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View Full Version : when did boxing start to decrese in popularity?


chung
08-16-2007, 02:45 AM
:roll:

CarltonBlues
08-16-2007, 02:55 AM
When PPVs started.

Lance_Uppercut
08-16-2007, 03:09 AM
When interest was lost in the last two American HW's with some clout, Holyfield and Tyson. As great as Lewis was, he wasn't the type who kept fans coming for more. And it only got worse since.

Richel Hersisia
08-16-2007, 03:14 AM
After Rocky Marciano retired

psychopath
08-16-2007, 03:32 AM
when did boxing start to decrese in popularity?

Since illogical and stupid fans started to invade cyber.


:lol: :lol: :lol: :D :good

Jose FM
08-16-2007, 04:33 AM
In America?

The three big sports in the U.S. at the turn of the century were Horseracing, Baseball, and boxing.

Boxing fell from those heights near the end of the 50's in the U.S.

It then took another fall after the 70's as the public had been led to believe boxing = heavyweights.

Network television left boxing near the end of the 70's as well. As other sports just made them more money.

Even now you will see a bowling commerical on ESPN before you will see a boxing one.

The 80's saw an upsurge due to SRL and such but it was temporary, just like the Tyson affect was temporary.
I think all your points are on the money, but this point is off. What happened was a dumbing down of the American public cause the american public was not willing to follow boxing into the intricacies of divisions and champions and the actual process of the sweet science. So the rise of stars will always be there with the american public, examples of them are Ali, Leonard, Tyson, Foreman, DLH, and whoever follows him. So there will also be a mainstream following for those who can please the crowd and give people a bang for their buck.

Jose FM
08-16-2007, 04:35 AM
After Mike Tyson's riegn of terror in the early 90's even though Holyfield carried it for another year or two (After the Bowe Loss)
So i guess the Fact that DLH surpassed Tyson as the All Time king in ppv sales doesnt count, huh? Numbers speak volumes, and his speak loudest of all.:deal

fists of fury
08-16-2007, 05:36 AM
1990s.

Mendoza
08-16-2007, 07:02 AM
Boxing has always been popular with its fans. The fans remain. The reasons for boxing decline in popularity it three fold. First off the promoters need to stage more big fights. Secondly the media needs to stop their bitching. The USA is out of the heavyweight business, but that doesn’t mean the entire coverage of the Sport in North America has to suffer. Lastly, network TV’s on cable and PPV have forced Joe Average fan away from boxing.

marting
08-16-2007, 09:25 AM
It was around post WWII and the evolution of television. The start of the baby boom era saw a suburbanization of society away from city dwelling. Even some baseball franchises suffered from this effect. Vaudeville was completely destroyed. A lot of forms of live entertainment diminished with the advent of TV and the stay-at-home entertainment factor. Add in the rising popularity of professional football and basketball and suddenly boxing found itself drifting behind. City and towns that used to have as many as three boxing cards a week shrunk to monthly events. Boxing even disappeared from some towns altogether. Another factor was the post war economic boom saw the number of fighters in gyms drop off. Forced to embrace TV boxing saw a slight rise in the late 50's but some ring deaths almost sunk Friday night fights at the forum. Ali breathed some live back into it but it never came close to what boxing was in the first half of the 20th century.

BigEars
08-16-2007, 09:36 AM
From my point of view professional boxing has never been more popular(on a domestic scale anyway) , this is a similar case in places like Germany .

As for America , probably the 70's , as pointed out with SRL and Tyson gaining back some interest and then interest fading after them .
I feel things are picking up at the moment though and at the moment it seems the best are fighting the best , which helps draws fans to any sport .

MrMagic
08-16-2007, 10:24 AM
Between the Tyson-bite, PPV and Lennox Lewis retiring.. somewhere around there I would suspect

KO byBRIGGS
08-16-2007, 10:25 AM
Late 90's/early 00's Lewis retired and so did lots of boxing fans.