I had a lot of time to think about this and was wondering what happened to the sweet science? I mean lately we had some good fights but when you ask an average citizen who is the world heavyweight champion the normal answer I get is, “I don’t know?” When Joe Louis, Muhammad Ali, and Mike Tyson were champions the average citizen who did not follow boxing knew the answer to this. Why can’t we go back to those days? What happened? The first thought that came to mind was Dana White and MMA. To be honest, neither Dana nor the sport of MMA is at fault here. Dana White who is a true fan of the pugilistic sport took the same concept of boxing from the past and uses it for his events. He would have a card stack with notable names and will match them in competition according to their record. That way you will always have a competitive fight and an event card that the fans will walk away feeling that they got their money’s worth. Even if the main event ends quickly the lead up to the main event you saw some great exciting fights. That’s why the average boxing fans jumps ship to MMA. Listen I am a big fan of mixed martial arts, ever since 96’, but boxing is my first love. So who is really at fault here? Is it the politics of boxing? Is it the greedy and sleazy promoters? How about the many boxing organizations with meaningless titles? Or is it the fighters who refuse to fight the best? The answer is all the above. I mean how can these judges justify these horrid decisions? This is what turns fans away from the sport. Like the fights of Lewis/Holyfield I, Louis/Walcott I, and De la Hoya/ Trinidad & Strum. Decisions like these kill the sport of boxing. You end up screwing the fighter out of a decision so you can make a big money fight with the other fighter. At the same time you end up cheating the fans that paid big money to see a good fight and justice. The promoters of the game are also at fault. Why are promoters getting paid more than the fighters? It’s the fighters who are risking their lives not the promoters. Don’t get me wrong they are great at selling the fights to the public. (Just remember that their first agenda is to make money by somebody else’s expense by any means necessary.) They’re that good they can even sell a fight between an ant and a spider. This is my opinion, but I believe they have their place but not to the point that they can influence, dictate, or change the game of boxing. For example, there was once a promoter who controlled the top 8 heavyweight contenders and the heavyweight champion. Now if that’s not tampering I don’t know what is. These promoters do not let other fighters mature or grow. They even protect certain fighters from dangerous opponents. In other words we let them dictate to us who is a great fighter or champ and not us. Read more: http://www.boxingnews24.com/2011/06/who-or-what-is-killing-boxing/#more-69431
