sweetviolenturge wrote:I've been following the sport for over 40 years as well.
And while that makes me sound absolutely ancient, I assure you that I'm a very young-looking, behaving & feeling 55 year old. Which, I know, most of you will dismiss as a "geezer" anyhow, but, I not. So there! LOL.
Anyhow, back to my experience in following boxing. The very first fight that I sat down & watched was the February 20th, 1976 Muhammad Ali title defense vs "The Lion of Flanders" Jean-Pierre Coopman, who Ali KO'd in 5 mostly dreary rounds. An inauspicious debut to be sure, but it interested me enough to watch Ali's next fight a month or so later against Jimmy Young. Who I thought outboxed Ali that night & deserved to be champion. And so did a whole lot of other folks as well.
And that controversy stimulated an even more fervent interest, one which led me to begin watching every heavyweight fight televised, which eventually led to me watching every fight broadcast regardless of weight class & well, here I am today. Still doing it ( sans dust & cobwebs strung about me thank you very much! LOL ).
So, yeah, I have just as much experience as ValMar does, but I believe that I have a much sharper memory, because I can testify to the fact that boxing has been on the very same terminal list that he's convinced that it's currently on since I first began watching the sport 40 years ago when I was 14 years old!
Back then, all the sportwriters thought that the game would die whenever Ali decided to hang up his gloves. Didn't happen.
Then it was Ray Leonard. When he first retired in '82 due to his detached retina, they thought that the sport would fade away post-Leonard. Didn't happen.
I could go on all bloody night stating examples of how & when boxing DIDN'T die.
As for the number of lousy decisions, there's always been bad calls. It hasn't killed the sport yet. Nor has the number of weight classes, which other than the creation in the '90s of the 108 & 105 weight classes is the same as it was 40 years ago.
The number of sanctioning bodies? Back in '76 all the writers were sure that having just the 'BA & 'BC would kill the game. It didn't. And, it hasn't died with four major sanctioning bodies. It's certainly not ideal & I don't like it any more than the next fan, but it is what it is.
What ValMar forgets is that as long as there are fighters that can capture the fans interest & imagination & who are willing to step into the ring with other fighters who have done the same, then boxing will survive. The weight class won't matter, which sanctioning bodies are involved won't matter either. This sport is about the fighters & the fights & that's it. And as long as there are good fights, people will watch. And, the sport will live on.
Peace.
- Jim
