and frazer in kinshasa and manila, tyson in japan etc,,...and obviously before this, even in the days that travel wasnt so easy!

did the site fees in the usa simply get so big as to end all that? loss of worldwide popularity of the sport?

though we do see perhaps a resurgence, with saudia arabia getting joshua - ruiz and bandied as the frontrunner for aj-fury

To add to what others have said.
Tyson v Douglas only happened in Japan because at the time there wasn’t a lot of interest in it. It was expected to be a quick blowout against a ‘known quitter’ so the offer from Japan must’ve been better.

Saudi Arabia has oil money, they can get whatever they want. It’s all about where the money is.

[AntonioMartin]

Boxing is still pretty much a very international sport...

But Las Vegas and formerly, Atlantic City and New York, took a big chunk of the major fights...in LV and AC, its because of the gambling going on....(for a while Reno was up there too, in the 80s)

But yeah it seems like the days of truly international fights (say, Ali and Frazier, two Americans in the Philippines, Ali and Foreman, two Americans in Zaire, or even better yet, Arguello and Navarrete, a Nicaraguan and a Filipino in Puerto Rico and Duran and Ortiz, a Panamanian and a Mexican also in Puerto Rico) are gone forever...

[JC]

you used to have big name world champs fight in locations all over the world, stuff like ali fighting foreman and frazer in kinshasa and manila, tyson in japan etc,,...and obviously before this, even in the days that travel wasnt so easy!

did the site fees in the usa simply get so big as to end all that? loss of worldwide popularity of the sport?

though we do see perhaps a resurgence, with saudia arabia getting joshua - ruiz and bandied as the frontrunner for aj-fury

To add to what others have said.
Tyson v Douglas only happened in Japan because at the time there wasn’t a lot of interest in it. It was expected to be a quick blowout against a ‘known quitter’ so the offer from Japan must’ve been better.

Was that why Lewis Rahman ended up in South Africa too?

[Ambling Alp II]

Way back, in the United States there used to be good fights in places San Francisco, Los Angeles, St. Louis, Chicago, Detroit, Boston, Philadelphia, and of course New York. Generally speaking, fights simply would not draw in places like that today.

[Bodyshot3]

It feels like a tricky one and it is hard to give a precise answer.

You certainly ain't getting a massive era-defining fight like Foreman-Ali fight in exotic Kinshasa any time soon or even a lesser contest like Ali-Bugner in Kuala Lumpur or Fury and Wilder taking their show on the road and going at it again in somewhere like Tokyo, Manila or Johannesburg.

But at the same time boxing definitely does look more global.

Germay used to be a backwater - but has hosted countless, football stadium fights for the last twenty years - and there have also been huge shows in places like Denmark, Monaco, Canada, Russia and Switzerland.

Carl Froch fought Abraham in Helsinki of all places in 2010 - neither of them were locals and Finland was hardly a boxing hotbed - and Haye versus Wlad was in Hamburg with Vegas, Atlantic City and the MSG not in the running.

Boxing has probably become more global - with European football stadium fights becoming key and assuredly rivalling Vegas - but at the same time the huge fights never go completely off-piste like they once did when they ended-up in places like Kingston, Kinshasa or The Bahamas.

[p4p1]

you used to have big name world champs fight in locations all over the world, stuff like ali fighting foreman and frazer in kinshasa and manila, tyson in japan etc,,...and obviously before this, even in the days that travel wasnt so easy!

did the site fees in the usa simply get so big as to end all that? loss of worldwide popularity of the sport?

though we do see perhaps a resurgence, with saudia arabia getting joshua - ruiz and bandied as the frontrunner for aj-fury

To add to what others have said.
Tyson v Douglas only happened in Japan because at the time there wasn’t a lot of interest in it. It was expected to be a quick blowout against a ‘known quitter’ so the offer from Japan must’ve been better.

Was that why Lewis Rahman ended up in South Africa too?

I would say so, there is a doco somewhere, I think it's mostly about the IBF corruption but IIRC it does mention that. It's when Rock ends up with King.