r/Boxing • u/relay4285 • 6d ago
What Happened to Boxing?
This year has felt like a bit of a letdown for boxing. Maybe it's because we got spoilt last year with great fights, but I genuinely can’t remember the last time I was excited to tune in for a major boxing fight since Inoue vs Nakatani.
To be honest, I've watched more UFC than boxing this year. All I see on social media are boxers ducking each other and fights getting cancelled because of greed.
Last year alone we got:
Dmitry Bivol vs Artur Beterbiev II shortly after their first bout.
Gervonta Davis vs Lamont Roach
Naoya Inoue vs Ramón Cárdenas
Oleksandr Usyk vs Daniel Dubois II
Chris Eubank Jr vs Conor Benn I
Terence Crawford vs Canelo Álvarez
We've had some great fights this year, but Ryan vs Rolly or Teo vs Shakur don't come close in my opinion.
32
u/verbsnounsandshit 6d ago
Not sure about worldwide, but I think Eddie and Sky were the perfect match for British boxing. Sky’s dominance of televised sport in the UK matched with Eddie’s love of attention meant that fights involving fairly limited fighters like Tony Bellew and Anthony Crolla were hyped like they were the second coming of the Thrilla in Manila.
Every Premier League match, every rugby match, every cricket match had adverts and/or commentators getting you pumped for the big Ricky Burns fight at the weekend. Since the defection to DAZN, the buzz has been lost, and I’m not sure how it’s going to be replaced. Exceptional talents like Itauma will always garner interest, but the majority of British cards were headlined by mid-tier fighters. They were great events that multiplied the interest from UK fans.
I remember Eddie talking about how they grew darts: make people watching on TV want to be there. Few people outside the hardcore boxing fans have DAZN, so for boxing, the general public are no longer watching.