Someone brought this question up in the thread about the rise in MMA’s popularity. I can remember a time when the World Heavyweight boxing champ was one of the most famous athletes, if the most famous, in the world. Nowadays I couldn’t tell you who the current champ (or should I say champs as there are now several belts) is without looking up. In fact I probably couldn’t even name more than three heavyweight boxers who are currently fighting.
So why did boxing hit the skids, popularity-wise?
One thing is there were too many champs - WBC, WBA, etc. so it got confusing. And the people involved in the sport are known to be very sleazy. Putting a lot of fights on PPV doesn’t help most fans keep up with the sport.
Well, you pretty much answered your own question. Boxing popularity decreased because nobody can name the current champ, and there isn’t even a single champ to name. Boxing is perhaps the sport most dependent on the personality and quality of its competitors. There hasn’t been a “great champ” since Lennox Lewis, and he wasn’t what you call a compelling sports icon.
Add in the sleaziness of the promoters and the rampant allegations of bout-fixing and it just doesn’t have the appeal it once did.
They had cases of guys boxing under fake names because they were banned. They barely show Olympic boxing now and that used to be a big part of the TV coverage for Olympics. What they do show is relegated to a secondary network like Bravo or USA.
The heavyweight division leads. When there are compelling heavyweights, the general public gets interested in boxing. When there aren’t, the general public tends to ignore boxing. The heavyweight division hasn’t been compelling since Mike Tyson’s heyday.
Plus I think there is a lot of fan diversion to sports like Mixed Martial Arts. MMA is still cocnsidered pure, the promoters don’t seem as sleazy, and no one believes that those things are fixed.
Lots of reasons why boxing went from one of the major sports to just a sideline.
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As people mentioned, too many weight divisions. In it’s heyday, there were eight weight divisions. Now there are 17. Harder to keep track of the champions.
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Too many governing bodies. Again, in the heyday, there were maybe two, plus Ring Magazines. They also tended to agree on the champions except for times when people retired or moved to another weight class. Now there are five governing bodies, all with different rules and with axes to grind. There’s a lot of politics, too, with one body stripping a champion for no particular reason other than it can then sanction another championships fight.
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Lack of TV coverage. Boxing grew with radio and early TV. There were bouts every Friday night in the 1950s. This developed an audience. Even in the 60s, top fights were carried live (or sometimes a few days after the bout) by the major networks. By the 70s, though, everything had gone pay per view. While this made more money for the boxers, it was bad for the sport. Boxing didn’t appear on TV regularly, so it was hard to develop a fan base.
I don’t think the rise of other combat sports made any difference; boxing has been losing its audience in the US for over 30 years.
Part of the problem is they don’t show enough fights to build an audience. Even decent fights are on cable. That is audience limiting. Sugar Ray and Stallone tried to develop interest with their show a few years ago. But it did not show enough boxing.
Another reason…Don King.
I’d love to learn more about boxing, but I didn’t have anyone in my family who liked it enough to teach me simply by watching it together (unlike, say, baseball.) And there’s not a good way to watch enough to pick it up by watching bouts and listening to analysts. These days, it seems like if I want to watch boxing, I have to catch Friday Night Fights late at night during the summer on ESPN, because no way am I paying $50 for a fight that might be over in the first round or for a sport that I don’t really know. So here’s a relatively young guy (27) who would be happy to watch boxing if there was actually a way to do so.
This.
I have seen Don King fighters get decisions thrown their way when they got badly whipped in a fight on many occasions. The stench of fixing in boxing is difficult to remove.
Don King’s hair, specifically.
I really thought Prince Naseem (Hamed) was going to be the saviour of boxing, but he never got much US exposure… and when he did Marco Barrera beat the tar out of him.
The Prince had a short and bright career. He added a lot to the game and his unorthodox boxing kept interest high. I think every fight he got into was on HBO. I loved his entrances. He took too many chances though and Barrera was the wrong guy to tempt fate with.
For me it went downhill after the Lewis-Holyfield reunification debacle in the 90s. After Tyson, you had a split championship, but it was for seemingly legitimate reasons with top fighters at the top in each ranking.
Then, there is no doubt in my mind that Don King fixed Lewis-Holyfield I to be a draw. How often do draws happen? Never, right, but it just so happens in a reunification bout when one fighter gets beaten to death causing a multi-gojillion dollar rematch.
Then, after the reunification, Lewis didn’t pay his bribe, er fees, to one of the sanctioning bodies so he got stripped of a title.
Since his retirement the heads of each division are filled with differing no good bums who got their by paying the most money. It is a disgusting corrupt sport with no big name to demand change.