HOW FAR HAS YOUR BOXING JONES FALLEN OVER THE YEARS....

if at all? For me it's a huge drop. If my boxing interest started out at a 10, right about now I'm probably a 4. It started out about 4 years ago when I stopped my prescription and stopped reading Ring magazine and it's sister publications. Now lately I've gradually been missing so many big fights and don't even care. Most I have on DVD and keep telling myself I'm going to watch them but for a lot of those fights it's been over a year. For instance I haven't watched JMM-MAB or any of the Marquez-Vazquez fights just to name a small few on my long list.

The big fights I make sure I catch like Cotto-Mosley of course, but even that one I saw about 2 weeks late. The worst part is don't really care that I've lost interest in the sport, because I don't see much new talent coming along to replace the old and PPV sales are robbing fans blind.

As for my posting life, I probably spend 90% of it in TAA these days. Is anyone else going through a similar lack of interest in the sport?

 

Actually no. Although in one sense you're right, there doesn't seem to be enough new young talent now to replace the guys that are on the verge of retirement, but boxing has been as good as ever for the last couple of years.

There has been a plethora of high profile mathups and great fights.

But fuck, you haven't seen any of the Vazquez - Marquez fights? You really should.

 

Roy Jones? What is this thread about?

 

He was always a big Mosley fan.

 

I'm not sure my interest in boxing has fallen over the years, though it's possible.

I think there's just fewer individual fights and fight cards that interest me, because the quality of them has gone down over the years.

The problem is Showtime has like 1/4 of the HBO budget yet usually puts on more competitive cards...consistently over the past few years.

HBO's talent pool has become stale to a great degree, so I feel like the sport is sort of stuck in a time period where we're being fed a lot of leftovers from the 90's and early 00's.

 

Interest in boxing comes and goes. People follow fighters, or they follow the sport itself. When the fighters don't appeal to fans boxing is 'dying'. When they do? Boxing is never healthier. It's cycles.

 

I was a big fan as a kid, starting around 1991. Over the mid 90s I became a bit more casual, but I started up again being more fanatical in 2000.

Since 2000, I would say I get more fanatical by the day. If there's not too many fights interesting me at the moment, I look for older fights to watch.

 

I like the sport now more then ever.

 

I'm still a big fan. I wouldn't say my interest has decreased, but it hasn't went up either.

It just depends on what's happening at the moment or the very near future.

I would say this though. The more you learn about boxing as a hard core fan, the more you will get cynical. The promoters, the networks, sanctioning bodies etc. just aren't respected anymore. After a while you can see through the bullshit and just hope that you're hearing the truth.

It's like listening to a politician talk about lowering taxes, balancing the budget and creating new jobs.

Meanwhile we know they're just going to do what serves them best financially.

 

Well, we need some upset wins ASAP to make waves because it's the same guys on top.

 

Sometimes though the upset wins actually are "bad" depending on your perspective.

Wright-Mosley
Spinks-Mayorga

Those are a couple that come to mind. They destroyed much anticipated fights.

 

Yeah, you're right but look at how fast Pacquaio rose after destroying Barrera. It's the quickest way to make a new star, if they can keep delivering. Antonio Tarver BLEW his opportunity by fighting like a bitch.

 

True, Pacquiao is a great exception though.

Not often do upsets happen in boxing where the underdog is more exciting than the guy the beat. Most upsets seem to occur when a southpaw is involved.

Ban southpaws from boxing! :fightme::warning:

(except for Manny)

 

Although I know what you're saying, upset wins should NEVER be considered "bad" by real boxing fans IMO.

The problem here isn't with the upsets happening, it's with fans being ungrateful.

Upsets should be the best things for the sport, and the bigger the better. Yet fans want to look ahead to certain fights and ignore others... and then when something interesting and shocking happens, they're actually disappointed. :dunno:

Can you imagine if Tyson's upset loss to Buster Douglas never happened, and Tyson went on to lose much less shockingly in a megafight with Holyfield? Can you imagine what a classic moment in sports history would've been lost?

People want there to be long reigning, dominant forces in the sport. But IMO, a lack thereof can sometimes make the sport more alive and interesting.

 

I see what you're saying. I don't disagree with the spirit of your post at all.

If all the outcomes were so easy to predict the sport really wouldn't be worth watching. If everything was decided on paper, there would be no reason to even have the fights. They could have just given the Patriots the Super Bowl last year and not bothering to play the game.

I just brought up a couple of examples of upsets that didn't "help" boxing.

I would have rather seen Trinidad-Mosley than Trinidad-Wright.

 

U & Beyond the Grave CONTINUE to Push this Agenda, but REED DOESN'T Get It...

1st of All, JMM-MAB was 1 of THE Better Fights of that Particular Year....2nd, Vazquez-Marquez it THE BEST Trilogy EVER...REED Would Suggest U Take the Next Day or 2 to Watch the Trilogy...If that DOESN'T Jazz your "Boxing Jones", then Perhaps U Should Question YOUR OWN Fandom...

Speaking of "New Talent", there's PLENTY Of it Out There...How about Kelly Pavlik, Andre Berto, David Haye, the Peterson Brothers, Abner Mares, Miguel Cotto...These R just a FEW Guys who's Futures R IN FRONT of them...It's Gonna B VERY Fun Watching their Careers Progress...

Manny Pac & Others R MAJOR Players N the Game, Despite Being on the TAIL END of their Primes...& Let's NOT Forget, 2008 is an OLYMPIC Year....

U Should Probably Look IN THE MIRROR for why your "Boxing Jones" is Falling, Cause the Sport Itself is a STRONG as it's EVER Been...U May have to Watch More LOWER Weight Fights than U're Accustomed to or Pay More Attention to NON American Fighters, but REED Honestly DOESN'T See a DECREASE N the Talent Pool...


REED:hammert:

 

The sport is as strong as it's ever been?

I look at all the names of boxers at or near the ends of their careers and wonder who exactly is going to fill their shoes.

Barrera, Morales, Corrales, Vargas, and Gatti (and maybe J.L. Castillo) all retired or had their careers ended in the past year or so, and even if some of them do try comebacks they don't figure to last long.

Hopkins, Mosley, Trinidad and Jones all figure to be on the next train leaving the station.

De La Hoya and Calzaghe may or may not be in the last years of their career, but they may both likely be retired by the end of '09.

Even younger stars like Hatton and Mayweather seem to be beyond just comprehending their lives after boxing.

That list of names has headlined most of the big events of the past decade.

There isn't a whole lot of names outside of them that's recieved much exposure...be it on Boxing After Dark, World Championship Boxing, or Pay Per View.

Berto and Mares have received some HBO exposure, Linares as well. A few weeks ago Gary Shaw got Angulo and Kirkland some more air time...but that needs to be done much more regularly...and it can't just be fighters signed to Gary Shaw, Golden Boy, Shelly Finkel and Al Haymon.

Ponce De Leon-Lopez is a quality match-up. Witherspoon-Arreola is a decent prospect match-up that at least has some new blood in it, though there are certainly candidates for TV exposure than them...heavyweight or not.

 

Whoever said the sport is as strong as it's ever been, is just simply wrong.

 

:bears:

 

All the biggest possible mainstream matchups *cough* DLH vs PBF*cough have been made.


Unless they actually pull out Pacquaio to fight DLH, but even then, I don't think it even out does DLH vs PBF 2

Maybe they can throw Tyson vs DLH on the mainstream ::but that's pretty much it from a massive media appeal standpoint.

 

I said the last 2 years have been great, as good as they have been since I've been a fan. That's beyond doubt.

I shall say this though, there have been some VERY notable exceptions like Morales, Pacman, Corrales, even say Mosley to some extent - that get in the ring and fight, and fight to win. And fight anyone.

But the thing that bothers me about boxing more than the bullshit decisions, more than the politics and the general bullshit - is the trend of fighters fighting not to lose, rather than fighting to win.

Back say in the Fab 4 era, and even up until the mid 90's, fighters tended to just get in the ring and go for it, and fight.

Now though, for whatever reason things have changed.

Partly because a loss is worse now than it was then, a hyped fighter loses and he's done, and has a lot of work to do in order to redeem himself.

And partly because of the large amounts of money at stake. They are not so much fighting not to lose against the opponent, they are fighting not to lose that next big payday, protecting future paydays.

That's the thing that bothers me the most as a fan, I fucking hate safety first fighters.

And I'm not saying fighters should be face first bums either like gatti, they can have world class skill and ability, but just fight.

 

One of the problems, from this fan's perspective, has been the increasing tendency and license for older and diminishing boxing "stars" to clog TV dates with fights against each other or against lesser fighters from lower weight classes, in an exercise of diminishing returns in terms of entertainment and revenue. Its totally understandable, but it results IMO in fewer matchups between younger contenders / undefeated prospects because there are fewer tv dates/money and therefore, the risk becomes not worth it, and its harder to create new names. That, plus world class fighters only fighting 1-2 times a year.

 

My hands used to shake before big fights that I really cared about. I don't get that anymore... but I'm still as in to boxing as ever.

 

I would trade in my copy of Tyson/Douglas for a nice, shiny new DVD of Tyson/Holyfield in 1990. :nono:

 

Boxing is dead IMO. I used to be obsessed with it, recording everything from FNF to Tuesday Night Fights to every ppv, etc. I was on the General Discussion forum every day for 3-4 hours, just talking boxing. This was only as recently as 2003 or so. My interest has declined so much that now I could give barely a crap about any boxer out there nor do I want to even visit this section of the board anymore.
Crap like Pretty Bitch Jr and shot old boring fighters like Hopkins or boring fighters period like Slappy Calzaghe don't interest me at all. They're about as charismatic as Ruiz. Pretty much killed the sport in my view. And there's nobody coming up either. The sport is missing the warriors of yesteryear. Boxers who actually fight because they like to fight rather than some boring safety-first tip tap sh*t for 12 rounds like what Pretty Bitch Jr and Hopkins do.
DLH's an old fart, Mosley's done, Wright's finished, hell there's no heavyweight out there with any real balls, they're just taking whatever fight that pays the most.
It's upsetting really. Seeing the death of a once great sport right before my eyes.
Tam Tam says it's a cycle with ups and downs. Well it's down and going even more down. And there's no sign of an up anytime soon.

 

Ive been a hardcore fan since the late 90's.

I still remember seeing the boxing schedule for the fall of 2007. It was the best schedule i can ever remember seeing since i become a fan.

Hanz, you really put too much emphasis on stars. Fighters don't have to be huge stars to be exciting fighters. There are alot of up and coming fighters that are very exciting. The HBO triple header featuring prospects was a great card.

Young fighters coming up right now
Katsidis, Juan Diaz, David Haye, Miguel Cotto, Tim Bradley, Devon Alexander, Amir Khan, Gamboa, Kirkland, Angulo, JCC Jr. I probably missed some fighters out but thats alot of up and coming talent.

 

Well I'm looking forward to Cotto/Margarito so not all hope is lost...yet.::

 

Surprising Hatton didn't see that left hand coming from Collazo in your sig.

 

I blame PPV's.........not everyone wants to drop 50 for a suspect card....


Back in the day.....it was just the ELITE Fighters on PPV.....Tyson, Holy, Oscar.......now everyone is PPV?? Bullshit. HBO fell off in a huge way. I miss USA Tuesday Night Fights from the Blue Horizon/

 

Other than Cotto/Margarito or Cotto/Margarito winner vs PBF, I don't think there is any fight I'd pay for on PPV.