What is the answer for boxing?

[Clarkmeister]

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Maybe boxing no longer has a place in our society.

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Let's get some perspective. Boxing has all sorts of problems and could be much more popular than it is today. That said, the fight on Saturday was the highest PPV of all time at over $100m, the highest non-heavyweight PPV of all time, shattering the old record of $71m. The general tone of the forum and of news articles suggesting the sport is about to die is simply silly. It's way below where it could or should be, but the country still gets up for a big fight.

[Kneel B4 Zod]

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Ideally, there would be a single, transparent, corruption-free governing body

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this is the first needed step.

[Clarkmeister]

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At this point, boxing pretty much has no future. People who like violent sports will make UFC more popular.

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What's the all-time UFC PPV gross record? $20m? This was $100m.

[Kneel B4 Zod]

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At this point, boxing pretty much has no future. People who like violent sports will make UFC more popular.

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What's the all-time UFC PPV gross record? $20m? This was $100m.

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I linked an article in the Mayweather/MMA thread. the MMA record is around $50m. the biggest individual boxing PPV's are still bigger than the biggest individual MMA PPV's, but as an industry MMA is now bigger than boxing.

[Clarkmeister]

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but as an industry MMA is now bigger than boxing.

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What does this mean?

[Kneel B4 Zod]

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but as an industry MMA is now bigger than boxing.

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What does this mean?

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total MMA PPV fees > total boxing PPV fees

[Clarkmeister]

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but as an industry MMA is now bigger than boxing.

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What does this mean?

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total MMA PPV fees > total boxing PPV fees

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Thanks. I'd also add in the fees paid by HBO and Showtime to lock up certain fighers. Otherwise those fights would be PPV also. Though if what you say is true, it likely won't matter much.

[danvh]

In addition to what everyone else has said. Boxing needs a strong Heavyweight division, or at least 2-4 great fighters in the division.

[SammyKid11]

To All...

Okay, first of all, let's keep this thread about boxing. I really wasn't trying to compare it to MMA...I find MMA interesting, but as has been noted in that thread, it's a very different sport than boxing. I really don't think boxing's problems stem very much from the rise in popularity of MMA.

Boxing is a traditional mass-media sport with people from all demographics who WILL buy and support the sport if the right conditions are met. A consensus heavyweight titleist would obviously help considerably.

From those in the know...how can that happen? What will it take to get each "champion" to put their belt on the line in some format (a title unification tournament would maybe be pretty cool)?

Also, as the Lennox Lewis years proved, along with a consensus heavyweight champion, the world needs two or three legitimate contenders for that champion to fight...someone who, y'know, actually has a chance of beating the champ, making the bouts interesting with some real-world force and effect.

Why has this stopped being the case? Certainly the world hasn't just all of a sudden run out of talented heavyweight boxers, has it?

As per my OP, I definitely agree that fixing the heavyweight division would be a huge step to getting boxing back to where it's intriguing to the casual fan. I'm wondering how we do that. Sure, one non-corrupt governing body would be great. But I don't think all the different governing bodies are suddenly going to join into one and decide to become scrupulous. Certainly there is some general market pressure that can force the hands of the different organizations where it'd be in their best interest to have one big champ...for the long-term health of the industry, right? How can this be made known and what (in the real world) needs to happen to get it done?

[jaydub]

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Certainly the world hasn't just all of a sudden run out of talented heavyweight boxers, has it?


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They are in the NFL or the NBA.

J