Is boxing becoming less popular?

Do you remember Muhamed Ali, Mike Tyson or Joe Louis? How frightening they were in the boxing ring? They seemed like they could kill a human with a single blow. They looked strong and huge.

Now coming to our present day, could you tell who is the best boxer as of now? How many of you could recall the name?

I think boxing has become less popular these days. It was a much more popular sport back then. It was as popular as baseball and football. It was even a sport in high schools back then. Yes. This is a no brainer. If we look back in time 30 years ago, boxing was an elite and an immensely popular sport. The March 8, 1971 Frazier versus Ali in Madison Square Garden was much more than a fight between two undefeated heavyweights. This was a worldwide event. The most elite celebrities were in attendance. Frank Sinatra even did the photography for Life Magazine. The heavyweight champ was the most recognized person in sports.

A similar fight between Manny Pacquaio and Floyd Mayweather attracted huge amount of money but it wasn’t an entertainer to people. Spectators were really disappointed after the fight and strategy followed by Mayweather.

In those days, a boxing champion of any weight class was a world celebrity. But today people do not know who the heavyweight champ is and neither do they care to follow. It is too bad as the sport diminished so much over the years. Boxing was one of the most popular sports in America. Now, just like horse racing, polo, other sports, boxing has faded away in the minds of the Americans as well as world public..

These are the issues Boxing Federation can control. Blaming the popularity of football, NBA, baseball isn’t the wise argument to why the game has become less popular.

Let’s look into the current system of boxing game. First, boxing’s move to PPV has hurt its popularity. Though it has allowed for large amounts of money to flow into the sport (the match between Manny and Mayweather stands as a conspicuous example), the number of people watching continues to decrease. It’s exactly like movies making more money but selling fewer tickets. It has become a sport for high class and rich people where they can bet money and make them their pawns. People don’t want to follow the game closely if it isn’t available to the masses. One of the reasons football is so successful is that the majority of games played on basic cable.

The lack of a unified title has hurt boxing as well. Before, it was known who the heavyweight champion of the world was. Whether it was Ali, Frazier, or Foreman, the world knew who the best heavyweight in the world was. Now, who can differentiate between the WBA, WBC, or IBF titles?