Boxing? Still exciting? Or Brutal and obsolete sport?

I never cared for boxing. There never seemed to be a good reason to go into a square (which was oddly called a ring) and subject ones self to gut, chest and face punches. Struck me as mighty stupid.

For the theatrical entertainment, I occasionally view wrestling.

I was an avid boxing fan some years ago. These days I watch a few bouts, but I don't have to. What gets me is the caged fights, where they kick and take each other down while boxing, and it's the expected thing to pounce on a fallen person and while he/she is vulnerable try to beat their face to a pulp.

Yeh, MMa and kickboxing is a brawl. It lacks any finesse.

good one...

was never much of a fan, but did watch a few of Ali's matches towards the end of his career.

i guess i gave up on the sport for good that day in 1990 (?) when Buster Douglas upset Tyson...

I'm still a fan. The problem is that there haven't been any quality fights lately. The Mayweather/Paquiao was such a dud that it almost single-handedly killed boxing. At least it added to its decline. The Mayweather/McGregor fight brought boxing up considerably. Mayweather gave fans their money's worth for a fight that he could have ended in the first round. Who even knows the names of the current holders of the four heavyweight belts?

I was a fan of boxing from around the late 1970s to around the late 1990s.
I was a fan of Mix Martial Arts and MMA from around the early 1990s to around the early 2000s because it was something new and different. I haven't been much of a fan of either in quite awhile.
Todays boxing is lacking star power. MMA seems like they are just starting to lose star power.

I was a huge fan of the UFC when it first started. I was introduced to watching the UFC in the early 1990s. The format of the UFC was nothing like the current format. There were no weight divisions. There were no time limits. There were no rounds. It was an annual contest broken down into brackets just like a tournament. There would be fighters from various fighting styles. Karate, judo, kung fu, and many other styles. The fighters also fought wearing their karate (uniform) gi or judo gi. At the end of that one night tournament, there would be crowned a UFC champion (last man standing) until they did it again the following year. There were fewer rules. In a sense UFC was a much more brutal barbaric sport than it currently is. Royce Gracie from the famous Gracie family introduced the world to fighting style of Brazilian jujitsu. Prior to the first UFC contest won by Royce Gracie, most people never seen or heard of Brazilian Jujitsu. I remember Royce Gracie winning the one day tournament style UFC championship the first three years of the UFC existence. In those days in the early and mid 1990s the UFC was banned in many places around the U.S. because it was deemed too dangerous and too barbaric. Shortly afterwards the popularity of this new thing (UFC) started dropping. At some point in the future, the UFC changed their format to be more like boxing. Establishing weight divisions, establishing rounds, establishing individual rankings for fighters, and abolishing the one night tournament style contest. That is when the UFC became more accepted as a sport and it also grew dramatically in its popularity. Another MMA league called PRIDE was also popular. It was based in Japan. PRIDE had also spun off several stars who eventually became UFC stars. Quinton Rampage Jackson was one of those stars. There were others as well. UFC eventually bought out PRIDE and PRIDE's biggest stars became UFC stars. I also believe the increased popularity of the UFC hurt the popularity of boxing.

I only saw Muhammad Ali at the tail end of his career. I miss the days of Ken Norton, Larry Holmes, Sugar Ray Leonard, Marvelous Marvin Hagler, Tommy Hitman Hearns, Felix Trinidad, Pernell Sweat Pea Whitaker, Oscar De La Hoya, Riddick Bowe, Evander (the Real Deal) Holyfield, Iron Mike Tyson, Bernard Hopkins , Floyd Mayweather, and others. I remember when I first got to know many of the fighters on the (Wide World of Sports). I remember I first got to know many fighter from their Olympic days as amateur Olympic fighters. That was the first time I ever saw Sugar Ray Leonard fight. I remember when many people use to compare Sugar Ray Leonard fighting style to the fighting style of Muhammad Ali. I remember the first time I saw Mike Tyson knock someone out in 1986 on cable TV. I remember prior to that specific fight, I never heard of Mike Tyson. Tyson had not yet become a household name. I also remember the days that friends would get together at someone's house to watch Mike Tyson on pay per view. Mike Tyson fight parties were common occurrences in the early 1990s

10 Unbelievable Facts About Early UFCs

MIKE TYSON first title fight

In 11/22/1986 a young Mike Tyson (20 years old)
becomes the youngest champion in boxing history,
winning the match against the champion Trevor Berbick

I used to enjoy boxing. I'm not keen on the more expanded versions of fighting. I no longer follow boxing. Why? Not sure. I think one reason is that no one in the current crop of boxers interests me. It's also harder to find.

In the late 60s to early 80s, I enjoyed watching most sports - boxing 🥊 included. Needless to say that I was a huge fan of Ali’s.

However, once I understood about the misdeeds of promoter Don King and his effect on boxing and the whole underbelly of boxing, I soured on the sport. Hearing Tyson, Holmes and Ali’s stories about how they were shafted by this man made me convinced that it was a twisted and rigged game. The fact that his parole as a convicted criminal wasn’t revoked is a travesty of the justice system.

Not a fan, I'd rather see them wrestle

"We're going to be winning so much!"
- Donald J. Trump

Mexican Boxer Destroys American Fighter Wearing Trump Wall Shorts

I used to be a fan, but with all the modern medical techniques that show the damage to the brain in great detail, I think it'll be made illegal before long.

I hope it’s outlawed soon. I don’t understand how people can enjoy watching other people hurt each other for sport.

My family went to a hockey game recently, and as you can expect, a couple of guys threw gloves down and started wailing on each other.

I covered my grandson’s eyes—he’d never seen grown ups hurting each other. What was weird, though, was the other things happening. The refs just stood there, instead of stopping the fighting; the crowd was cheering the fighting more so than they had the game; the teams lined up around them, tapping the ice with their sticks. It lasted so much longer than it should have.

I realize violence and hockey are intertwined; I just don’t approve. My grandkid didn’t know what he missed, but the ten year old girl behind us was traumatized. We were seated in the second row, and had a close view of those blows landing on the face of a very young hockey player. The girl cried and held her mom tightly for at least ten minutes.

I always feel like gladiators and Romans when the entertainment is violence.

All contact sports have a potential for bodily harm. Feetsball players and hookey players are prime examples. They want to take each other out as much as boxers.

the refs let them throw a few punches, get it out of their system.

once the fight is over, they move on.

hockey has a unique player etiquette not found in other team sports...

Some of you want men to become pussies.

The men who get in the ring, the octagon, the ice etc aren't weeping like little bitches.

If you don't want to watch it, don't and stop trying to tell the rest of us what we should or should not enjoy.

Boxing became popular in this country around 1900 or so, when life was hard and diseases like polio were still problems. People didn't live that long, so a guy whose brain works less and less once he leaves the ring and spends his last years sitting in a chair in his sister's house being served a bowl of soup daily before expiring entirely at age 48 was not such a tragedy. After all, at the time lots of people died at age 48 due to tuberculosis and ton of other things.

Now that's not true. And with various medical devices doctors and researchers can actually see the damage being done to the brain. People live much longer now, and the idea of someone dying at age 48 after growing increasingly incoherent for several years is far from normal, in fact it's regarded as a tragedy.

The law will follow suit. Eventually boxing as we know it, with heavy shots to the head, etc, will be banned. Hate to interrupt your macho moment, but that's how it's going to go.

Frakking ouch! Tell us how your really feel?!

And does this apply to women in boxing as well? I don't watch boxing and am not calling for the sports banning.

Used to be a fan during high school and in my twenties. Like to think I emotionally matured and the thought that most boxers will be just physically be destroyed yet remain completely impoverished and poor as most boxers fail to gain any real success in the sport. It's definitely a class issue to give some thought about.

I leave it at that and not push it.

Here’s a more detailed perspective:

Technology (and observing the lives and deaths of older athletes) proves that certain sports that feature blows to the head cause brain damage. It’s a fact.

We all watched what happened to Ali’s cognitive function. We’ve heard the rationale behind what happened to Aaron Hernandez and many other sporty guys who were hit a few too many times.

Previously, I thought men and women should make their own decisions about the risks they took with their own lives. When the stories started surfacing of widespread cognitive damage—personality changes in affected athletes including depression, suicide, rage attacks—I changed my mind, primarily because of institutional racism.

Barbara Bush didn’t raise her sons to box. Never heard of a Rothschild defensive lineman. The overwhelming demographic
of athletes entering the high contact sports are poor and minorities.

There is the upside that a few of these people in the pro athlete pipeline will infuse wealth into their communities ( have rich children); but for me, boiled down to its essence, white America is subjugating minorities for entertainment. That’s one reason the Kaepernick thing stinks so foully to me.

It’s my opinion.