ChevyVanMiller Posted August 23, 2008 Share Posted August 23, 2008 Ali, Foreman, Spinks and Leonard. All were Olympic gold medalists. The US had won 108 Olympic medals in boxing before this year. In 2008, we've won one (the bronze medal in the heavyweight division). Shameful! Seems like an indicator of boxing's overall decline, coupled with the rise in popularity of MMA. Or do you think our guys just stunk this year. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChevyVanMiller Posted August 23, 2008 Author Share Posted August 23, 2008 Based on the underwhelming response to this thread I think we can safely surmise that boxing is dead. RIP Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Buffaloed in Pa Posted August 23, 2008 Share Posted August 23, 2008 Based on the underwhelming response to this thread I think we can safely surmise that boxing is dead. RIP Yeah pretty much. I even boxed a little in high school.I never watch any of it . Just the oldies. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VOR Posted August 23, 2008 Share Posted August 23, 2008 Boxing has been a joke for years. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Taro T Posted August 23, 2008 Share Posted August 23, 2008 Based on the underwhelming response to this thread I think we can safely surmise that boxing is dead. RIP I watched a few bouts, but didn't really get into it. Between the Americans looking pretty weak and the scoring system being too screwy, there wasn't much reason to watch. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alaska Darin Posted August 23, 2008 Share Posted August 23, 2008 Boxing is certainly down in the U.S. I tried to watch some of it but the scoring system is too big of a problem to keep my interest. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zona Posted August 23, 2008 Share Posted August 23, 2008 The scoring system, and the surprising number of cat/slap fights is what turned me off. The old days had guys who were pro caliber duking it out for the medals. These days looked like a bunch of bitches slaping it out behind the gym after school....Not alot of quality fighters this year. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete Posted August 24, 2008 Share Posted August 24, 2008 MMA knocked out boxing Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BuffOrange Posted August 24, 2008 Share Posted August 24, 2008 Olympic boxing is tough to take seriously when things like this can happen. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hirly5 Posted August 24, 2008 Share Posted August 24, 2008 Boxing is dead as a sport. It only has a hardcore following in the US. The heavyweight division is terrible. The only champion in the heavyweight division I know of is one of the Klitchko brothers. No one grows up now wanting to be a boxer. Get punched in the head a bunch of times or play a different sport. I wish boxing would make a comeback. As someone else said though, the scoring system is stupid. I see boxing in the same light as the other Olympic sports like track and field, swimming, and gymnastics. No one cares about them only when the Olympics roll around. The best athletes do not go into these sports anymore. Everyone is banging on the US track and field for getting beat by Jamaica but maybe Jamaica puts all their funding into track and field. Does anyone watch track and field on a regular basis. The only meets I hear of are the Penn Relays and the Prefontaine meet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dante Posted August 24, 2008 Share Posted August 24, 2008 All the really good atheletes aren't boxing now. 76 Olympics were unbelievable talent wise for the U.S. Ray Leanord, Howard Davis, Leo Randolph, Spinx bros etc. Big John Tate was the only real slug on the team and compared to this years US rep for heavy, he was pretty damn good. I think the death of boxing can be traced back to one thing. Greed. Back in the early 90s, late 80sThey decided to put any fight that was even remotely competitive on PPV which cut out a lot of audience. We just got the low level fights. Killed the interest. I think another contributing factor was terrible decisions on fights. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Huuuge Bills Posted August 24, 2008 Share Posted August 24, 2008 All the really good atheletes aren't boxing now. 76 Olympics were unbelievable talent wise for the U.S. Ray Leanord, Howard Davis, Leo Randolph, Spinx bros etc. Big John Tate was the only real slug on the team and compared to this years US rep for heavy, he was pretty damn good. I think the death of boxing can be traced back to one thing. Greed. Back in the early 90s, late 80s They decided to put any fight that was even remotely competitive on PPV which cut out a lot of audience. We just got the low level fights. Killed the interest. I think another contributing factor was terrible decisions on fights. That's what killed it for me, no way I'm gonna spend $50 to see a fight that might be good. That, and the fact that there 47 weight divisions, each with their own 27 titles. There should be no more than 4-5 weight classes, and ONE title in each. There is no reason why a guy who weighs 155 LBS should be afraid to fight someone who weighs 157 LBS. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bmwolf21 Posted August 25, 2008 Share Posted August 25, 2008 That's what killed it for me, no way I'm gonna spend $50 to see a fight that might be good. That, and the fact that there 47 weight divisions, each with their own 27 titles. There should be no more than 4-5 weight classes, and ONE title in each. There is no reason why a guy who weighs 155 LBS should be afraid to fight someone who weighs 157 LBS. Agreed. We learned our PPV lesson when Tyson destroyed Spinks in less time than it took to take a bathroom break. The pizza and wings didn't get there before the fight ended, and the pizzeria was just two blocks up the road. If boxing wants to be relevant again in the US (I have no idea of boxing's popularity in Europe) then the entire system needs an overhaul. Get the fights off PPV and put some on NBC, CBS, ABC. Consolidate the sanctioning bodies - do they really need five, each with their own titles and champions? -- and that should help make with scheduling issues and making sure guys earn and get their title shots and that champions face the top contenders. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dante Posted August 25, 2008 Share Posted August 25, 2008 Agreed. We learned our PPV lesson when Tyson destroyed Spinks in less time than it took to take a bathroom break. The pizza and wings didn't get there before the fight ended, and the pizzeria was just two blocks up the road. If boxing wants to be relevant again in the US (I have no idea of boxing's popularity in Europe) then the entire system needs an overhaul. Get the fights off PPV and put some on NBC, CBS, ABC. Consolidate the sanctioning bodies - do they really need five, each with their own titles and champions? -- and that should help make with scheduling issues and making sure guys earn and get their title shots and that champions face the top contenders. CBS and NBC used to have significant fights on every Saturday afternoon in the late 70s and most of the 80s. Guys like Ray Mancini, Alexis Arguello, Billy Costello all would appear. It really got you interested in the sport. I have a lot of them on vhs taped live. I used to love boxing back then. All my tapes have original commercials etc Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bmwolf21 Posted August 25, 2008 Share Posted August 25, 2008 CBS and NBC used to have significant fights on every Saturday afternoon in the late 70s and most of the 80s. Guys like Ray Mancini, Alexis Arguello, Billy Costello all would appear. It really got you interested in the sport. I have a lot of them on vhs taped live. I used to love boxing back then. All my tapes have original commercials etc I think moving back to free TV would be a huge step toward renewing interest in boxing. Like Huuuge said, I'm not going to spend $50 to maybe see a good fight or to watch guys I've never heard of, and I suspect there are a lot of sports fans that think the same way. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KD in CA Posted August 25, 2008 Share Posted August 25, 2008 They still have boxing in the Olympics? Who knew. I never saw a boxing match, discussion about it, etc. I also never saw the basketball or baseball. However, at least half a dozen times last week I flipped to the Olympics and got either 1) platform diving (once it was pairs...oooh!) or 2) rhythmic gymnastics (whatever the !@#$ that is). There was a thread here about why people don't care about the Olympics anymore. That's easy; there are only about four events the TV nitwits are interested in showing; every single day of the first week was swimming and every single day of the 2d week was some 12 year fixed gymnastics nonsense. With the exception of catching a couple of the big track and field races, it was a total waste of time. And when the winter Olympics rolls around we'll get night after night of figure skating. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KD in CA Posted August 25, 2008 Share Posted August 25, 2008 CBS and NBC used to have significant fights on every Saturday afternoon in the late 70s and most of the 80s. Guys like Ray Mancini, Alexis Arguello, Billy Costello all would appear. It really got you interested in the sport. I have a lot of them on vhs taped live. I used to love boxing back then. All my tapes have original commercials etc I was into boxing as a kid for that exact reason -- big fights on TV all the time. I couldn't name five current pro boxers today. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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