BoxRec

King Geedorah wrote:I wish Evander Holyfield had started this thread.

oliverfennell wrote: Pornsawan Porpramook v Akira Yaegashi and Kompayak Porpramook vs Adrien Hernandez were the two best fights of last year.

BIGMARK wrote:

King Geedorah wrote:I wish Evander Holyfield had started this thread.

i have often been mistaken for Evander and you never know i could really be him

Quixall wrote:As you have stated Mark, i too have written a similar article a few weeks back. The fact that i still read on these pages occasionally is testament to the fact that i haven't cut my nose off to spite my face and as you put it " am watching from a distance.....". I would say that the only fighters i would tune into watch are Mayweather, Haye, Khan, Froch, Fury, Brook and Galahad. I would also say Rhodes, but after his defeat, a fight i didn't watch incidently, i think he is not far off retirement now. I am not interested in any other fighters, whether they are at international or domestic level, which indicates how low my interest in the sport has dropped. I will certainly not be stopping up late to watch a trans-atlantic fight or any of the undercards, so i will perhaps tune in to watch ten fights per year maximum.

As DamienHucker said, when you have loved the sport, i don't think you can give it up entirely, just go into semi-retirement and i can totally understand where you are coming from, as you highlight, with your four friends who have visited recently. I do not read any boxing magazines and rarely read boxing columns or articles, unless something excites me about a fight or it's a fighter i would follow. The recent story about Larry being banned for four years also highlights what a state boxing is in and as you state, it's a sport that is dying, that is watched by decreasing numbers of people. You will hear a lot of people say " It's always gone on........" and yes it has, but to what degree was it going on before and fans are more likely to turn a blind eye if there are quality fighters around and their own enthusiam is high because of thise quality fighters.

It has to be said that whilst you do have one or two real quality fighters around, they are diminishing year on year and essentially are not being replaced by the new generation of fighters. You can name the real quailty fighters who are coming up on one hand, the likes of Broner, Alverez and Gamboa, but gone are the days of Lewis, Holyfield, Tyson, Toney, Jones, Mosley, Whitaker, De La Hoya, Camacho etc, they will be replaced to some degree, but not of that quality and not in the same numbers. The Americans aren't producing amateur fighters in anything like the same numbers and they way the amateur system has changed, via the points system, isn't a good way of developing a fighting style that can be progressed into the professional ranks. The old school trainers are fast dissapearing, taking with them a vast expanse of knowledge that can't be replaced easily and now we seem a Mayweather as supreme, when he should be seen more as the norm.

I think the final straw for me, was the bad decisions that have been getting more regular of late, the silly multi-championship titles within the same organisation, not to mention the alphabet titles on offer from the various governing bodies, confusing and diluting the title of "world champion", so that your average guy in the street can't name any. The miss-matches, the doping scandals, top ranked fighters not fighting each other, the tedious promotor wars, the legal actions, the hype and bullshit, not to mention the cost of watching or attending a fight. I think it hits those of us harder that have watched the sport with such intnsity over the years, it's as if bad decisions etc go deeper and whilst not being naive, we are looking for a more pure version of the sport. I will keep my head in from time to time and come on here occasionally and watch the odd fight that appeals and i hope you do the same.

Cheers Buddy,

Quix