I was born in 1974, a time of greatness in boxing, in my opinion. In 1974, Muhammad Ali (Cassius Clay) beats Joe Frazier in a rematch to regain his heavyweight title. 1974 also boasted the great RUMBLE IN THE JUNGLE featuring Ali and George Foreman. There were a lot of good action fights in 1974. For example, you had the two matches mentioned above and then you also had Foreman vs. Norton, Frazier vs. Quarry II, Duran vs. DeJesus II, and Arguello vs. Olivares.
Over the years, boxing has given us many stars and many great moments. But the question has now become CAN boxing give us any great stars and any great moments?
What happened to the days when a fighter had to EARN his way to a championship match? Now, we have fighters who are made not by their skill and their talent, but by the big corporations that back them and hand pick their opponents. We no longer see the classic 1 - 2 punch combo. We rarely see body work. Footwork is a thing of the past. Conditioning, I don't think many of today's fighter's know what the word means. We are being given a watered down, money hungry version of the sport we used to consider great! And they wonder why the sport is losing fans!?!
Today's fighters are more concerned about their image and their wallets than their legacy and their fans. If we are lucky, we'll see a fighter once a year, maybe twice if they are on the decline of their careers and want to pad their wallets a little more. And then we only see them in matches that are long overdue or that are complete mismatches. We can only see them if we have cable and the good fights, you know the headliners, only if we pay 60 bucks to watch that fight and 3 other meaningless fights before that.
Where are the Wide World of Sports for the new generation? Where are the Saturday evening, once in a blue moon, mega fight on NBC to draw new fans? Where are the boxers in the community? Where are the boxers standing on principles? We don't get that any longer. No, what do we get? Boxers that make it "rain" in the club. Boxers out on a street corner shooting craps.
With all that said, will today's boxer's become legends like the boxers of old? Will we have another Muhammad Ali? Will there ever be another Sugar Ray Robinson? Where are the Rocky Marcianos and Joe Lewis's? What about the Haglers, Hearns and Leonards of the sport? Will we ever see another GREAT one? There are a few today, who will have legendary status such as Roy Jones Jr., Bernard Hopkins, Marco Antonio Barrera, Eric Morales, Oscar De La Hoya, Shane Mosley and maybe even Floyd Mayweather Jr. But after that, what's left? Who's left?
I love my boxing. It's ingrained in my spirit and in my soul! Yet each weekend, I cry out for the truth of the sport. The sweet science. And yet all I get, is trash. Boxing, make me believe again! Give me a reason to be a true fan. Don't let me down again, not this time! The life of the sport is leaving, let's revive it!
I challenge any fighter or promoter to go against the grain. Go against the alphabets that are ruling the sport. Make a difference. Make a change. Make it great again!
great article
Several good points, the boxing sport is dying with each fight.When the boxers and promoters focus on the fights instead of the money that will be made...we'll have a chance to see some good matches again.
great post!
Great article...keep up the good work. Looking forward to seeing more articles written by you.
Boxing is a sport, just like baseball, where the word 'older' or 'old' or 'old-school' inherently begins to mean 'BETTER'. Regardless of how old you're talking about.
Thirty years from now people will talk about great fighters from today like Manny Pacquiao (with the weight range he's had they'll probably call him one of the greatest of all time), like Andre Berto, like Juan Manuel Lopez, like Chad Dawson, like Jorge Linares maybe even Kelly Pavlik if he can get back on track; just like they've done with every other era.
Boxing is not dying and its no on life support. Not even close. It's just become the fun sport to bash. Those who do it well are making more money at it than they ever have and those who like watching it are paying more to watch it than they ever have and if you raise the price, WE'LL still find a way to pay it.
When you take a deeper look at it and see the real state of boxing. You'll see it stepped its game up. Big name fighters are fighting each other for absolutely no reason than just because its the thing to do. No titles and if it is,no one cares. People are moving up and moving down and making catch weights. The big fights are being made.
But, as I said, in boxing, OLDER = BETTER. So it'll probably take us about 25 to 30 years just to remember how sweet it was way back in the early 2000's.
The heavyweights suck everything else is great
I guess boxing is now getting corrupt like the music business.The good thing about this is that regardless of what goes on,1 great or legend will always emerge some how,some way.There will be pretenders and fakes but out of those bunch,1 legend will emerge or surface.
Loved it, Loved it, Loved it. Tina your article was right on point. I'm a few years older than you and you summarized exactly the way I feel about boxing. There was a time when we were able to watch the development of fighters and craved the opportunity to see them in upcoming matchups. Rarely in today's world of boxing do we know the backgrounds and fight histories of these fighters and what qualifies them to be placed in the spotlight. I like you would like to see the resurrection of this great sport and for it to once again gain the main stream respect that used to have.
Crazy but true Roy Jones ain't no great lemme just throw that out there real fast lmao
these lil niggaz are scared to get punched in the face
nobody knuckles up anymore so meh
I am good. Wait.....I suck
Ask Kelly Pavlik about boxing now. I just took him to school.
Boxing took a turn for the worse when they brithed the various Belt Champions. IBC, IBF, WBC, WBA, BET and MTV... who the hell are those champions? While it is clear that the last two organizations are not affiliated with boxing, it illustrates the WACKNESS linked to professional boxing today.
If becoming a champion is as easy as waiting for a corporation to form and appoint a "contender" then hell, I wanna be the middle-weight champ of the WTF. Have one, maybe two factions that represent boxing and you start in a good direction.
I like to passion but it is pretty interesting you fail to see what it is. All sports have changed. Football is a lot less violent due to all the rule changes. Records don't matter as much now that the season has been expanded and stuff. The NBA had changes too. Three point line and zone defenses. All things change. I miss the old days of cbs and abc networks pushing fights all the time. Those were great days, but how great were they for the industry that needed showtime, hbo, and pay per view to survive. The skill level has dropped because the money out there doesn't afford for all fighters to make the fights they need. But everyone is playing on the same field. The lack of money and the need of money has hurt the sport more than anything. But at the end of the day boxing is the best sport out there.
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