sucks! How did I get into this sport? Ok it was great while it lasted but over the last 2 years I have lost all my interest in this sport. The sorry state of the heavyweight div and the never ending geriatric fights invloving that felon Hopkins, Jones and other meaningless fights have riuned this mug game for me ... for now at least. Oh gawd, boxing sucks.
I have always hated Boxing. Boxing does suck. However, I like the fights. In a way, it is better not to follow or read anything about it. Just look at a schedule a tune in when a fight happens.
The politics behind boxing has always been frustrating but these threads are ridiculous we have witnessed some great fights in the last two years. The HW division is a joke but maybe if some of those guys hit the gym it could make for more exciting fights.
Exactly the politics have always been there. I know people complain about dudes like Hopkins but I am actually interested in a Hopkins V Pavlik fight. I'm want to know how Kelly deals with B-Hop as he is still a major challenge to the top guys in the division.
I am not. I think Hopkins will either win or make Pavlik look bad. This is a high risk zero reward fight. It is unfair to Kelly Pavlik he will have to knock Hopkins out and dominate him or his reputation goes down. KP is probably one of my top 3 or 5 fighters active today. Still, I am not convinced he is very good. He is better than I thought. I was surprised he stopped JT and won the rematch.
Pavlik always surprises me but you are spot on this is a high risk fight for Kelly but could Hopkins be in for his first beat down. Do you think Kelly could walk down and maybe even stop him?
I feel you completely. I have so many big fights on DVD that I have yet to watch, I don't put a night of boxing first anymore, don't even tune in to fights that don't have big name fighters. My interest has wanned so badly lately. Still though, I don't regret one bit the past years I've spent watching the sport and chatting it up with the guys around here.
I don't know. I guess my point is that no one should fight Hopkins. It is funny that people have suggested Joe Calzaghe waited until Hopkins was shot to fight him Joe Has been calling Bhop out for at least 5 to 7 years. And once he got it, he seemed disgusted. I know the Jonny come latelys think Hopkins was always boring and negative but I would say that is generally true since 2001. He now fights not to get walked down and stopped. It is one thing to not kayo a guy who wants to fight you. It is nearly impossible to kayo a man who is just trying not to get ko'd.I think there is a 90% chance this fights his dreadful and KP rep goes down. Kelly has to stop him and walk him down or he loses in effect. Dumb move from the shitbag Arum. He will regret it. Hopkins did try to quit against Joe though and Freddie Roach refused to train him so maybe Hops is finally done. I think I speak for all us that I hope he is.
Boxers with hard heads, good workrates and aggressive styles are what boxing needs, we do have an excellent welterweight division, and begrudgingly a good middleweight champion who fits that criteria, Hopkins needs to fuck off, and Roy needs to stop lingering around because he isnt the entertainer he used to be,.. De La Hoya needs to die,.. the heavyweights are resented, and I can see why, Wlad is an offensive force, but a coward who refuses to fight or even learn how to fight on the inside, so he clinches in accordance with his trainers instructions - :crafty: but I have a sneaking suspicion that even if he was as entertaining as he used to be, he would STILL be resented (which he was)...for....:crafty: an 'unknown reason' I think we'll call it. Chagaev is injury prone and wastes months and months of time and is inconsistant in the ring, he's also confused about inside fighting and body punching so his game is flawed as fuck, and Peter just seems to be getting worse, not better. The heavyweight division is average, but it's been alot poorer.
Boxing, the past few years, has been amazing and terribly bad. Yes, the heavyweights suck. Yes, we have more champions that nobody has ever heard of. Yes, promoters, including HBO, have made things difficult. Yes, boring fighters keep on winning. Yes, there's no more stars. Yes, the best fighters of the previous generation have virtually all fallen off. Yes, there are no bonafide stars on the horizon. Yes, boxers are coming from everywhere BUT America. Yes, it's unorganized. Yes, ratings have dropped. We have fights like Wlad vs. Ibragimov, Hopkins vs. Calzaghe, Spinks vs. anyone, Ruiz vs. anyone, and so on and so forth. But... We have people such as ourselves and now writers who are demanding a change. The powers that be are slowly making that change. We have no-name champions who are legitimately trying to become crossover stars by trying to make it in the states. Ricky Hatton left Manchester, where he fought nobodies in front of 22,000 people so that he can have tough fights in front of 4,000. We have Manny Pacquiao vs. Barrera, Marquez and Morales. We have Cotto vs. Margarito. We have Pavlik vs. Taylor. We have Vazquez vs. Marquez. We have Corrales vs. Castillo. We now have the philipines and eastern Asia loyally following their fighters to the states. We have UK fans going to vegas even though they don't even have tickets to a fight. We have promoters actually promoting fights. Managers are finally taking a stand and not relying on giving their fighter away to the highest bidder. Our highest grossing fighters are doing it the right way and not selling away X amount of years/fights to promoters, and doing things one fight at a time. That's the way it's supposed to be done. Maybe I'm just a glass half full kind of guy, but we're seeing alot of positive changes taking place during this down-time and low point in boxing. Will we see boxing re-emerge next year? No. But we have finally stopped begging for one individual to save the sport and instead have started begging for the sport to save itself. We don't want the next Tyson anymore. We want the next golden era.
I love boxing. Sure it has its problems but it's not enough to turn me away. As Arben put it, we've had some pretty good fights recently.
it is what it is. boxing has been like this for quite some time. last year was great and this year has been excellent thus far.
Absolutely. Globalization has not been particularly well to sports. Basketball, for example, has tremendous talent from all over the world, but their ratings dropped bigtime once the European presence made a significant impact on the game. Americans don't identify with some of these guys, and it doesn't go over well. The total lack of globalization of American football is a big reason why it's ratings have been so strong. But, as the world grows smaller, globaliztion will become less and less of an issue. It's just a huge issue in boxing, because it's one individual that is totally exposed to the public. That's why it was such an issue in basketball. There's basically only five talented players on a team worth paying attention to. They don't wear facemasks or any padding. They're very exposed to the public. We can see what they're saying and witness the emotions that they're going through. It's easier to relate to them....but at the same time, it's easier to see who we can't relate to. With boxing, the athletes are even more exposed, and thus even harder to relate to. But now we that things are changing. Cotto is loved in Puerto Rico even after breaking the myth that Puerto Ricans don't respect an athlete that embraces the english language. When Morales and Barrera fought a third time, they spoke in english at the press conference. Barrera broke away from the mold of a traditional mexican face-first brawler to a stick and move fighter. Fighters are actually trying to become American stars. Calzaghe, Hatton, Pacquiao, Abraham, Klitschko's, etc... are coming to the states because they're trying to get that crossover appeal even if they don't really need it. At the same time, we as fans are demanding that they come over (With our money), and our writers are relaying that information to the non-fans. We thought we were in a transitional period around the time Oscar and RJ lost in the span of a month. The reality is that we were in a stagnant period. We're experiencing the transitional period right now, and I think it's moving briskly and very well.
The decline of boxing started when they stopped taking camera close-ups to the ring card girls boobies & booties. :nono: The sport lost ALL the mainstream audience when instead they focused on the boxer's corners.:shit:
I love boxing! But I have also dropped it on my priorities list. I don't think it's the state of the game I always look at boxing as a cycle and every so often it's packed with talent and good fights. Sometimes it's the opposite. I am not one of those who always misses the heavyweight division. I forgot about that division a long time ago. Don't need to keep beating a dead horse with the heavyweight division. Eveyone knows it's crap. But there are plenty of good fights in the lower divisions. Boxing is one of those sports that will always be around and will never be the sport for the masses. It's a certain type of sporst fan that likes boxing and I kind of like that also.
