Did losing Lennox mark Boxing's real decline!!!

Did Boxing become a different beast when we lost it's last real figurehead???

Sure we had Jones, Delahoya, Floyd etc but the Heavyweight crown is the greatest title in sports and gets the most coverage!!!

Did Boxing really hit the skids after it's last Global and transitional Heavy-holder left the Sport??

Losing Lennox retirement hurt the Sport in a big way for me!! Love him or hate him we lost it's biggest name and it's never really recovered!!

Only when the rest of Boxing is thriving a la the 80s can Boxing escape from a poor Heavy division..It is and will always be much more important than any other class because of it's great heritage...

Did losing Lennox mark Boxing's real decline??? Think it did!!

Chris Byrd
Roy Jones Jr.
Corrie Sanders
John Ruiz
Lamon Brewster
Vitali Klitschko
Hasim Rahman
Nikolay Valuev
Sergei Liakhovich
Wladimir Klitschko
Oleg Maskaev
Shannon Briggs
Ruslan Chagaev
Sultan Ibragimov
Samuel Peter
David Haye
Alexander Povetkin (?)

This list of 'Big 4' belt holders since Lewis' retirement perhaps shows part of the problem, the majority of them are eastern Europeans who have failed to connect with the wider boxing public.

The Klitschko brothers are quite happy making their money in Germany, and while that may be good for them it is not good for the sport in general as, much as it pains me to say it, what the sport needs is an American heavyweight champion.

However, there is pretty much nothing coming out of the US in terms of challenging the K bros, so as much as you can blame Lennox's retirement you also have to look at the state of the American heavyweight scene to explain the continuing decline of the sport.

heavyweight it certainly did, bit harsh on the lower weights as since then we still had morrales v barrera, morrales v pac man, jmm v paco, mayweather in there as well as other great fights and great fighters. but do agree with the heavyweights

Lennox was the last great heavyweight.

We won't get a heavyweight like him again. Boxing has shifted away from HW because frankly, its become less about punching and more about fitness. When was the last great HW knockout? That was what we watch the marquee division for. Now its just Decision, Decision, TKO, Decision, RTD etc.

People need to have a little perspective and relax a little, the division was apparently dead and unlikely to recover when James Jeffries retired and that was 100 years ago, has managed to limp on for a good few years since and the likes of Dempsey, ali and Louis did not make too bad a fist of filling the gap left by the boilermaker. The division has always been in peaks and troughs, is just in a trough now, only needs one fighter to lift it out of the doldrums and as sure as day turns into night such a fighter will emerge eventually.

And that fighter is Tyson Fury.

Union Cane wrote:And that fighter is Tyson Fury.

I've changed my mind we're all doomed.

TRUSSMAN66 wrote:Did losing Lennox mark Boxing's real decline?

Heavyweight boxing, yes. Boxing as a whole, no, I don't think so.

Understandable points, Truss, as the Heavyweight class is the marquee one of the sport. That said, since Lewis hung the gloves up we've had a series of very considerable PPV bouts such as Mayweather-De la Hoya, Pacquiao-Cotto etc which have sold exceptionally well. Alvarez's last fight, I believe, had an overall television audience of almost forty million. While we could do with a State-side Heavyweight champion with a powerful promoter, I don't think the lack of one, or Lewis' retirement, has really caused a decline all on its own.

It's a shame that, due to all this moaning regarding the Heavyweight scene over the last few years, certain people seem to have completely missed the fact that we've just gone through something of a classic era near the bottom of the weight scale. Wonjongkam, Israel Vasquez, Rafa Marquez, Donaire, Gamboa, Calderon etc all within the last decade, for instance.

Boxing itself hasn't really declined all that much since 2004, just the fortunes of the Heavyweight division, in terms of both quality and world-wide interest. Not the first time it's hit a low point, and I'm sure it will recover in time.

These are all one-off fighters and fights....What I'm saying is that when guys like Holy and Lewis were champions people would still show an interest in a world fight featuring guys that weren't big names....

Now it seems that no one cares once you get past Ortiz, Donaire, Martinez level etc...............

Look at Bradley lot's of belts little interest....

Think we may have lost the soft core of fighting fan around the time of Lewis retirement..

Union Cane wrote:And that fighter is Tyson Fury.

or Audley!

The problem for me is the Europeans (I call them that because I don't like to tar us with the same brush!).

Far too many European boxers lack the ambition necessary to become the real champion, and more than happy to hang on to their one belt meal ticket - millions of European fans riduclously easy to please. The fighters, fans, promoters and TV, none of them care a jot about whether they are good champions or not and the fighters themselves don't give a stuff about world acceptance, just so long as millions of dopey krauts turn up and tune in.

In many ways we should thank the K bros for tidying things up. If memory serves, in about 2006 you had a champions list that went something like - Maskaev, Chagaev, W Klitschko and Ibragimov. A terrible state of affairs. However at least the borthers K tidied that up a bit.

Now if only Vitali went away we'd have a real champion at heavyweight that no-one could dispute. Have more respect for VK than most but his time has gone and he's now just burden. Would be great if WK could then snap up the belt VK leaves behind. It would certainly improve things a little anyway.

As someone else said - there needs to be a strong American champion or at least another British champion, as Americans and Brits do tend to have more ambition than their continental cousins.