Boxing showing signs of improvement?

[cross_trainer]

Aside from the horrible mess known as the heavyweight division, it seems to be.

Mind you, the "fight that saved boxing" a little while ago turned out to be a flop, but it managed to make Floyd relatively mainstream. At the moment, he's scheduled for a very interesting fight against a tough opponent in what promises to be a classic slugger/swarmer vs. boxer matchup. Hatton, of course, is the product of a recent renaissance in British boxing--which has given us several impressive fighters.

At the same time, the welterweight division continues to heat up. Williams, Cintron, Mosely, Cotto, and several others are in the mix, and they're willing to fight each other. If he beats Hatton, Floyd will probably face the winner of these matchups.

Middleweight is now home to a powerpunching champion who seems relatively popular. Certainly an improvement on Taylor's rather boring fights.

Supermiddleweight has finally started to gain some talent after years of languishing in the shadow of more populous and exciting divisions. It also appears that Calzaghe will be overthrown by a more marketable champion willing to take risky fights.

And of course there's Pacquiao, who appears to be an ATG in the making.

Cruiserweight is also rather exciting and potentially unify-able, for what it's worth. And at least heavyweight has a CHANCE to be unified, given Klitschko's dominance over everybody else.

[bigeddie27]

Cruiserweight is also rather exciting and potentially unify-able, for what it's worth. And at least heavyweight has a CHANCE to be unified, given Klitschko's dominance over everybody else.

cruiser is the heavyweight division to me. I dont believe in the other division anymore. bunch of fat slobs. i am glad they raised the weight limit in cruiser to 200. A VERY exciting division if you ask me

godfrey
ding
haye
bell
mormeck
guillerno jones (where has this guy been anyways, his right hand is something else)

[raiderjay]

For die hard boxing fans, the past couple years and especially last few months and coming months are HUGE. But it just doesn't translate to more fans in the U.S. The bridges have been burnt beyond repair. The average person still sees Don King promoting fights and assumes the fix is in. (Which isn't that far-fetched an idea).

Boxing's popularity will stay just where its at for the next couple decades more than likely. One or two fighters that ESPN will actually talk about, but other than that, nothing. The only thing that is going on recently that has been great for a die hard fan is that even we started to not buy the bogus overpriced PPV shows and so promoters are finally giving us matchups that should be made. They stopped making money off of one name in the ring and have been forced to put two names in the ring at the same time to make any serious scratch.

[achillesthegreat]

Boxing is getting big again. Finally people have given up on the heavyweights. It doesn't matter if you are the best heavy, now being P4P matters to mainstream fans.

[dangerousity]

Boxing is getting big again. Finally people have given up on the heavyweights. It doesn't matter if you are the best heavy, now being P4P matters to mainstream fans.

And thats how it should be. Because unless you have someone like Mike Tyson in the HW, a big man with speed and explosiveness aswell as stamina, the heavies just arent that exciting. Alot of them are too slow plodding and overweight to watch, IMO the least exciting division to watch visually although they provide the aura of the strongest boxers. The casual fan will be marketed more towards the HW's yet a Cotto vs Hatton fight would be more exciting to watch than any HW fight out there.

[McGrain]

For me there have only ever really been two problems.

1) "Champions" fighting rank and file.

2) Excessive weight-making.

Both those problems are still rife.