Boxing: a spent force? Or can we bring the romance back?

by Daniel Ciminera: In my mind, boxing as lost a lot of it’s excitement and romance of late. The event that prompted this article is that of the Khan v Salita undercard. Firstly, the fighters on the undercard are at a disadvantage as Khan is not a big-name fighter yet, and what’s more, not many people like him. I’d bet that more people will buy the fight in order to see if he will get knocked out, than to cheer him on. The worst part is that most of the fighters are Britain’s new wave of talent, the Olympic lads. How on earth are these guys fighting on pay per view already? They don’t have a fan-base yet, and can’t expect to build one if we cant watch them fight regularly on free TV.

In my opinion, pay per view boxing is harming the sport a great deal. For starters, in the past decade especially, boxing as a sport has declined in popularity and integrity. While I don’t claim it didn’t used to be, it’s full of corruption, and has fallen to “crony” culture. Ali, Frazier, Foreman, Louis, Marciano, La Motta, Dempsey, Farr, Cooper. Some well known names in boxing, even most young children could identify at least 5 of them. They weren’t hyped up, they weren’t used to make “super-fights” to draw pay per view audiences. They didn’t need to, they were Titans, Warriors, Pugilistic artists who were literally Gods-amongst-men. If they were fighting, everyone was watching. Even more recently than those, we’ve had the likes of Hagler, numerous “Sugar” Rays, Tyson, Holyfield, Eubank, Benn, Jones Jr, Hopkins. Who do we have now? David Haye? Vitali Klitchko? You’d forgive most kids for asking “who?” When did this culture of over-hyped pay per view boxing begin? Was it when Don King threw Tyson to the lions for his own gain? possibly.

Boxing used to be about honour and pride. It still is the most disciplined, and beautiful sport in my opinion. I fear the corporate machine and political nonsense has taken the sport I so dearly love away from me. It used to be about the two athletes in the ring battling to prove who was the best. Now, it is more about who can make the most money from fighting “safe” opponents. The media, as I mentioned before aren’t entirely without blame. There has become a trend of saying a boxer is useless, out of his depth, or finished just because they have lost one fight. If boxers didn’t have this kind media execution to contend with, they may take on riskier fights, they may not “need” to keep the perfect record.

All you hear nowadays is “pound for pound”, I don’t want to see these cross-division fights, the pound for pound best is for speculation, it was part of the romance of the sport. What if? Who would win between…? Stop ruining it for us and make some fights we want to see, promote more fighters, help new ones come through. Build boxing back to what it once was before mixed martial arts takes over completely.

If boxing wants to fend off the likes of the UFC, it needs to evolve fast, it needs to centralize, with clear rankings, and it needs to be promoted better with a simple website, like you have with the NFL, and NBA, etc. A clear layout of who is who, what they are doing, what’s coming up, what has been. We need regular boxing on free to air tv, we need local fighters being promoted, building regional rivalries amongst fighters and fans. I don’t see the need for pay per view if the media helps build boxing back up among the fans, they will get the ratings and figures they’ve become accustomed to.

I had hoped the global recession would have a positive affect on this relentless, fight-anybody kind of boxing. Kind of like Nigel Benn. Not really for the purist, but by god he was exciting to watch. Where are these fighters? Are they cast aside by the media after losing a fight? They may well be working through the ranks as we speak, but they aren’t being promoted by the sport. It is that type of fearless fighter who people will get behind and follow their every move.

Aside from the promotion of more fighters, we need more imagination from the sport. There are signs that it is going to change, but not enough. The Super Six World Boxing Classic is a shining example of what can be done when greed and fear is put to one side for a moment. Four of the six were unbeaten going into the tournament, Kessler’s only loss to the unbeaten great, Calzaghe. Hardly a blemish for most. These are the types of fighters which boxing is so lacking in at the moment. Some of them are going to lose their unbeaten records. Dirrell already has, and Kessler has suffered the second loss of his career. But. People are talking, people are watching and for the first time in a long time, people are EXCITED.

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