Is Boxing dead as a sport?

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It's really a shame. I think boxing took a very serious turn for the worse when Tyson bit Hollyfields ear off. That's when it seemed to start falling off. I agree that people should have made a stand against such poor sportsmanship, but not to the degree that they have.

It's a great sport and really should be popular. It's a shame that it isn't any longer.

When I was young, Muhammed Ali was the heavyweight champ. He fought often, and the fights were broadcast on national television - NOT pay per view or a pay station like HBO. Boxing was king back then. It's a shame that it's no longer as popular.
 
Boxing used to be a gentleman's sport. Back in the old days, it was huge.

Then, people realized what it did to boxers' brains, and suddenly it ceased to be a sport anyone but the underclass would even dare participate in. It's been progressively falling out of favor ever since.

Then, MMA came in, and took all the "glitz and glamour" that boxing once had, and boxing was pretty much done for.


BTW, what started to kill boxing (realizing what it did to boxers' brains) is going to kill football too. You can already see it developing.
 
I lost interest, especially in PPV professional boxing, after Tyson KOed Spinks in the first round.

I'll still watch a few Olympic matches but that's about it.
 
I feel like boxing has disappeared since UFC and similar events.
I like boxing; the scoring and rules give it credibility to me.
I also appreciate wrestling, but prefer to watch boxing.

The other stuff seems like someone combined boxing and WWF wrestling.
I'm sure there are perfectly good rules in MMA style stuff, but watching for three to five minutes just pisses me off. Could be old age or just being female.
 
NBC is currently broadcasting a fight I should care about. I don't care.

I thought i was in a time warp last night when i saw boxing on regular TV. Boxing aka prize fighting has sadly become a popularity contest and the fans only have ourselves to blame. until we stop paying for these overhyped matches we will continue to get these subpar match ups. There's a simple fix, the highest rank defends against the next highest rank and the winner takes home the lions share of the prize pool.
 
In new zealand its popularity rises n falls with our current prospect, its had a bit of a resurgence the last couple of years with tua's comeback and parkers rise up the ranks and now the undercards are household names. Hopefully it stays popular, 5 years ago i would have struggled to name a fighter
 
It's pretty much dead to me too. I appreciate the sport, but I'm not that interested. Never had been. We'd watch fights once in a while when I was young. It was popular with the PPV crowd for a while, but IMO PPV is what kind of helped kill it. Nobody I know would pay $50 to watch what might be a few minutes of fighting.

As far as the brain damage aspect, I hate to sound cruel, but these guys fight because they love to fight, or that's all they think they can do to make a living. How much damage a person takes is only now really coming into focus. But fighters have known for centuries that fighting causes certain problems. They continue to do it. There is a certain appeal to seeing who can avoid being hit, and who can manage to land punches. It's an ancient sport.
 
I find boxing boring. 12 three-minute rounds? To *maybe* see someone get their bell rung? Bo-ring.

MMA is much more dynamic and exciting.

The one thing that I do find fascinating, however, is the difference in payouts. You get a big fight like a Pacquiao/Mayweather, where Mayweather will pocket $100 million and Pacquiao will walk (stumble?) away with $60 million. Regardless of the outcome. It doesn't matter who wins; their payouts have already been decided. Kind of takes away a bit of the drama, doesn't it?

But my point is, while that's a big purse, it's not unfathomable for boxing. Even back in the 80's and 90's, the main event fighters were being paid in the tens of millions of dollars. Contrast that with UFC, which is vastly more popular now than boxing ever was. In Febraury, Anderson Silva fought Nick Diaz and one of the most highly-anticipated fights in recent memory. Silva, a polarizing and entertaining fighter, was coming back from a devastating leg injury. Everyone wanted to know if he still had what it took to dominate the UFC's middleweight division. They were the main event of UFC 183.

Silva was paid $800,000.

Now, that sounds like a lot. But he's a bonafide superstar, and this was the main fight of the event. A boxing superstar in a similar fight would've been paid tens of millions.

So who's keeping all that money? If Silva didn't even get a million, what are the undercard fighters paid?

In other news, Dana White's net worth is $300 million.
 

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