Heavyweight boxing

[HtTKar]

During the Klitcko fight, noone showed up. Tickets were given away to kitchen staff in the Las Vegas area. Heavyweight fights just dont seem to be drawing crowds anymore.

I was listening to the news yesterday and it said that Heavyweight boxing may have seen its time. There are no real great heavyweight stars at this time. Athletic men of heavyweight status have many other more rewarding sports they can now get into. Why be a boxer when you can make millions playing football? Unless all of a sudden a whole bunch of heavyweight superstar step up....heavyweight boxing may have seen its heyday.

This got me thinking. I love watching middle-weight fights, boxing for 12 rounds. But heavyweight boxing is where its at, where you can see KO's in the first round. You really never know whats going to happen in a heavyweight bout.

What do you think it would take to revive heavyweight boxing? Or do you think boxing might decline as a popular sport altogether?

[shirase]

i think your onto something with the declining of boxing. with the introduction of all sorts of new combat sports, and the general increase of volume of the other sports(way more teams) boxing has definitely become not as popular as it used to be. In the old days most everybody(at least the males) knew about what was goin on in the boxing world. You know, the dad comes home to watch the friday night fight. It definitely isnt like that now, although it still is fairly popular. Of course it depends where you live. Im sure that in some places alot of people are into boxing(mexico for instance.)

[Jeremy Lobdell]

I remember watching boxing on ABC as a kid with my dad, including the Ray Boom Boom Mancini fight where he killed that South Korean guy in the ring. Now you have to watch HBO or Showtime to see any of the top fights. Even with paying the outragous prices for cable or a satelite, most of the championship matches are pay per view and you have to wait a week or so to see them on the regular stations.
As far as the heavy weight division goes, it's just in a low spot. This has happened from time to time in all the weight classes. Hopefully it will get better, but if it doesn't, there are a lot of good fighters in the other weight classes to keep things interesting. Jermaine Taylor, with his backfist-jab, is still undefeated, and always puts on a good show.
There's a lot more ma on tv than ever before, be it mma, K1, San Shou, ISKA, or the Paul Mitchell demo team, there's something for everyone, and ESPN plays it to death. Boxing never had to compete for the fight audiences attention like this before.

[koto_ryu]

Maybe we should bring back the cestus

[Broadsword2004]

What's the cestus??

I have never been much into watching boxing, or professional fighting of any kind for that matter; love to do it, but not to watch it.

[shirase]

i used to not enjoy boxing very much, because I didnt think much of boxing. But after sitting down and actually watching the tactics and what was going on in the fights a few weeks ago Ive come to really enjoy watching the fights. You can pick up alot from them, and its neat to see how different fighters and their styles go against eachother.

[koto_ryu]

Originally Posted by Broadsword2004

What's the cestus??

The cestus was a thin leather glove with spikes or blades that protruded over the knuckles so that boxing matches would be exceptionally bloody. The Romans created it and I think they used them in pankration matches too.

[kickboxfan]

i couldn't imagine life w/o boxing or kickboxing and mma