Sports Thread#1 for 10/21/08- Where has all the boxing gone?
Will the state of boxing be falling down, like Antonio Tarver in this pictureonly time will tell (AP Photo/Eric Jamison)
Attention all TWD readers, I am looking for a sport. This sport has been around for centuries, and up until the mid-90s was one of the most popular sports in the world. Some of the greatest American figures have come from this sport, but now it is a relative unknown. I was introduced to it as some kind of mythical thing, a sport only real men could do. I can recall nights my father would leave to go with friends to go watch it late at night. I remember the first time I was invited to one of these festive events, and how the sport captivated me with the amount of skill and drama this one event possessed. The way it quieted the men’s debates on who was the greatest ever, and made them watch with wonder and awe on how someone could do this as a living. I remember the unity the room was filled with as friends sat, ate, and discussed amongst friends. The sport that I am looking for is boxing, yes the sweet science. The sport that can leave people impressed by its beauty or nauseous from its violence, the sport that was once on top and now forgotten.
Problems
Boxing has a number of problems. The first is the number of sanctioning bodies. I am now going to attempt to try and explain what these are, I say attempt because not even the sanctioning bodies can explain what they are. The sanctioning bodies are the groups of organizations who help commission the fights. Each body has its own title belt for each division; the three main sanctioning commissions are the WBO (World Boxing Organization), the WBC (World Boxing Council), and the IBF (International Boxing Federation). Despite the boxing world’s acknowledgment of the three boxing bodies as the best there are still about 14 other boxing sanctioning bodies. This means that there are 16 total champions for one division. When someone is referred to as “champ” people assume one of the major 3, but then most of the time the person acknowledged by everyone as the champ of that division doesn’t have a title at all. In order to have the all determining fight he must give up his title. Confused yet? The old system was Ring magazine had a unanimous champion for every division and that person was called world champion. The involvement of politics and sanctioning bodies only backing certain promotions creates this confusion where someone is the best fighter, but not a champion.
Another problem is the rise of MMA or Mixed Martial Arts. This creates a problem, because the people who formally got their combat sport fix are quickly running to MMA. These same people who are running to MMA are bringing the younger generation of fight fans with them. MMA has grown so popular, because it has done the opposite of boxing. MMA began broadcasting on Pay per View, therefore in order for people to watch the fights they had to order the fight, for a low price of around $30. Then MMA made the jump from PPV to television. This move is done without risk, because if no one watches their free television events they still had a consistent following with their PPV income that they wouldn’t lose too much. Instead of making themselves exclusive, they opened themselves up to the world. However, boxing did the exact opposite. Boxing went from broadcasting on broadcast television (ask hockey about how hard it is to get a broadcast television spot) to movie channels like HBO, and Showtime. If this was not enough they began to broadcast their mega fights on PPV, making fight fans have to pay to watch the best fighters. Boxing made itself exclusive, in an age when ideally everyone with a broadcast is trying to go public.
Now boxing is watching the success of MMA and saying it is not real fighting, it promotes violence. However boxing promotes the same thing. I love both boxing and MMA, but it pains me to see bitter boxing enthusiast get angry at MMA when boxing itself is the problem with boxing. How do you expect people to watch boxing if the best fights happen at 10 o’clock on a Saturday night on some channel a person has to pay for? How do you expect kids to want to learn boxing if they never see a fight? MMA broadcast some of its best fights, for free at an 8 or 9 o’clock spot where everyone can see it. Before boxing blame MMA for its downfall, it needs to look in the mirror.
Solutions
Now I have some solutions for boxing to try and compete. First they need to take greed out of the equation. Like our current economy situation, greed is the key to the downfall. If everyone wasn’t greedy there would be no need for three sanctioning bodies, with only one sanctioning body everyone would know who is champion. If everyone knows who is champion then boxing would have a face. With one sanctioning body there would only be one number one contender. There would be no ducking by the champion because the champion has to fight one contender or else he be stripped.
Like the economic situation the government needs to step in, and take the corruption out of boxing. They need to come up with one sanctioning body and allow all of the promoters to work through one federal governing boxing body. With the promoters working through one federal body, there would be no need to use HBO and Showtime as a boxing premier broadcasting outlet. The promoter won’t be paid an outrageous amount of money to have one of these networks broadcast the fight. Therefore, the fight can be broadcast nationally on a broadcast channel. This creates more exposure and builds the sport back up. Boxing will be going back to the grassroots system that brought it into prominence.
Conclusion
The sport I love, the sport that has been missing from American culture will soon be gone. Did anyone know that two Saturday’s ago both the heavyweight and light heavyweight titles were being fought for? Both of these fights were headlined by big names in boxing. The light heavyweight title was one by up and coming Chad Dawson, when he beat Antonio Tarver. While the heavyweight title was won by formerly retired Vitali Klitschko over Samuel Peter, I can do one even better. Did anyone know that last Saturday, a mega fight was held between veteran Bernard Hopkins and Kelly Pavlik (Do Americans even know who he is?)? I didn’t think so. On the same night of the heavyweight and light heavyweight fights, 4.3 million viewers had their television turned to CBS to watch EliteXC (MMA) for free. Where not nearly as many tuned to watch neither of these fights and I was one of the 4.3 million who tuned in to watch EliteXc on CBS; the following week the UFC put on a free MMA card against the $50 Pavlik-Hopkins fight again I was one of those who tuned in to watch the UFC.
I figure why pay all of the money, when I can get the same if not better action for free. The problem boxing is facing is that I am not the only person in America who is thinking this same thing. If MMA continues to televise their best fights on television for free, and boxing continues to insist on showing their cards for $50 with no interruption than like the economy the greed of others will create the collapse of an entire sport.
The only problem with boxing is no one cares enough to give boxing a $700 billion dollar buyout. If things don’t change soon, sadly, boxing may never recover.
Problems
Boxing has a number of problems. The first is the number of sanctioning bodies. I am now going to attempt to try and explain what these are, I say attempt because not even the sanctioning bodies can explain what they are. The sanctioning bodies are the groups of organizations who help commission the fights. Each body has its own title belt for each division; the three main sanctioning commissions are the WBO (World Boxing Organization), the WBC (World Boxing Council), and the IBF (International Boxing Federation). Despite the boxing world’s acknowledgment of the three boxing bodies as the best there are still about 14 other boxing sanctioning bodies. This means that there are 16 total champions for one division. When someone is referred to as “champ” people assume one of the major 3, but then most of the time the person acknowledged by everyone as the champ of that division doesn’t have a title at all. In order to have the all determining fight he must give up his title. Confused yet? The old system was Ring magazine had a unanimous champion for every division and that person was called world champion. The involvement of politics and sanctioning bodies only backing certain promotions creates this confusion where someone is the best fighter, but not a champion.
Another problem is the rise of MMA or Mixed Martial Arts. This creates a problem, because the people who formally got their combat sport fix are quickly running to MMA. These same people who are running to MMA are bringing the younger generation of fight fans with them. MMA has grown so popular, because it has done the opposite of boxing. MMA began broadcasting on Pay per View, therefore in order for people to watch the fights they had to order the fight, for a low price of around $30. Then MMA made the jump from PPV to television. This move is done without risk, because if no one watches their free television events they still had a consistent following with their PPV income that they wouldn’t lose too much. Instead of making themselves exclusive, they opened themselves up to the world. However, boxing did the exact opposite. Boxing went from broadcasting on broadcast television (ask hockey about how hard it is to get a broadcast television spot) to movie channels like HBO, and Showtime. If this was not enough they began to broadcast their mega fights on PPV, making fight fans have to pay to watch the best fighters. Boxing made itself exclusive, in an age when ideally everyone with a broadcast is trying to go public.
Now boxing is watching the success of MMA and saying it is not real fighting, it promotes violence. However boxing promotes the same thing. I love both boxing and MMA, but it pains me to see bitter boxing enthusiast get angry at MMA when boxing itself is the problem with boxing. How do you expect people to watch boxing if the best fights happen at 10 o’clock on a Saturday night on some channel a person has to pay for? How do you expect kids to want to learn boxing if they never see a fight? MMA broadcast some of its best fights, for free at an 8 or 9 o’clock spot where everyone can see it. Before boxing blame MMA for its downfall, it needs to look in the mirror.
Solutions
Now I have some solutions for boxing to try and compete. First they need to take greed out of the equation. Like our current economy situation, greed is the key to the downfall. If everyone wasn’t greedy there would be no need for three sanctioning bodies, with only one sanctioning body everyone would know who is champion. If everyone knows who is champion then boxing would have a face. With one sanctioning body there would only be one number one contender. There would be no ducking by the champion because the champion has to fight one contender or else he be stripped.
Like the economic situation the government needs to step in, and take the corruption out of boxing. They need to come up with one sanctioning body and allow all of the promoters to work through one federal governing boxing body. With the promoters working through one federal body, there would be no need to use HBO and Showtime as a boxing premier broadcasting outlet. The promoter won’t be paid an outrageous amount of money to have one of these networks broadcast the fight. Therefore, the fight can be broadcast nationally on a broadcast channel. This creates more exposure and builds the sport back up. Boxing will be going back to the grassroots system that brought it into prominence.
Conclusion
The sport I love, the sport that has been missing from American culture will soon be gone. Did anyone know that two Saturday’s ago both the heavyweight and light heavyweight titles were being fought for? Both of these fights were headlined by big names in boxing. The light heavyweight title was one by up and coming Chad Dawson, when he beat Antonio Tarver. While the heavyweight title was won by formerly retired Vitali Klitschko over Samuel Peter, I can do one even better. Did anyone know that last Saturday, a mega fight was held between veteran Bernard Hopkins and Kelly Pavlik (Do Americans even know who he is?)? I didn’t think so. On the same night of the heavyweight and light heavyweight fights, 4.3 million viewers had their television turned to CBS to watch EliteXC (MMA) for free. Where not nearly as many tuned to watch neither of these fights and I was one of the 4.3 million who tuned in to watch EliteXc on CBS; the following week the UFC put on a free MMA card against the $50 Pavlik-Hopkins fight again I was one of those who tuned in to watch the UFC.
I figure why pay all of the money, when I can get the same if not better action for free. The problem boxing is facing is that I am not the only person in America who is thinking this same thing. If MMA continues to televise their best fights on television for free, and boxing continues to insist on showing their cards for $50 with no interruption than like the economy the greed of others will create the collapse of an entire sport.
The only problem with boxing is no one cares enough to give boxing a $700 billion dollar buyout. If things don’t change soon, sadly, boxing may never recover.
Comments
Oh, and certifying that ESPN's Brian Kelly is an a--hole and the biggest Oscar De la Hoya fan boy I know.