5 Ways to Save Boxing

Boxing is fading away as a sport and without serious and life saving surgery it will be gone in twenty years. How can it be saved? Here are 5 ways I think would save boxing from extinction:

1. A REAL heavyweight champion. It need be as good as the likes of Ali, Tyson, Marciano or Lewis but somebody who can represent the pinnacle of the sport with charisma, talent, excitement and dignity. Somebody who can clear out these oversized Russians, overweight Americans and overhyped British crop of fighters that plague the division.

2. A governing body. Set one up asap. Nearly all other sports have one so why should boxing be different? People just make up the rules as they go along these days.

3. Top class drug testing. Weed out the cheats and ban them for life.

4. Improved judging. It seems every week I am reading about a bad decision or incompetant officiating. Lets set some quality standards and get rid of those not making the grade.

5. Remove pay per view. Boxing should be on regular tv.

1) Charisma and class do not go hand in hand. K2 are classy guys (publically) but totally devoid of charisma. Haye has charisma by the bucket load. Is he classy? Personally give me charisma over class. Charisma divides opinion and gets people talking. People will want to talk about the HW champ.

2) Boxing is fragmented due to money.

3) Agreed

4) Judging will always be subjective, but I say that in close fights, judges should be made to explain their decisions. Pay them better also. Makes it less likely for a hotel room, a hooker and a good meal will sway their opinion.

5) Too much money in PPV for the boxers themselves. I think major outlets should do deals with terrestrial TV to have major fights shown later at least.

But lets not get all doe eyed. When it was on free to air TV, we saw fights 3-4 times a year. And then it was only the major fights and not the undercards.

1.) won't happen, boxing isn't THE sport anymore whereas it was in the times of Ali etc, the top heavyweights contenders cut there losses and turn to American football and the big guys and prospects don't have engaging exciting styles and the charisma

2.) It hasn't happened so far so doubt it'll happen now, easier to do on paper than in reality

3.) the fact you have to actually ask for this is disgusting, every sport has drugs tests and given boxers probably use substances more than any other sport do should be mandatory. Slime like arum wil let in the way of this.

4.) This is a must, I personally can't see how Bradley, williams, helenius and rios could stake a claim. They don't need re-learning, anyone could see they lost, judge or not

5.) only the big names in the sport get PPV and they deserve it imo. The main guys of every sport get the big bucks, they don't get a weekly wage whereas football players etc do. Floyd and manny should be up there with tiger woods, messi etc for highest paid athletes

Good thread Gordy.

1) Granted not always the most technical division in boxing but it is the one that generates the interest in all sectors of the public, even those who don't normally follow boxing.

2) A governing body and abolishment of 'The Alphabet Soup'. Can we not just have one organisation that determines who is champion instead of having silver belts, diamond belts etc.

3) Olympic style definately. Let's make the sport pure again.

4) Judging is always a tough one as aforementioned by Az but why is it so often that the majority of the boxing community see one thing and the judges see something entirely different.

5) I'm not sure removing PPV would change anything. I think the coverage should certainly be increased and more frequent though. Even down to grass roots if we have to just to generate more of an interest.

You really in the Falklands SS?

He is

Gordy mate by regular TV I guess you mean council TV channels 1-5?

If you do mate the problem is they aren't interested. Channel 5 are but don't have the money to invest in the sport they only have enough cash to put on 6 or 7 shows a year.

I don't know why channels 1-5 aren't interested. Whenever boxing is on it draws very good audiences.

It does but the minute ITV had to make cuts they dropped boxing and the beeb haven't been interested since Fraudley. I think part of the problem might be the promoters and the games they play.

I think another might be that TV companies don't know what they are getting because unlike other sports there is no structure or set fixtures so they are sort of blindly investing in something.

Well seeing as sky are dropping many promoters, perhaps terrestrial TV may cherry pick and because bbc got burned by Farudley, they may perhaps have some input with the fights. They will not expect contenders fighting rank outsiders (C5 maybe but Fury is a laugh especially after "my big fat gipsy wedding").

I would like to see channel 5 give fat Mick the green light to go and get a few of the Olympians when they turn pro. Forget about Fury. Galahad and Eubank Jr look impressive. If he could get Anthony Joshua he could have a major star on his hands.

Preach it brudder-I have been droning on about (well,lots of things as well) pay per view for ages and it does make me feel like a curmudgeon, but ruddy heck, why make boxing more elitist and expensive when it is as you say on life support?
I know for a fact that respected boxing punters on 606 are not as in love with the sport as they used to be. And how about ensuring that if you are any kind of belt holder/champ, you fight at least three times a year?And against ranked challengers, no more Audleys sneaking their way in on the Sky hype machine alone. Another depressing recent development is for hyped fighters to fight once or twice a year and pretending to be a film star/gangster the rest of the time.

WHU_Champo_League_in_7Yrs wrote:1.) won't happen, boxing isn't THE sport anymore whereas it was in the times of Ali etc, the top heavyweights contenders cut there losses and turn to American football and the big guys and prospects don't have engaging exciting styles and the charisma

2.) It hasn't happened so far so doubt it'll happen now, easier to do on paper than in reality

3.) the fact you have to actually ask for this is disgusting, every sport has drugs tests and given boxers probably use substances more than any other sport do should be mandatory. Slime like arum wil let in the way of this.

4.) This is a must, I personally can't see how Bradley, williams, helenius and rios could stake a claim. They don't need re-learning, anyone could see they lost, judge or not

5.) only the big names in the sport get PPV and they deserve it imo. The main guys of every sport get the big bucks, they don't get a weekly wage whereas football players etc do. Floyd and manny should be up there with tiger woods, messi etc for highest paid athletes

Grand points Gordy!

i think the fact the world has been calling for floyd v pac for 3 and half years and we still not even close to makeing it sums it up to me , also haye v vitali has been a year in the makeing with its on its off its hes fault no its hes fault saga just annoys the fans , and soon as fighters reach the top of the sport it seems they are less likely the face the best in risk of loseing , its like man utd who have been at the top for years not wanting to face man city , imagine haveing to wait 4 years to watch that !!

Same day weigh ins.