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Why Boxing Will Never Make Fans Happy – A Biting Commentary…

Stacks PicBy Anthony “Stacks” Saldaña

One thing that’s clearly noticeable in this day and age of social media, is the amount of bitching and whining that takes place amongst the “so-called” fans in internet boxing groups and boxing chat rooms. Besides the arguing of opinions between the novice fans to the race baiting comments that start all out keyboard wars, “The Sweet Science” will never make all fans happy. As a true fan of the sport I try to remain neutral and give facts when making comments, but there’s always those wanting to argue facts and like the old saying goes “Arguing with idiots is like playing chess with a pigeon, no matter how good you are at chess the pigeon is just going to knock over the pieces, shit on the board, and strut around like it is victorious.” The same goes for some of these internet trolls they love to shit on posts. True fans understand the direction boxing is headed, and for those that don’t I’ll break it down.

First let’s start back in the late 80’s Mike Tyson along with Don King and the major cable networks began selling boxing to “the casuals” with what we know as PPV. As the sport has transitioned, boxing fans know that Floyd “Money” Mayweather. JR. led the way for turning boxing into the business of “low risk high reward.” This was never more evident than when both Floyd and Manny Pacquiao raked fans over the coals for over 400 million dollars in PPV revenue in the “Non-Fight of the Century.” A fight that took place way beyond the prime of both fighters careers, but also a fight that broke every PPV and boxing revenue record. Since that fight the business part of the sport continues to divide boxing fans. The fact is more and more champions are looking away from the tough all out wars and replacing opponents with fighters who better suit their style taking the safer route.

Many fans including myself love the come forward style fighter, but for a fighter such as Gennady “GGG” Golovkin it can be a true nightmare. Golovkin who’s a success, and is widely considered one of the best boxers in the world is not quite a superstar. For promotional companies and many fighters “GGG” is a threat to their global success. Yes, “GGG’ fights the traditional “Mexican Style” and has knocked out 22 straight opponents, but his success has come against lesser opponents.

This is no fault of Golovkin, but the fact remains “GGG” can’t win with many fans. On social media you have people making comments of him beating nothing, but bums, cab drivers and tomato cans. Gennady has no other choice, but play the waiting game especially when former champion Canelo Alvarez could have taken a fight with “GGG”, but instead vacated the WBC middleweight title to mass ridicule. Again a business move on Golden Boy Promotions part. A move that some people agree with and some don’t. Canelo chose to wait to fight Gennady, and fans call for his head. Mayweather, JR. waited six years to fight Pacquiao and he’s a smart business man. The fact remains that Canelo is a proven PPV star. Canelo Vs Khan reportedly had 600,000 PPV buys, Canelo Vs Cotto did 900,000 PPV buys and Canelo Vs Mayweather, JR. did 2.2 million PPV buys. “GGG” reportedly did about 150,000 buys in his only pay-per-view as a headliner against David Lemieux. Are you catching my drift? It’s not what most fans want, but boxing is a business, it’s not changing, so don’t expect it to. Can Canelo Vs “GGG” marinate and become an even bigger fight then what can be made now? I believe so. Am I happy with Canelo’s decision of course not, but that doesn’t change my love for the sport or the respect I have for boxers.

Honestly “Super Fights” many times aren’t promoted, they’re just something that happens. Fights Such as Castillo Vs Corrales, Ward Vs Gatti, and Marquez Vs Vasquez were never considered by casual fans to be great fights, but the outcome of those bouts are truly legendary. Last year on the co-main event of the Canelo Vs Cotto bout, Francisco Vargas gave fight fans the Fight of the Year as he took on Takashi Miura. Then earlier this month gave fans a repeat performance as he battled Orlando Salido at the Stubhub Center for 12 brutal rounds in what possibly could be another Fight of the Year for Vargas. Now fans have Crawford Vs Postol where unlike “GGG” Vs Canelo there are no weight concerns. They are similar sized fighters. They’re both world class champions and neither fighter is a household name. This fight won’t sell a million PPV’s and will go unnoticed by many casuals. The truth is on paper we have the best super lightweight in the world, Terence Crawford, putting his world title on the line against the second best guy in the division, Viktor Postol. This is where fans need to open up their wallet and support Top Rank and these fighters. I applaud Top Rank for making this fight happen.

True fans need to be patient with the sport. Recently the boxing world lost an all-time great and a fighter who many believe was the greatest of all time, Muhammad Ali. Ali had Parkinson’s Disease, a neuro degenerative disorder in which cells in a part of the brain that controls movement begin to die. This resulted in Ali slowing down, losing coordination, and trembling. His disease may have been caused by his years in the sport. With that being said, many of the boxer’s fans love to watch will never have Mayweather, JR. type money, and risk it all every time they enter the ring. Many times they’re fighting to eat, fighting to survive, fighting for a better life. Some of these fighters give us wars, others are more technical in their style. Styles make fights, not belts and definitely not a title of “Super Fight.” True fans don’t bash fighters, they appreciate them. They support local shows, love to watch all boxing and support all fighters. If you feel the need to bash a fighter due to decision they made that has absolutely no bearing on you, you’ve got a problem. Floyd and Manny proved fans don’t need the biggest names in boxing to have a “Super Fight”.

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