Oh for god's sake shut up you silly fool. I won't even begin to go into the decline in viewing figures over the last ten years, the paucity of talent at heavyweight, the terminal decline of American boxing at both professional and amateur levels, the proliferation of ABC belts, meaningless titles, ridiculously over-protected fighters who'd rather preserve their unbeaten records against a succession of tin cans than take on quality opposition, the elevation of "fitness conditioners" over (quality) ex-pros as cornermen (see Adam Booth and David Haye), the depressing slide in skills this has resulted in (I can't remember the last fighter I saw who possessed a quality jab and knew how to use it), atrocious undercards, bad fight timing (Mayweather vs Pacquiao came SEVEN YEARS TOO LATE) - all of which has encouraged long-term fans to drift away from the sport whilst kids are far more attracted to better promoted (if entirely crap) "sports" such as UFC etc. etc.

I like Carl Froch. He's a true warrior and one of the few fighters in boxing who will genuinely take on all-comers. But as a fighter he's so technically flawed one might wonder whether he's boxing at all. His "defence" consists of his chin. That's it. His "attack" is so telegraphed his opponent could easily exit the ring for a pee and make it back between the moment Carl decides to throw a punch and the time that it lands.

The "biggest fight of the decade" was nothing short of a joke. To sum up - Mayweather cynically waited until Pacquiao's skills had all but gone before pouncing. In the ring Manny looked a SHOT FIGHTER from the first minute. You can't even begin to compare him to the guy who blasted Marco Antonio Barrera into retirement. To be honest I didn't think much of Mayweather, either. As usual he threw just enough scoring punches to steal the rounds. Like Manny he's a long, long way from his prime. And as for the undercard ...



Highly overrated vs Highly unprofessional. Doesn't interest me.



I like Frampton. I don't rate Quigg at all.



PRICE??? You're kidding me. I hope Joshua works out but I can't say that I'm all that enamoured with his fighting style. How anyone so young can be so flat-footed I don't know.



Khan is as thick as a brick and has lost at least two fights because of it. Indeed, his stupidity irreparably damaged his own career picking some truly atrocious cornermen who taught him terrible habits. This is a guy who figured it was a good idea to hire a coach who seriously believed Breidis Prescott was a good match-up for a young kid with a suspect chin still learning the ropes.

Kell Brook is a throwback to the bad old days of British fighters hamstrung by British promoters who seek to squeeze ever last drop of money out of the paying audience before moving up to the next level. He should have been fighting at this level FOUR YEARS AGO.



Is this fight supposed to capture the imagination of viewers or lobotomise them?



Stick to watching Rocky, champ.

If Hohaia sues anyone, I'd imagine it would be Flower himself. If he claims that punch caused the damage how exactly could he sue Wigan (or the RFL) for Flower's moment of lunacy? Wane ranting before another game is hardly evidence of a plan to punch an unconscious man on the floor.

If OTOH he sues on the basis of repetitive issues, then Flower would be off the hook, but I Hohaiha would have a hard time convincing a court of negligence on the part of the game itself, which I personally think has/is reacting quite well to the issue (especially given its very limited resources compared to the NFL). Banning the shoulder charge to the head caused no end of wailing amongst fans, but IMO was a huge positive for the game generally.

As an aside I also suspect you could dig up a fair amount of footage of Lance himself hitting players around the head (mainly accidentally but there isn't a long-serving player around who hasn't done it quite often). No idea what that would mean if went to court though.

I'm not sure why you are conflating Lance Hohaia's situation with the systemic predicament all collision sports will likely face at some in the future - especially since neither the thread title nor the initial post makes any mention of Lance Hohaia.

Watching rocky lol

I'm massive fight fan. I've been more boxing matches than you've had hot dinners.

When was the last time you went a fight? I've just been Vegas for thst small fight too.

I go every big fight I can get tickets too. You don't even know boxers unless they been on tv lol

You taking up the charity fight idea Sado mentioned ?

Which means ... what exactly? I don't know how many fights I've watched. A lot I suppose. It's not something I count.



The only fights I've been remotely interested in watching live I didn't stand a cat in hell's chance of getting tickets to.



Good for you. If it were me I wouldn't have wasted the money. The fight came too late. Both are years past their primes. The undercard was diabolical.



I'm not interested in providing charity.
I don't much care for silly stunts.
I'm 43. Unfit and overweight.
I have a life.

The great mugwamp is unfit, overweight and not interested in giving to a good cause? I'll tie my left behind my back if you want?

You have this mentality to disregard anything you have no interest in. Boxing in Britain is booming since the London Olympics. Arenas all over the country are selling out every single fight. Josh Warrington from leeds is relatively a novice in the paid ranks and sold out leeds arena. The smith Brothers often sell out the Liverpool Echo arena. Quigg, crolla and co sell out phones 4 you arena regular. Luke Campbell v tommy coyle will sell KC out (something hull rl can't do. Frampton filled a purpose bulit outdoor arena out. Froch v groves sold 80,000 at Wembley.

Yeah I see what you mean, boxing is on its knees

www.abae.co.uk/aba/index.cfm/new ... n-funding/ www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/boxing/23126816 www.gbboxing.org.uk/news/one-yea ... cy-525.php

www.abae.co.uk/aba/index.cfm/new ... n-funding/ www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/boxing/23126816 www.gbboxing.org.uk/news/one-yea ... cy-525.php

That's right - just disregard each and every criticism I've raised. There are no problems in boxing. Move along.

Boxing will be fine. Like every sport it seems like the fans have been predicting it's decline for years but still it remains one of the most lucrative sports in the world.

Now that May-Pac is done, and Al Haymon is building his empire and getting boxing back on terrestrial TV in America, along with the bypassing of the alphabet soup governing bodies I think the next 5 years could well see a revolution in boxing.

yes and completely ignore the evidence as shown in the links I posted too

I'm sorry - I thought we were talking about boxing in the popular sense - i.e. a globalised sport primarily centred in the United States of America.

If funding is up in the UK - great. If gates are up in the UK - great. However, this doesn't alter the fact that there are serious structual and systemic problems within the global sport of boxing.

Precisely where do you think half-assed sports such as UFC have stolen much of their substantial fan-base from?

As for measuring the health of a sport PURELY IN TERMS OF MONEY - Jesus Wept! By that rationale - Mayweather vs Pacquiao was the greatest fight in the history of boxing rather than a dreary afterthought.

Surely you can't be happy about the fact that old gimmers such as Hopkins have managed to squeeze out ten years or more at the top purely because - until recently - THERE WAS NO ONE OF ANY QUALITY TO STOP HIM .

High profile fights such as Calzaghe vs Roy Jones or David Haye vs Dr. K etc. etc. have been nothing short of embarrassments.

Too many belts. Too many over-protected fighters. Too little actual fighting.

I've heard all this before. The last time it was Golden Boy Productions (which, initially, did seem like it was putting together decent fights with good undercards).

Look how THAT worked out.