Is it just me or boxing pretty much dead and disappeared?

[HomicideHenry]

It's not dead, but I think enthusiasm for the sport among hardcore or lifelong fans is waning. When a guy like Jake Paul fights more often than world champions in competitive matches, it speaks to the sheer laziness and complacency and ego of "real boxers" who think they entitled to paydays Ray Leonard, Muhammad Ali, and Mike Tyson never saw even once in their lives.

[RScarf1]

Look at the TV schedule for the next three months (scroll down to the bottom of the page). There are 20 fights. Half of the fights are on DAZN or DAZN PPV (pay per view). If you want to see Canelo, then you have to pay for DAZN PPV. A few fights are on ESPN, but ESPN+ (streaming service) has Fulton vs. Inoue. Haney vs. Lomachenko is on ESPN+ PPV. Showtime has a few fights. It may seem as if boxing has disappeared, but that is because it is not on free TV anymore. It is like the old saying "out of sight, out of mind." I'm watching more bare knuckle boxing. They have PPV too, but the companies such as BKFC and BYB eventually show their fights on YouTube. https://box.live/us-boxing-tv-schedule/

[lenny.boxing]

to some extend, the even the big matches that are build as 50/50 fights are in most cases complete missmaches. Kambosos Haney 1+2, Garcia Davis, Zurdo Bivol.
That is the issue in my opinion, you dont go to tell television with your heartrate up because you know that you favorite fighter could get knocked out, i just get a litte exitement when the underdog doesnt get beaten to a pulp.
Boxing killed itself unfortunately, because the undisputed fights almost never happen, Fury Usyk, Spence Crawford, Tank Haney, Bivol Beterbiev and so on.
Youtube boxing does what boxing doesnt, youtuber A has beef with youtuber B they go to the ring and Fight.
Boxer A has 2 major titles and beef with boxer B who also holds 2 titles, however there is big talk fight announcments social media chit chat, just for the fight to never materialize and Boxer A and B fighting their mandatory challengers who are mostly bums or fighters not made for world level.

[jamesmcdonnell]

I am interested less and less in boxing these days, very occasionally there's an exciting fight at top level, most of the time, there's more talk than fighting, and top names generally only fight one another when they are already past their primes.

It's kind of over I think, there are really only a handful of fighters who are household names now even in their respective countries.

[gilgamesh]

I am interested less and less in boxing these days, very occasionally there's an exciting fight at top level, most of the time, there's more talk than fighting, and top names generally only fight one another when they are already past their primes.

It's kind of over I think, there are really only a handful of fighters who are household names now even in their respective countries.

Tank, Canelo, Fury and Wilder get attention in the U.S.

Nobody else is a star on that level here.

I would imagine some guys are bigger in their respective country. Like Inoue is like a much bigger star in Japan, but only Hardcores know of him here.

[Lenny Cravats]

It's changed into a money-spinning sideshow of a sport. Top level fights consistently don't happen because the top lads demand too much money to face each other.

I've always found the reporting of purses to be somewhat distasteful anyway, but purses for the big lads seem to take up as column inches than the weekly round-up of the small hall shows.

Lack of interest in local boxing, the impossibility of following fighters unless you're gonna fork out £100's a month on subscription fees...
The celebrity fights are showing boxing for what it has become. It isn't a sport, it's an activity and a financial.opportunoty.

[jamesmcdonnell]

I am interested less and less in boxing these days, very occasionally there's an exciting fight at top level, most of the time, there's more talk than fighting, and top names generally only fight one another when they are already past their primes.

It's kind of over I think, there are really only a handful of fighters who are household names now even in their respective countries.

Tank, Canelo, Fury and Wilder get attention in the U.S.

Nobody else is a star on that level here.

I would imagine some guys are bigger in their respective country. Like Inoue is like a much bigger star in Japan, but only Hardcores know of him here.

I'd imagine Lomachenko is a big deal in Ukraine and a few bordering countries.

I'm not sure Wilder is that big a deal in the US, I never got the impression he was very popular.

[gilgamesh]

I am interested less and less in boxing these days, very occasionally there's an exciting fight at top level, most of the time, there's more talk than fighting, and top names generally only fight one another when they are already past their primes.

It's kind of over I think, there are really only a handful of fighters who are household names now even in their respective countries.

Tank, Canelo, Fury and Wilder get attention in the U.S.

Nobody else is a star on that level here.

I would imagine some guys are bigger in their respective country. Like Inoue is like a much bigger star in Japan, but only Hardcores know of him here.

I'd imagine Lomachenko is a big deal in Ukraine and a few bordering countries.

I'm not sure Wilder is that big a deal in the US, I never got the impression he was very popular.

Yeah honestly when Fury vs Wilder happened, and I'd mention it to people most of them weren't familiar with him.

[dempseyfire]

Man, I missed the Garcia/Tank fight. It's a big fight, but let's not act like it's on the level of Kovalev/Ward or Garcia/Matthysse. Fighters just aren't brought up well anymore, and cards are just stacked with terrible fights of some guy that is 20-0 and fights some 30-10 nobody. I'm getting sick of boxing, and I used to watch it all the time. Even watched the odd British, Russian, and Polish cards.

The obsession with undefeated records and proliferation of titles has been a huge negative on the sport. Promoters are incentivized to go the Andrade route and just milk an undefeated "champion" for as long as they can without putting forth any risk. It significantly retards fighters' progress in skills. Sparring isn't a substitute for the real thing.

I was just thinking back to the aughts and how superior that era was. People continually crapped on the HW division with the Klitschko-Byrd-Ruiz merry go-round but below that the big fights got made. You had Tarver/Johnson/RJJ/Dawson all fighting each other at Light HW, the first Super 6 tourny at super middle, Wright/Hopkins/Taylor/Pavlik and later Martinez/P. Williams all fighting each other at 154-160. In the lower weight classes you had the golden era of featherweights who all moved up in weight over the years fighting all comers (Pacquao, Morales, Marquez, Barrera). Just that group alone was such a treasure to see fighting live, I'm sad kids today have no comparable suite of fighters actually fighting each other. Below that you had the Vasquez-Marquez trilogy . . .

Now the depth in even the lower divisions is sad and the top guys rarely fight each other.

[pound per pound]

It’s awful. I barely care about any fighters any more

The fighters need to want to fight. A real problem in a sport like boxing. Boxing needs to do a " super six " at heavyweight, light heavy weight, and middle weight. That ought to do it. The winner here will be the real champion.

[margaret thatcher]

they were regularly holding russian mega cards a few years back, when ryabinsky was in the game, those were cool

[Theoson]

As someone who was a teenager in the 1980s boxing - in fact much of the present world - is alien to me. I won't descend in to a reactionary nostalgia fest by mentioning favourite fights that were all broadcast on a Saturday or a midweek slot but I think the rot really set in during the 1990s when we had the ridiculous situation where different title belts in the WBA/WBC/IBF became four with the creation of the WBO which British promoters fell over themselves to promote hence you got all British world title fights on network TV that left you asking "Is it really a world title fight" especially when ridiculous records were set .Examples you ask ? Jim Watt set a British record of 4 successful world title defences. A decade and a half later Chris Eubank made something like 18 defences mainly against names who weren't household names in their own household .And things have got worse then .I doubt if anything will improve in my lifetime simply down to promoters caring more about money than anything.

I do wonder if the Saudis might be the unlikely saviours of boxing in that they're poaching more and more legends from many different sports and on day they'll being out their own version of the world title and say they won't recognise any other versions thereby slowly strangling the other governing bodies who title will become less attractive for promters and boxers

[Redback Rasta]

Boxing's popularity waxes and wanes but it will be around long after we are all gone.

[Redback Rasta]

Boxing just peaks and troughs depending what fights are happening at the time. It aint dying in our lifetimes. Not in our grand childrens' lifetime either.

[Jeff_lacy_ko]

Its dead

I was a diehard. Watched every shobox, fnf, in addition to the ppv and hbo/showtime shows

Now i watch a couple fights a year

Al haymon killed boxing. Lets be honest

Yesterday (August 16) I was offered Al Haymon's phone number and said no.

I was offered a diet coke yesterday and said no. None of that commie diet crap for me.

So we both had interesting days

[RScarf1]

Women's boxing is not dead. The women don't seem to care as much about having undefeated records. Unification fights continue to happen. The best have to fight the best in order to make good money in women's boxing. In men's boxing, the world champions can still make good money even if they don't fight the best in their division. There are not enough rivalries in men's boxing. If the major sanctioning bodies had unification tournaments for an undisputed champion in all the weight classes, that would help increase the interest. The other issue is that boxing is not on free TV anymore. It is on streaming services and pay-per-view. For the rest of the year, only two fights are on ESPN. The rest are on ESPN+, Showtime PPV, DAZN, and DAZN PPV. If you don't want to pay to watch, you can still watch some fights for free on YouTube eventually, although it may be several months later. DAZN has the full fight of Amanda Serrano vs. Katie Taylor on its YouTube channel.

[Finkel]

Its dead

I was a diehard. Watched every shobox, fnf, in addition to the ppv and hbo/showtime shows

Now i watch a couple fights a year

Al haymon killed boxing. Lets be honest

Yesterday (August 16) I was offered Al Haymon's phone number and said no.

I was offered a diet coke yesterday and said no. None of that commie diet crap for me.

So we both had interesting days

I would say Al Hayon + WBC president Sulaiman are killing boxing

Sulaiman became president in 2014. Since then he has been doing his best to undermine the sport. Let's put to one side his pet projects: Bridgerweight division and Franchise Champions, and let's focus on his the heavyweights.(the marquee division)

• 2014 WBC stop undisputed between W. Klitschko & Stiverne. Ordering Stiverne to fight Wilder or be stripped. No voluntaries after winning the belt.
  
  Wilder fights two mandatories in 5 years, with the WBC refusing to match him with Dillian Whyte for 4 of those years.
  
  During this time PBC, the Barclays Center and the WBC board are all sharing executives/advisors...
  
  Following the Wilder v Fury 1 robbery, Sulaiman takes Wilder (Divorced) to meet the Pope, leaving Fury (devout Catholic) at home.
  
  Did you see Sulaimans face when Fury beat the brakes off Wilder in fight 2
  
  Final eliminator has just been cancelled from the tournament that involved Wilder #1 v Helenius #10, and Ruiz #5 v Ortiz #9. All PBC fighters.
  
  And to top it off, next up is Fury (WBC champion) fighting in a clown show.

TIME TO GO BACK TO A THREE BELT ERA

[RScarf1]

TIME TO GO BACK TO A THREE BELT ERA

The WBC is not going away and the IBO is a quasi-major sanctioning body. The "big 4" should strive for unification in all of the weight classes and fair/impartial judges.

[Redback Rasta]

Yesterday (August 16) I was offered Al Haymon's phone number and said no.

I was offered a diet coke yesterday and said no. None of that commie diet crap for me.

So we both had interesting days

I would say Al Hayon + WBC president Sulaiman are killing boxing

Sulaiman became president in 2014. Since then he has been doing his best to undermine the sport. Let's put to one side his pet projects: Bridgerweight division and Franchise Champions, and let's focus on his the heavyweights.(the marquee division)

• 2014 WBC stop undisputed between W. Klitschko & Stiverne. Ordering Stiverne to fight Wilder or be stripped. No voluntaries after winning the belt.
  
  Wilder fights two mandatories in 5 years, with the WBC refusing to match him with Dillian Whyte for 4 of those years.
  
  During this time PBC, the Barclays Center and the WBC board are all sharing executives/advisors...
  
  Following the Wilder v Fury 1 robbery, Sulaiman takes Wilder (Divorced) to meet the Pope, leaving Fury (devout Catholic) at home. :lol:
  
  Did you see Sulaimans face when Fury beat the brakes off Wilder in fight 2 :lol:
  
  Final eliminator has just been cancelled from the tournament that involved Wilder #1 v Helenius #10, and Ruiz #5 v Ortiz #9. All PBC fighters.
  
  And to top it off, next up is Fury (WBC champion) fighting in a clown show.

TIME TO GO BACK TO A THREE BELT ERA

It is time to do many things for the betterment of boxing but most of them involve someone losing their slice of the $$$ action and that's why they won't happen.

[Finkel]

I would say Al Hayon + WBC president Sulaiman are killing boxing

Sulaiman became president in 2014. Since then he has been doing his best to undermine the sport. Let's put to one side his pet projects: Bridgerweight division and Franchise Champions, and let's focus on his the heavyweights.(the marquee division)

• 2014 WBC stop undisputed between W. Klitschko & Stiverne. Ordering Stiverne to fight Wilder or be stripped. No voluntaries after winning the belt.
  
  Wilder fights two mandatories in 5 years, with the WBC refusing to match him with Dillian Whyte for 4 of those years.
  
  During this time PBC, the Barclays Center and the WBC board are all sharing executives/advisors...
  
  Following the Wilder v Fury 1 robbery, Sulaiman takes Wilder (Divorced) to meet the Pope, leaving Fury (devout Catholic) at home.
  
  Did you see Sulaimans face when Fury beat the brakes off Wilder in fight 2
  
  Final eliminator has just been cancelled from the tournament that involved Wilder #1 v Helenius #10, and Ruiz #5 v Ortiz #9. All PBC fighters.
  
  And to top it off, next up is Fury (WBC champion) fighting in a clown show.

TIME TO GO BACK TO A THREE BELT ERA

It is time to do many things for the betterment of boxing but most of them involve someone losing their slice of the $$$ action and that's why they won't happen.

You are exactly right, which unfortunately is why as the thread title states "boxing [is] pretty much dead"

TIME TO GO BACK TO A THREE BELT ERA

The WBC is not going away and the IBO is a quasi-major sanctioning body. The "big 4" should strive for unification in all of the weight classes and fair/impartial judges.

Unfortunately, that is just as much of a pipe dream as my own.

For instance, the WBC heavyweight title has not been unified since 2002, and after 20 years perhaps it's fair to say "by design"

As for fair/impartial judges, the WBC again take the piss (or at least allow USA commissions and promoters to do so):
Teofimo Lopez (New York, USA, now resident of Las Vegas, Nevada)
Vs.
Vasyl Lomochenko (Ukraine, now resident of Oxnard, California)
Location: MGM, Las Vegas, USA
Ref: Russel Mora (Las Vegas, USA)
Judge: Tim Cheatham (Nevada, USA)
Judge: Steve Weisfeld (New Jersey*, USA)
Judge: Julie Ledermann (New York, USA)

Julie Ledermann, resident of New York turned in a horrific card in Las Vegas, in favour of New Yorker Teofimo Lopez now resident of Las Vegas.

Sometimes it's best to just cut the cancer out: the WBC is that cancer

*Neighbouring state - in other sports, like Premier League football this would not be permissible

[Redback Rasta]

The WBC aren't going anywhere and the problems are not confined to them.

[Finkel]

Sure, but they are easily the worst of a bad bunch. The others can be criticized for various things, but the WBC has gone out their way to tick all the boxes, and then throw in some extra ones for good measure, like the Bridgerweight division and putting their name to sideshows like Jake Paul versus Tommy Fury. They are dragging the sport through the gutter, and as you said above, it's all about $$$. So it is what it is. With WBC being defended for having the green belt and seen as the de facto main org by some, this sport is terminal if not already dead.

[SendoTakeshi97]

Nobody can tell me the WBA isn't atleast as bad as the WBC.
How can you get knocked out and still get a title shot in the weight-class above, even though you never fought their? *Cough* Rolly *Cough*

Other then that having two championship belts for one org and even trying to make more "major" ones (Gold) is beyond bullshit.

[Finkel]

Nobody can tell me the WBA isn't atleast as bad as the WBC.
How can you get knocked out and still get a title shot in the weight-class above, even though you never fought their? *Cough* Rolly *Cough*

Other then that having two championship belts for one org and even trying to make more "major" ones (Gold) is beyond bullshit.

Yes, I refuse to pay for another PBC PPV event after seeing that Rolly fight.

However, Rolly's shot at the WBA title, is not so different from the WBC making Stiverne mandatory to Wilder after (1) getting knocked out by Wilder, (2) getting knocked down by Derrick Rossy, (3) getting popped for PEDs, (4) having serious health issues, and (5) being inactive for two years!

Also, the WBC create more belts than anyone. The WBC Franchise Championship belt was just their attempt at introducing the equivalent of the WBA super title.

Don't get me wrong, the WBA is also a shit show. But don't worry, the WBC have you covered!

[SendoTakeshi97]

True.
Losing to Inoue also seems like a good way to get a WBC title shot.
Both times Donaire lost to him he got a title shot Immediately after.

I don't know why noboy else try to get knocked out by Inoue for a final title eliminator. Are they stupid?