how can boxing improve

[GPater11093]

what do TV channels promoters sanctioning bodies need to do to make Boxing a big sport again.

I think 1 champion per weight would be an ideal one but i do think the Ring magazine is a great alternative maybe if they enforced mandatories abit better (especially sine GBP is behind it) it could make some quality fights

[debaser]

Contrary to popular opinion I thing GBP acquiring the Ring magazine is good for the sport. Something needs to be done to raise its profile in the UK though. I mentioned a few weeks ago, when Jennings fought Cotto there wasn't even a mention in most of the daily newspapers. That really is shocking.

[GPater11093]

Contrary to popular opinion I thing GBP acquiring the Ring magazine is good for the sport. Something needs to be done to raise its profile in the UK though. I mentioned a few weeks ago, when Jennings fought Cotto there wasn't even a mention in most of the daily newspapers. That really is shocking.

i agree too, i think its a big organisation that can pump money.

Also i think it can enforce mandatories on Ring mag champs as GBP is pretty powerful as long they dont abuse it (they havent so far) im all for them

[GazOC]

I agree with the above comments re the Ring title being a "good thing" but the problem with it enforcing mandatories is that it then has to strip champions who don't fight their mandatories, that leaves them open to criticisms just like the Alphabet Boys. The system they have now of not naming mandatories or stripping champions isn't perfect but its extremely easy to follow and very transparent, keeping them clear of a lot of the contraversies that that plague the organizations.

[GPater11093]

I agree with the above comments re the Ring title being a "good thing" but the problem with it enforcing mandatories is that it then has to strip champions who don't fight their mandatories, that leaves them open to criticisms just like the Alphabet Boys. The system they have now of not naming mandatories or stripping champions isn't perfect but its extremely easy to follow and very transparent, keeping them clear of a lot of the contraversies that that plague the organizations.

suppose so Gaz but then whats stopping a fighter winning it and just fighting bums i think Ring should put some pressure to fight top contenders

[BamBam]

Lads we can talk about 1 world, 1 champion but its all fantasy. There are 4 major belts in alphabet town, the ring, and the IBO is doing its very best to raise its profile to the level of a '5th' belt.

As long as there are world titles out there then people are going to go and look to win them. Ideally you'd have all the organisations rating people fairly but that won't happen either. You can have a WBC champion totally unranked by another organisation. Titles are there to be won and anyone who snaps one up is a legit champion.

Example, who was 'more' the champion at SBW. WBC Vasquez or WBO Caballero?

Then you have someone like Hatton, the best LWW for my money, but all he has is the IBO title now.

It's a messed up, mixed up, complicated business and it is going to stay this way for many a year to come.

My biggest problem in boxing at world level is scoring. Some of the variables in scoring are shocking. How some of these lads get jobs judging title fights is beyond me.

We could easily do a test on here. You could have everyone watch a fight and post their score in a thread. I'd say 90% of us would be within 2-3 points of each other. But you can have 3 judges ringside that can vary by 10-12 points on the high and low end at some fights.

[GPater11093]

Lads we can talk about 1 world, 1 champion but its all fantasy. There are 4 major belts in alphabet town, the ring, and the IBO is doing its very best to raise its profile to the level of a '5th' belt.

As long as there are world titles out there then people are going to go and look to win them. Ideally you'd have all the organisations rating people fairly but that won't happen either. You can have a WBC champion totally unranked by another organisation. Titles are there to be won and anyone who snaps one up is a legit champion.

Example, who was 'more' the champion at SBW. WBC Vasquez or WBO Caballero?

Then you have someone like Hatton, the best LWW for my money, but all he has is the IBO title now.

It's a messed up, mixed up, complicated business and it is going to stay this way for many a year to come.

My biggest problem in boxing at world level is scoring. Some of the variables in scoring are shocking. How some of these lads get jobs judging title fights is beyond me.

We could easily do a test on here. You could have everyone watch a fight and post their score in a thread. I'd say 90% of us would be within 2-3 points of each other. But you can have 3 judges ringside that can vary by 10-12 points on the high and low end at some fights.

i normally have my own champ for each weight so hatton is my main man at LWW despite being an IBO champ.

judging is terrible but i feel it is getting batter but theres always been and going to be bad desicions.

also i think Ams should be put back so their mor elike the pros

[TBooze]

How can you improve boxing?

Make all pro bouts scheduled for 12 rounds, 'Winner takes all'..... That would liven things up!:nut

[BUGS]

more 5o/5o fights even the prospects turning over ...match them hard .

[TIGEREDGE]

more 5o/5o fights even the prospects turning over ...match them hard .

i agree. thatz why the ufc is getting massive

ufc is like boxing in the early parts of the last century. the best were forced to fight the best becuase of the old layout

[brown bomber]

Put them in a cage with 4oz gloves on.... match them tough.... Queensberry rules.

[threethirteen]

- the best fighters fight each other
- losers don't make ridiculous excuses
- judges give honest, realistic decisions (that Dunne-Cordoba score was complete balls)
- same weight champions should be encouraged to fight each other
- make an effort to get the press writing about boxing (and ******, with his connections to News Corp, could easily influence this) by seducing them
- make the events themselves feel like an event: fill the card with quality fights, domestic, euro and world level (not imitations of that); use the video screens to tell stories about the fighters; have a DJ to keep the atmosphere up

[brown bomber]

Yes... good idea about the DJ. The whole point of programs back in the day was to set the scene but they are genrally crappily written.

[robpalmer135]

its simple, one champion per division. If they do that everything else will follow.

[Gaz S]

Employ judges who have the priveilege of actually having good vision and are able to see what's going on.

Lower ticket prices for the big shows to make them more accessable (I paid £300 for tickets to Hatton-Tszyu and they weren't even ringside!)

More mainstream exposure on terrestrial television for up and coming fighters, to give them a chance to develop into household names. Example: Jamie Moore should be a lot more well known than he is.

Better quality matchmaking. Blowouts over unheard of foreign imports benefit nobody.

[BamBam]

its simple, one champion per division. If they do that everything else will follow.

Yeah look its the most obvious one but its not even in the realms of reality.
There are a few practical things that can be done to improve the sport as a whole and there are a couple of decent ideas in this thread. 1 world, 1 champion ain't ever going to happen though :-(

[robpalmer135]

Yeah look its the most obvious one but its not even in the realms of reality.
There are a few practical things that can be done to improve the sport as a whole and there are a couple of decent ideas in this thread. 1 world, 1 champion ain't ever going to happen though :-(

Honeslty i think it is.

All you need to do is get the fans on the 3 major boxing forums (ESB, Boxrec, DogHouse) and the 2 major boxing websites (Boxrec, Fightnews) to only recognise the one title belt or one champion at each weight. Then the networks who no matter what they say love having 4 belts as it means more shows, so you get HBO, Showtime, ESPN, Sky, Setanta, RTN in Germany only pushing one belt. Then the promoters will have to follow, and then the fighters will have to follow.

[Chubble19]

Here is what I would do.

1/ 1 World Title, 1 European Title, 1 British Title per division....simple that one.

2/ 2 MAJOR cards each year. These would be in March, and September - These cards would consist of 5-6 fights and ALL be for World Titles at different weights. The TV rights would be offered to be purchased to Sky, Setanta, ITV etc. All fighters would clamour to fight on these cards, with huge publicity, purses etc. Promote these events like a Superbowl, Wrestlemania, Champions League Final - hold them at Wembley, MSG, Japan etc.

3/ Make it MANDATORY that a fighter MUST fight outwith his home country at least once in every 10 fights. (For a British fighter that is outwith Great Britain!)

4/ World Titles MUST be defended every 6 months at least.

5/ Proper Rankings Compilers and system to be enforced. A boxer can not fight someone ranked below him more than 3 times in a row. This means that a boxer cant progress by fighting complete CANS all the time. Each country to have an individual system, and an overall world system.

[mrbassie]

Honeslty i think it is.

All you need to do is get the fans on the 3 major boxing forums (ESB, Boxrec, DogHouse) and the 2 major boxing websites (Boxrec, Fightnews) to only recognise the one title belt or one champion at each weight. Then the networks who no matter what they say love having 4 belts as it means more shows, so you get HBO, Showtime, ESPN, Sky, Setanta, RTN in Germany only pushing one belt. Then the promoters will have to follow, and then the fighters will have to follow.

That's what Ring should have done instead of handing out trinkets.

[Laikaka]

Lads we can talk about 1 world, 1 champion but its all fantasy. There are 4 major belts in alphabet town, the ring, and the IBO is doing its very best to raise its profile to the level of a '5th' belt.

As long as there are world titles out there then people are going to go and look to win them. Ideally you'd have all the organisations rating people fairly but that won't happen either. You can have a WBC champion totally unranked by another organisation. Titles are there to be won and anyone who snaps one up is a legit champion.

Example, who was 'more' the champion at SBW. WBC Vasquez or WBO Caballero?

Then you have someone like Hatton, the best LWW for my money, but all he has is the IBO title now.

It's a messed up, mixed up, complicated business and it is going to stay this way for many a year to come.

My biggest problem in boxing at world level is scoring. Some of the variables in scoring are shocking. How some of these lads get jobs judging title fights is beyond me.

We could easily do a test on here. You could have everyone watch a fight and post their score in a thread. I'd say 90% of us would be within 2-3 points of each other. But you can have 3 judges ringside that can vary by 10-12 points on the high and low end at some fights.

If Antonio Tarver and Glen Johnson gave up their WBC and IBF titles respectively so that they could fight each other where does that leave those bodies' legitimacy? How about inactive Evander Holyfield magically returning to the WBA's rankings for a timely shot at Nicolai Valuev? If successful, how could Holyfield have been viewed as a legitimate champ? And what of the IBF and their title that can be bought - as proven in court. All this is just the tip of the iceberg as I'm sure we all know.

My point is how have these scandalous bodies earnt so much respect amongst fans when? Their world titles on whose say so? Theirs? Despite what they've done.

More so, it's illogical that a world can have more than one world champion. Surely there's either one or none?

A big step in the right direction for the sport would be for fans to actually both want and expect the press/media to make these ruling bodies accountable and not for them (the press) to continually turn a blind eye.

[TBooze]

One World championship in each weight division is not going to help matters, it would make it worse.

Finally after years of struggle, top fighters finally get paid what they are worth. This is in part because many of them bring a title to the table, which TV likes.

Stripping fighters of a better pay day is not helping the sport.

Giving the fancy value for money is the best way to help the sport.

Braver matchmaking, and teaching the fans that a defeat does not necessarily finish off a prospect is what is needed.

I would also like to see proper proposals, without the loop holes to stop promoters managing fighters and viceversa.

[EireFightFan]

what do TV channels promoters sanctioning bodies need to do to make Boxing a big sport again.

I think 1 champion per weight would be an ideal one but i do think the Ring magazine is a great alternative maybe if they enforced mandatories abit better (especially sine GBP is behind it) it could make some quality fights

it goes against the Ring's ethos to enforce mandatories. Back in the old days before mandatories, champs could put the belts on ice or fight non-title bouts until the public demanded they fight the #1 contender.
The best I can hope for is that the Ring (with GBP behind it) goes from strength to strength and their belt becomes the only one worth having. Although without financial incentives it's hard to see it influencing the fighters, promoters and the sanctioning bodies (a cancer on the sport - hopefully as proliferate they will implode on each other).

It's up to us - the fans to stop accepting the garbage and buying in to the ballyhoo.

[TBooze]

it goes against the Ring's ethos to enforce mandatories. Back in the old days before mandatories, champs could put the belts on ice or fight non-title bouts until the public demanded they fight the #1 contender.
The best I can hope for is that the Ring (with GBP behind it) goes from strength to strength and their belt becomes the only one worth having. Although without financial incentives it's hard to see it influencing the fighters, promoters and the sanctioning bodies (a cancer on the sport - hopefully as proliferate they will implode on each other).

It's up to us - the fans to stop accepting the garbage and buying in to the ballyhoo.

LOL, The Ring unlike some of the other alphabet organizations, have been proven to of taken bribes for ratings.

Thus, The Ring has shown itself to be as corrupt, if not more so, than other alphabet group.

The Ring is a problem, not a solution......

[GazOC]

LOL, The Ring unlike some of the other alphabet organizations, have been proven to of taken bribes for ratings.

Thus, The Ring has shown itself to be as corrupt, if not more so, than other alphabet group.

The Ring is a problem, not a solution......

You're talking about a totally different organization. Different staff, different writers, different owners. Its unfair to tarnish todays magazine with the sins of 30 years ago.

[EireFightFan]

LOL, The Ring unlike some of the other alphabet organizations, have been proven to of taken bribes for ratings.

Thus, The Ring has shown itself to be as corrupt, if not more so, than other alphabet group.

The Ring is a problem, not a solution......

All rating agencies are open to corruption. What appeals to me about the Ring's policy is that they respect linear claimants, do not try to control the fighters and have the respect of (most) fighters and fans alike, unlike the alphabets.

[TBooze]

All rating agencies are open to corruption. What appeals to me about the Ring's policy is that they respect linear claimants, do not try to control the fighters and have the respect of (most) fighters and fans alike, unlike the alphabets.


How come they do not have Erdei as their Light Heavyweight World Champion then?

They are just as bad; no worse, because at least the other alphabet organizations are pretty much open to bribes, The Ring tries to pretend it is not, but as history shows, we would be fools to believe them.

[TBooze]

You're talking about a totally different organization. Different staff, different writers, different owners. Its unfair to tarnish todays magazine with the sins of 30 years ago.


I think it is, The US Championship almost destroyed the sport in its powerhouse of the time (The USA). We were so lucky the Fantastic Four clicked in, in 1980, because I suspect without them, the sport of would died (as a mainstream event much sooner) post US Championship.

[EireFightFan]

How come they do not have Erdei as their Light Heavyweight World Champion then?

They are just as bad; no worse, because at least the other alphabet organizations are pretty much open to bribes, The Ring tries to pretend it is not, but as history shows, we would be fools to believe them.

Simple - though he's been active, Erdei hasn't fought any top contenders. He's Sven Ottke all over again.
I'm not saying the Ring are THE answer just the best option.

What's your suggestion? Continue with the 60+ champs of the alphabets?

[TBooze]

Simple - though he's been active, Erdei hasn't fought any top contenders. He's Sven Ottke all over again.
I'm not saying the Ring are THE answer just the best option.

What's your suggestion? Continue with the 60+ champs of the alphabets?

Very much so, it has helped big time improve many fighters purses. If a match is wanted enough, and someone is prepared to pay the money needed, the fights that matter to the fans will be made.

[liver shot]

what do TV channels promoters sanctioning bodies need to do to make Boxing a big sport again.

I think 1 champion per weight would be an ideal one but i do think the Ring magazine is a great alternative maybe if they enforced mandatories abit better (especially sine GBP is behind it) it could make some quality fights
i think there should be 2 titles per division,that way you dont get guys waiting years to get their title shot.
i dont rate the ring title any higher than an alphabet title personnally.you dont have to pay fees to fight for it and you cant get stripped of it but oon the downside you can be really inactive or fight garbage opposition & still be champ.

[Akxtinguish]

Ideally you would have a board that fixes fights rather than the promoters themselves. It would choose the date, the venue, the fighters, and the money. Take it or leave it.

You would have less cases of ducking out and choosing convenient routes to meaningless titles.

Like Chubble19 said, you would also need better cards. No point paying for a PPV only for the main fight to end in 2 rounds.

Imagine a Haye-Klitschko, Arreola-Klitschko card. It would generate a lot more PPV's, because your average fan would be more willing to dish out money for 2 big fights than for just one. You would also have a bigger fanbase buying the fight. Mexicans and Americans couldn't care less about Haye-Klitschko, but will jump on board if Arreola is on the card, and vice-versa for Brits.

It would definitely be more interesting than Klitschko-Gomez or Haye-Barrett.

There's a lot of room for innovation. You could pit stables against each other (for example a card with Freddie Roach fighters fighting Buddy McGirt fighters), or make it a national thing (Mexicans vs Puerto Ricans, with the military deployed to keep the fans off each others throats).

You could also have knock out tournaments with the top 16 fighters of a division. Round of 16 in January, Quarter-finals in April, Semi-finals in August and finals in December. If it's too tight, you could spread it over a year and a half. By the end, all the titles will have been unified.