They’re just wrapping up their final broadcast now. I have no idea how a network that profits $2 billion per year just decides to bail out on a sport that was such a key part of their story for nearly a half-century, but here we are.
Thanks for the memories.
Because boxing is dead. It requires knowledge to appreciate its strategy and heart. It seems slow and dull to those who rally to pro wrestling and so-called mixed martial arts and The Rock’s upcoming version of American Gladiators. Why is football more popular than baseball? People want the quick fix, and that which they can understand instantly.
Isn’t it interesting that hockey fans will watch their sport for the fights, not for the stick and skating skills, but they don’t watch boxing?
I understand your disappointment. I consider American boxing, like Gung Fu (Chinese boxing), to be a martial art. Fun fact: it is the only martial art in over 3,000 forms of martial art, to employ the uppercut as a technique. We who study the Asian fighting arts do well to learn from the arts of such as Sugar Ray Leonard and Muhammad Ali, whose “rope a dope” strategy helped him to overcome a MUCH more physically powerful opponent, George Forman. There are three types of opponents: the strong opponent, the aggressive opponent and the intelligent opponent. If you face a strong opponent, you use his strength against him. Ali relaxed against the ropes of the boxing ring, letting the ropes absorb the shock of Forman’s blows while he tried to pummel Ali. He used Forman’s aggression to tire his opponent. Ali used his pre-bout taunts to dull Forman’s intelligence, because anger triggers a hormone that actually lowers human intelligence. Muhammad Ali took George Forman apart by utilizing the three principals of martial arts combat; but the value of sport such as this is not apparent to, nor valued by, the masses.
PS If you face an opponent who is strong, aggressive AND intelligent . . . Good luck!
Now you want to have a civil discussion about martial arts? That’s rich:
https://moviechat.org/general/General-Discussion/5ab1db8d36d93d0014dae501/Floyd-mayweather-wants-to-fight-MMA?reply=5ab20a3b4be90700141661e6
Please add me to your pathetic and constantly-advertised IGNORE list. You do not have permission to address me.
Foreman
shareRIP HBO Boxing
sharei love boxing. i like its measured brutality, its limitations.
the mma stuff is cool too, but not nearly as graceful.
how can you throw combinations when someone is kicking you? its just street-fighting, really.
i give them all props, they are fully capable of taking people out, for real. but its not much of a sport.
I started out as a bigger fan of boxing, but I now prefer MMA. The mix of styles makes for some very exciting fights.
shareThe early MMA events definitely looked a lot like street fights, but these days there's a lot of technique involved. Just like boxing, there's a science behind it.
The only difference is that in MMA you have more tools to work with.
jriiley, your point is well-made. The instant you take your foot off the ground, you lose your mobility. How do you punch, absent a base? You can’t. How do you throw combinations? You can’t. It looks cool in movies. It’s useless in the real world.
share"down goes Frazier" - I remember watching this with my father and older brother. I was 10
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W9q7mvc6bsY
Great fights from the Golden Age of heavyweight boxing.
shareLoved watching HBO boxing. Will never forget Tyson vs James 'Buster' Douglas. IMO the biggest upset in boxing history. Douglas was a 42-1 underdog. Douglas knocked Tyson out in the 10th round.
shareI remember that one too. I was watching with my dad and my uncle, and my uncle called the winning strategy before the fight: when Tyson closes the distance, take a step back and fire counters.
I thought he was nuts, but it worked.
That said, even my uncle was shocked by Buster’s victory.
I think all who followed boxing was shocked by Buster’s victory. Even Buster. I'm guessing Tyson was shocked more than anyone. Bet he was thinking two, three rounds at the most and this guy will be out.
shareESPN is playing a documentary about that fight tonight at 9 p.m. EST. Title is "42 to 1".
sharePretty weird they're getting out of the boxing game, but according to an NYT article I just read it sounds like too much competition and just not enough financial incentive to keep going.
Apparently these days only about 2% of their subscriber base tunes into their boxing coverage on average. That used to be closer to 33%.
Chicken or the egg. I’ll bet that the 33% was happening when they were reliably broadcasting fights 4-6 times per month. In recent years, they would often have gaps of several weeks between fights and the UFC has been there to seize that opportunity.
share