BoxRec

Canelo is the king of boxing now and he's definitely the most popular boxer in the world even with the ducking situation. He's the king of the box office whether you like him or not. No one in boxing even close to the money the kid is now generating. He was able to outsell Manny's ticket sales in Dallas's AT&T stadium a couple weeks ago and he was fighting against an absolute nobody.

Canelo is the new Floyd so we better get used to it. And, a Canelo vs. GGG fight will be the highest grossing fight since Manny/Floyd by far. A fight that may even approach the same neighborhood in terms of revenue to the Floyd Manny fight or slap fight. Because there's no chance Canelo/GGG is a dud. Not a chance.

When I was child, Ali was No 1, without any doubts. After him, Tyson was notorious, and well known (7-77). Lewis and Holyfield were behind him. Just now, I think that Wladimir Klitschko is the most recognizable, because of his career and fact that Vitali is his sibling. I am writing about my personal experience, considering my friends, colleagues and relatives. I have been living in Balkan, and I am sure that majority of my friends has no idea who Golovkin is, or Ward, or Canelo. They had heard about Mayweather, but noone could recognize him on the street. So, I think that Wlad is most popular in my part of the world, Maybe, I had better tell : the most recognizable one.

Probably Ali or Tyson ... ... (still) ... (because boxing gets such little press that most people don't know that one is dead and the other hasn't fought in decades) ...

SaadOffTheDeck wrote:Zou shiming.

I think Saad is likely correct. Zou Shiming is very popular in a nation of approximately 1.4 billion people where boxing has just begun to develop. Zou has likely fought live in front of more people than any current boxer just by being televised in China.

Reminds me of a long deceased friend who played in a popular local rock band. He traveled to China in the early 90's and while there was asked to play "small concert" in Beijing. He played solo, unplugged before a live audience of 10s of thousands.

More importantly, it was carried live to the major urban cities of China. According to Rick, the authorities claimed that well over 200,000,000 people saw him live. That did not take into account those who saw it tape delayed / recorded.

Needless to say, that day Rick played live in front of more people than most recording stars do in their lifetimes.

RIP Rick (one of the most kind and gentle human beings I have had the honor to know)

GGG and Canelo both treat opponents with respect. No tras talk. I like that

Tanzio wrote:

SaadOffTheDeck wrote:Zou shiming.

I think Saad is likely correct. Zou Shiming is very popular in a nation of approximately 1.4 billion people where boxing has just begun to develop. Zou has likely fought live in front of more people than any current boxer just by being televised in China.

Reminds me of a long deceased friend who played in a popular local rock band. He traveled to China in the early 90's and while there was asked to play "small concert" in Beijing. He played solo, unplugged before a live audience of 10s of thousands.

More importantly, it was carried live to the major urban cities of China. According to Rick, the authorities claimed that well over 200,000,000 people saw him live. That did not take into account those who saw it tape delayed / recorded.

Needless to say, that day Rick played live in front of more people than most recording stars do in their lifetimes.

RIP Rick (one of the most kind and gentle human beings I have had the honor to know)

Along similar lines you've got to say Vijender Singh also.
Biggest boxer in India by miles and gets watched on star sports there by millions and millions.

He isn't watched anywhere else, zou is.

SaadOffTheDeck wrote:Zou shiming.

You are obviously assuming that he is immensely popular in China. But if he were as popular as you assume, he would be getting at least $15 million to fight mismatched opponents and over $25 million to fight evenly matched opponents. Not to mention that he wouldn't be fighting in America at all if he had opportunities like that in China. I'm pretty confident that he hasn't collected any purses in excess of $1 million.

Uhm ... who? ...

http://boxrec.com/boxer/640437

Depends how you are judging it.

The term Worldwide should surely discount any fighter that's getting all his fans from one country? Maybe one voted the most popular in each country gets one vote?

I guess most popular means including "casual fans" , most of whom will never have heard of Gonzales!

I'd say Pacquiao due to name and past or GGG as he's flavour of the month.

Since boxing is no longer a mainstream sport, I would assume that the only boxer that non-boxing fans have heard of is Pacquiao. Therefore, he is probably the "most popular" simply because more people have heard of him.

SaadOffTheDeck wrote:He isn't watched anywhere else, zou is.

I wouldn't call Zou popular outside China.

He absolutely stunk the place out in a US undercard a couple of months ago with a handful of people in the crowd.

My mother has never been a boxing fan, neither my father. But, they knew who Ali, Frazier and Foreman were. The same thing could have been told about Tyson. My mother is still alive (thanks God) and he can recognize Klitscko brothers. When I said world-wide, I have meant about common people, not only boxing fans (hard-core and casual), and not only in one country or continent.

Sequitorian wrote:Uhm ... who? ...

http://boxrec.com/boxer/640437

... so is it Zou Shiming or Shiming Zou? ...

... ... ...

ValMar wrote:My mother has never been a boxing fan, neither my father. But, they knew who Ali, Frazier and Foreman were. The same thing could have been told about Tyson. My mother is still alive (thanks God) and he can recognize Klitscko brothers. When I said world-wide, I have meant about common people, not only boxing fans (hard-core and casual), and not only in one country or continent.

Times are different now & it's unlikely that casual folk would have heard about many of the top fighters today.

The last guy to transcend boxing worldwide like that was Mike Tyson.

Even now, I hear people who know nothing about boxing saying things like, "I feel like I've been 10 rounds with Mike Tyson".

I can't think of a fighter since who has transcended the sport & had an appeal to non fight fans.

Syntax Error wrote:

ValMar wrote:My mother has never been a boxing fan, neither my father. But, they knew who Ali, Frazier and Foreman were. The same thing could have been told about Tyson. My mother is still alive (thanks God) and he can recognize Klitscko brothers. When I said world-wide, I have meant about common people, not only boxing fans (hard-core and casual), and not only in one country or continent.

Times are different now & it's unlikely that casual folk would have heard about many of the top fighters today.

The last guy to transcend boxing worldwide like that was Mike Tyson.

Even now, I hear people who know nothing about boxing saying things like, "I feel like I've been 10 rounds with Mike Tyson".

I can't think of a fighter since who has transcended the sport & had an appeal to non fight fans.

Unfortunately, I have to admit that you are right, at least 90 %......

Pacquiao,... got to be..