Replies

[Cshel86]

I don't know about the rest of the boxing fans out there, but waiting for two big names to save the sport, is killing it. Some fighters are depending on "The Big Fight" before they start to step on the gas. Whatever happened to "everybody fighting everybody"? I was proud to be a boxing fan in the era of De La Hoya, Trinidad, Vargas, Wright, Forrest, Mosley, Mayorga, Hopkins, Taylor, etc. They all fought each other and convincingly worked their way towards big fights, and gave fans something to talk about.

We now have a nearly failed 140 lb division that was very promising, a shakey Welterweight division (still a lot of money in it though) and inexperienced/relatively unknown fighters trying to cash out by begging for fights with the big name fighters. Again, when the two big names hang 'em up, where will the sport be? Will we be proud to watch fighters who stepped it up and earned the top spot, or will we be stuck with guys who got recognized by default?

[STEVENSKI]

One thing that people forget is that PBF was a name fighter who neverhad a PPV fight until the Gatti one. Even then he was clearly the B side & could not sell out a arena in his next fight.

Fighters take time to become stars in their sport & it usually requires beating a famous fighter who is washed up to start making that transition from gifted athlete to being able to carry a PPV event.

Look at Ward. A Olympic gold medallist who no one knows & no one ever will know as he is fighting fighters no one has heard of outside boxing fans. This guy should be a superstar at least in America due to his gold medal performance but he is not. I would wagwer this is due to him being in a mainly European division.

One thing I will give Europe is that they promote their fighters well & build a loyal following that will sell out arenas.

Look at Kessler, Calzaghe, Froch, Khan, The Klit bros etc. They may not be "cool" or popular stateside but every one of them sells out arenas in Europe.

Why is that? I think it is because of several reasons. Big production values for the show & they build to the main event. Well matched undercards where the fighters may not be all that but they scrap in usually entertaining manner.

The US seems to reliant on site fees & PPV revenue rather than putting on a big production that will entertain fans.

A great example is the recent Klit vs Haye farce. Fight sucked but the whole production was very slick & had some humour as well. Decent card & 50,000 odd people sitting in the rain. How often does that type of thing happen in the USA? Not anymore but Tyson used to fight in the open air so why not some of the other big stars from America?