[quote]FightinIrish26 wrote:
[quote]CMdad wrote:
I think the most important factor in this fight that resulted in Floyd’s win wasn’t his footwork, clinching etc. but, his effective use of his substantial reach advantage. When I saw the tale of the tape stats the day before the fight and saw the 5" reach advantage Floyd had, I knew there was no hope for Manny. All night long, he kept him at bay with his jab. Manny could never find his range for longer than a few seconds at a time whereas Floyd found his early and engaged at that distance almost the entire fight. Whenever Manny was able to break through that fence of jabs, Floyd would quickly dance away as he is apt to do.
On another note, if I read another column about how this was boxing’s last gasp and how now with Floyd retiring boxing is dead, I will fucking put on Angel Manfredy’s old El Diablo mask and start dropping fools. What this fight proves more than anything is that people- and I’m talking about your average casual sports fan here, not the hardcore boxing purists- are still drawn to the spectacle that is championship boxing if there is a compelling fight to be made. The fight itself turned out to be another Mayweather dud but, when people were bombarded with the story lines heading into this fight, they tuned in in sure to be record numbers. Just think what this could have done to get a whole new generation of people into boxing if it had been a Ward vs Gatti bloodbath (which is what most casual observers desire). I don’t think boxing will ever regain its primacy among American sports simply because our society has undergone such a pussification.
When boxing reigned supreme in the late 1800s all the way into the mid 1900s, life was fucking harsh. People lived hard and died young with few of the creature comforts that we have today. People at that time were used to suffering as part of regular life and therefore were very accepting of suffering in their forms of entertainment. These days, any sport where there’s a risk of injury, especially brain injury, is vilified and marginalized. Boxing and now hockey and even the sacred goose, football, are beginning to feel the effects of this. However, no matter how “civilized” we become, in our hearts, we will always enjoy seeing someone beat the shit out of someone else. If you come to an intersection and on one corner there is a football game, on another a baseball game, a soccer game on a third and 2 men fighting on the fourth, I’m willing to bet 90% of people will run to watch the 2 men fighting. For this reason, BOXING WILL NEVER DIE.[/quote]
Yup.[/quote]
Some interesting facts on the 'death of Boxing":
“Remarks such as “UFC/MMA is the real winner” come with a heavy dose of ignorance of the sport of boxing, which has had more than its fair share of successful fights and fighters independent of Mayweather and Pacquiao. Just to cite a few examples from the past two years”:
Carl Froch vs. George Groves II - May 30th, 2014. WBA and IBF super-middleweight champion Carl Froch had a controversial stoppage win over George Groves in November 2013 in a fight he was arguably losing. They had an immediate rematch booked in the famed Wembley Stadium in London, which produced a sellout attendance of 77,000 and broke all attendance and gate records for British boxing. The big fight ended in a big KO for Froch. In the United States, HBO averaged 830,000 viewers despite the early afternoon start time. In the UK, where the pay-per-view market is relatively scared, Sky Box Office had a reported 900,000 buys at the cost of $25 US, which is an increase from the country’s standard PPV costs.
Saul Alvarez vs. Austin Trout - April 20th, 2013. Mexican superstar Canelo Alvarez proved himself to be exactly what the description entailed, as he sold out the Alamodome in San Antonio for his junior middleweight fight against Austin Trout, who came in with an undefeated record and off a big win over Miguel Cotto. Canelo scored a knockdown and eventual decision win over Trout, pulling in an attendance of 39,472 and a Showtime average of 1.1 million viewers.
Bermane Stiverne vs. Deontay Wilder - January 17th, 2015. I know what you’re thinking, “Who and who?”. American Olympic bronze medalist Deontay Wilder became the first US heavyweight champion for any major sanctioning body since 2007, and Showtime attracted a peak number of 1.34 million and averaged out to be the 4th highest-rated bout in the channel’s history.
Gennady Golovkin vs. Martin Murray - February 21st, 2015. “GGG”, as he is affectionately known, is the best middleweight in the world and has finished all but 3 of his opponents in 32 pro fights. In his main event vs. England’s Martin Murray in Monaco, the Kazakh picked Murray apart and forced an 11th round stoppage after knocking him down 3 times prior. Golovkin’s fight was broadcast on HBO with peak viewership of 938,000 for a daytime event and 1.4 million on the primetime replay. His previous bout against Marco Antonio Rubio averaged 1.3 million viewers in 2014 and was the 2nd most watched non-PPV bout in the US last year.
Wladimir Klitschko vs. Bryant Jennings - April 25th, 2015. While UFC 186 was going on, heavyweight kingpin Wladimir Klitschko made his first appearance in the United States since an absolute stinker of a fight against Sultan Ibragimov in 2008. Klitschko’s punch-and-hug style and the general lack of well-known opponents contributed to his fights being held exclusively in Europe and not even televised on HBO. Klitschko was able to keep his dominance over the division going with a decision win over the American, but the real surprise was his drawing capabilities after such a long time away from US shores. More than 17,000 turned up to see him at Madison Square Garden and HBO had a strong 1.7 million rating for the event, which is the highest mark for HBO since 2012. Aside from that, Klitschko is a major draw in Germany and routinely has sold out German soccer stadiums and the O2 World Arena.
Next week – NEXT WEEK! – HBO will televise a junior middleweight fight between Canelo Alvarez and American heavy-hitter James Kirkland at Minute Maid Park, a 40,000 seat baseball stadium in Houston. StubHub ticket sales suggest that only 2,000+ tickets are left on sale. If the sport is dead then someone needs to alert the attendees, because this would mark Canelo’s 2nd stadium show in as many years. The UFC has held exactly the same number of stadium shows in its 22 year history.
Even extending beyond HBO and Showtime, Al Haymon’s new Premier Boxing Champions venture has placed boxing back on network television after multiple decades of HBO and Showtime having a stranglehold on the majority of the sport’s top competitors. It’s early days but NBC’s ratings have proven to be comparable to that of UFC on FOX shows, however duly noting that the UFC still holds the edge in the key 18-49 demographic. Top Rank has just struck a deal with TruTV for Friday night broadcasts, which means that live boxing is available for viewing on CBS, NBC, ABC, Spike TV, HBO, Showtime, ESPN, TruTV, and even BET via their time-buy deal with Roc Nation.
If you want to point to something that is dying for boxing, it’s the pay-per-view market. Neither HBO nor Showtime ran a PPV this year prior to Mayweather vs. Pacquiao, and do not have another one lined up in the next several months. But the decline of the boxing PPV has been almost a benefit to the consumer, as promoters have de-emphasized the quantity of PPVs over time and will likely continue to do so once Mayweather and Pacquiao are retired.
Boxing isn’t going anywhere. It cannot be denied that national public interest in the sport has taken a considerable hit as the decades have passed by, but the repeated premature declarations of its death have got to go. MMA fans perpetuate this more than any other combat sports fanbase, perhaps parroting UFC president Dana White ad nauseam. If it’s not discussing boxing’s death, it’s endless fantasizing over “How would a boxer fare in an MMA fight?” as fighter after fighter boldly states how quickly they’d beat Floyd Mayweather. This is the type of inferiority complex mentality that makes the MMA world continue to look like the attention-craving little brother of combat sports. Boxing and MMA are not in competition against each other and they are perfectly capable of co-existing as they have been for years, and it’s foolish to think last night’s big event spells an entire sport’s imminent doom, especially when the facts and figures suggest otherwise.(From an article on Bloodyelbow.com)
