By John Woolford: Over the last 100 years much has changed in the way fight fans observe the sport of boxing. Back in the early 1900’s before terrestrial TV or even radio was the norm people relied upon the local newspaper for up to date boxing news from across the Atlantic.
As a kid in the 1980’s most major boxing fights were shown on normal terrestrial TV without coughing up the prices we pay today on PPV. If the fight stank it stank without the financial burden on the pocket.
But times have changed and with that came many alterations in how fight fans including experts observe the sport of boxing.
First came PPV and then the internet turning boxing on it’s head. Who remembers the days of spending 20 dollars on a Top Rank video of the highlights of Marvin Haglers career? We now have Youtube at the click of a button instead of having to wash cars in the neighborhood to save up for the latest boxing tape on VHS.
Because fight fans are spoiled with the luxury of Youtube and Twitter watching a boxers every little move many now think they have the right to talk about any boxer the way it suits them, that old skool respect is quickly disappearing.
So what is a true fight fan?
Is a true fight fan biased against a fighter based on colour or nationality?
Does a real fight fan seek battle behind his keyboard saying things he wouldn’t have the audacity to say to the eyes of the fighter on a one to one in a private secluded room?
Just remember a boxer does not step through those ropes to risk his health so you can be the judge of all his hard work through many injuries, set backs, loneliness without family throughout those long winded training camps.
Some of the biased racist hounding and hate I read from some writers and so called experts on boxing is totally unacceptable and not what one hears from a true boxing fan.
A true boxing fan or boxing writer knows his place, he is not the one stepping in that ring, he is not the one without his family for weeks and weeks risking his health so his children always have food on the table and neither is he the one having to make a come back from a defeat.
Yes times have changed and modern technology has given us a voice we never had before, but let’s be mature about what we say when speaking of the hardest game. Boxers make mistakes and there is no problem highlighting them. But if we are true fight fans we will use the voice we’ve been given to encourage our fighters. Our sport of boxing is so unique within any other sport that only leaders and royalty of government will stand to greet our champions in a way no other sport has ever benefited from.
Let’s not forget who does the real hard work within those boxing gyms leaving true fight fans to be proud of our sport.
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