...if you visit any boxing forum in the world you are almost certainly going to run into a number of "fan types" who are more fans of a certain fighter (or fighters) than they are of the sport. Whilst it's not a bad thing to be a fan of a fighter by any means (we all have our favourites) the fact they seem to care more about their fighter than the rest of the sport concerns me.
Boxing lives on it's "star attractions" the big names such as Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao. Sadly over the past few years the number of star attractions has dwindled to only a handful of names a drastic difference to the 1990's when we had Mike Tyson, Evander Holyfield, Oscar De La Hoya, Felix Trinidad, Roy Jones Jr, Julio Cesar Chavez Sr, Lennox Lewis, Prince Naseem Hamed and Sugar Shane Mosley to name just a few.
This is where the issue lies, the fans of fighters are almost cultist in their beliefs. For example Pacquiao fans are Pacquiao fans first, boxing fans second (if at all), when Pacquiao retires those fans will, on the vast part, retire with him. Likewise Mayweather fans will stop watching when Mayweather eventually turns his back on the sport. Then what?
The people watching our sport on an annual basis in the US is about to shrink, massively. When Mayweather and Pacquiao hang up their gloves their isn't likely to be someone ready to step into their shoes. Of course there is Canelo Alvarez who is being primed to take over their role but yet is completely unproven at Pay-Per View level, ditto Julio Cesar Chavez Jr.
Sadly when the fan base shrinks the TV slots will shrink, the money for fighters will become more limited and the opportunity for new break out fighters will diminish. Thankfully however we, as fans can do things to stop the sport from vanishing, we need to stick together. We need to tell the networks what we want, we need to help them. Rather than allowing us to force feed us rubbish (like the proposed Alvarez v Freitas fight) we need to stand up and demand things like Maidana v Matthysse, fights that will turn a sports fan into a boxing fan. We need to give exposure to unknown fighters, tell everyone about the hottest prospect you saw at the weekend, share the vicious knockouts and do all you can to get people watching our sport!
Boxing fans unite!
Showing posts with label Canelo Alvarez. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Canelo Alvarez. Show all posts
Sunday, 1 July 2012
Friday, 4 May 2012
Sugar Shane the man with a golden name?
We all know that in boxing your name can mean more than your real worth and in the past few years it seems that for Sugar Shane Mosley that is all he has. The former 3 weight world champion started his career with an excellent run of 38-0 whilst also winning the IBF Lightweight and WBC Welterweight titles between 1993 and 2001. He had legitimately become one of the genuine pound-for-pound fighters of the era and whilst it's true that he was lucky to get the win over Oscar De La Hoya in 2000 he was competing with some of the best in the world.
In the following decade or so however Mosley has been unable to ever get near the sort of success he once had and has gone 8-7-1-1 since knocking out Adrian Stone way back in July 2001. Losses to the likes of Vernon Forrest (twice), Winky Wright (twice), Miguel Cotto, Floyd Mayweather Jr and Manny Pacquiao are nothing to be ashamed for but the manner of the losses, especially to Pacquiao and Mayweather showed that Mosley is a fighter that is there for the taking. In fact Mosley is so show I'd not be shocked to see the horribly over-rated Saul "Canelo" Alvarez stop Mosley who is 0-2-1 in the last 3 years!
Whilst it's not unheard of for former champions to be getting undeserved chances (Jose Antonio Aguirre being another notable example) this is merely taking the mick now a days. Since the victory over Stone Mosley is 2-7 in world title bouts (or 3-7 if you include interim title fights) and at 40 years old someone needs to stop giving him these chances. Maybe it will take a KO loss to Canelo to make him think twice. Saying this however I personally would love for Shane to land a bomb on Canelo and burst that hype bubble.
In a similar "story" we've read that Mikkel Kessler will be facing Allan Green in a bout for the WBC Silver Light Heavyweight title. As with Mosley we've no idea how Green is managing to get yet another title opportunity. Green was beaten in 2 of his last 4 bouts with 1 of those losses coming in a very undeserved world title bout (where Green joined the Super 6 and faced Andre Ward) and yet he's being "rewarded" with another world title bout at a higher weight? Sorry but when will this sport start taking it's self seriously again?
I've given up ranting about robberies (which we see on a weekly basis) but I won't stop ranting full stop.
In the following decade or so however Mosley has been unable to ever get near the sort of success he once had and has gone 8-7-1-1 since knocking out Adrian Stone way back in July 2001. Losses to the likes of Vernon Forrest (twice), Winky Wright (twice), Miguel Cotto, Floyd Mayweather Jr and Manny Pacquiao are nothing to be ashamed for but the manner of the losses, especially to Pacquiao and Mayweather showed that Mosley is a fighter that is there for the taking. In fact Mosley is so show I'd not be shocked to see the horribly over-rated Saul "Canelo" Alvarez stop Mosley who is 0-2-1 in the last 3 years!
Whilst it's not unheard of for former champions to be getting undeserved chances (Jose Antonio Aguirre being another notable example) this is merely taking the mick now a days. Since the victory over Stone Mosley is 2-7 in world title bouts (or 3-7 if you include interim title fights) and at 40 years old someone needs to stop giving him these chances. Maybe it will take a KO loss to Canelo to make him think twice. Saying this however I personally would love for Shane to land a bomb on Canelo and burst that hype bubble.
In a similar "story" we've read that Mikkel Kessler will be facing Allan Green in a bout for the WBC Silver Light Heavyweight title. As with Mosley we've no idea how Green is managing to get yet another title opportunity. Green was beaten in 2 of his last 4 bouts with 1 of those losses coming in a very undeserved world title bout (where Green joined the Super 6 and faced Andre Ward) and yet he's being "rewarded" with another world title bout at a higher weight? Sorry but when will this sport start taking it's self seriously again?
I've given up ranting about robberies (which we see on a weekly basis) but I won't stop ranting full stop.
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