OT: Sad Day in American Sports

[mschwade]

It's a sad day in American Sports when nobody is talking about Deontay Wilder's heavyweight title win last night to bring the title back to the USA. Even more sad, when this story is only good enough for the 5th headline down on the right side of ESPN.com. This was once, arguably, the biggest sport in America!

[Jim65]

Pay Per View ruined the sport for me. There was a time when only really special fights were on PPV, now it seems every title fight is. I can't afford to watch and really stopped caring about boxing altogether.

[joed25]

I think boxing is a horrible violent sport. Good riddance.

[w7imel]

I for one enjoyed the fight!!!! Glad USA fighter could win, he fought a very good fight. To win this for his daughter was very nice as well!!!

[D. Bergin]

Well it doesn't really help that he's not really the Champion, title or not, and he hasn't exactly fought a murderer's row of opponents to get where he's at right now.

Outside of Wlad (who is 38 BTW), the Heavyweight division is very weak right now......even counting the non-U.S. crop of fighters out there.

Deontay also needs to fight Wlad before he turns 40, for many people to even take THAT fight seriously.

[khkco4bls]

that's because there isn't a murderers row out there

[rats60]

Originally Posted by Jim65

Pay Per View ruined the sport for me. There was a time when only really special fights were on PPV, now it seems every title fight is. I can't afford to watch and really stopped caring about boxing altogether.

And that it seems like there are 10 champions for each division that don't want to fight each other.

[clutch]

I also believe that mixed martial arts (UFC) is absorbing a lot of the fans including the younger generation.

[r2678]

I thought this thread was going to be about the Packers loss.

[mschwade]

Originally Posted by clutch

I also believe that mixed martial arts (UFC) is absorbing a lot of the fans including the younger generation.

Which I don't understand one bit... Why are we so careful about concussions, etc. in sports like football and hockey, yet UFC/MMA is being hyped and promoted with no regard for the seriousness of injuries incurred during their fights.

[packs]

I know the sport is in its infancy but you don't fight in the UFC for 10 years or once a week. So I would say your healing time is increased dramatically and there are also trained medical personnel who are on site and not interested in winning anything.

[Exhibitman]

Originally Posted by D. Bergin

Well it doesn't really help that he's not really the Champion, title or not

Bingo! The champ is Klitschko. It was a very entertaining bout but not the real championship fight.

The problem with the heavyweights isn't that they are so bad, or even worse than has been the historical norm [remember Joe Louis's Bum of the Month?], it is that fans got spoiled by two great eras in heavyweight boxing during the last 40 years: the 1970s Ali-Frazier-Foreman-Norton etc. era [probably the greatest 5-10 years in the division's history] and the 1990s Tyson-Holyfield-Lewis-Bowe era.

I also don't think UFC takes audience from boxing. They are very different sports.

[bnorth]

It's been so long since I watched boxing I had no idea who the champ was/is.

I liked the 80's with Holmes, Hagler, and early Holyfield. I done a lot of amateur boxing back then. Seemed like when I quit boxing it I also quit watching it.

Now me and my friends that used to box get together to watch MMA and not a single one of us watch boxing anymore.