I believe the question you are asking is why it lost popularity in America, because it is more popular than ever worldwide. I wish there were but one answer, but there is not. We can go through the likely causes though:

1. No major network coverage. The fights that were covered on ABC World of Sports with Howard Cosell were so important. ABC and CBS stopped carrying all but the biggest fights, so you didn’t watch guys develop, then finally didn’t carry fights at all. Fox Sports has tried off and on to carry boxing, but its not on the main Fox station, which would be a big difference. Boxing has moved to cable, premium cable, and PPV for the elite fights that 30 years ago would have been on ABC in weekend prime time. I just bought a $70 ppv for a fight and it was very worth it, but I don’t have anyone to talk to about the fight because I am the only person in my circle that follows boxing. That is a problem. Until the 90s, everyone in America knew at least the big names. Its like that in many other arenas as media fragmentation happens. (MMA didn’t kill boxing, but they do have their stuff together: well matched fights, predictable schedule, well televised, well promoted… this only happens because it is all run under a single umbrella).
2. Splintering of titles and organizations. WBC was the organization with the most legitimate champions until the 1990s, where you saw them actively making calls to strip titles from fighters to give them to a Mexican fighers (e.g. Sergio Martinez), WBA was THE organization until the 1980s, when contract disputes caused some to walk out and founded the WBO. Since then the WBA has broken its own rules to favor its fighters, and the IBF which has mandatory challengers often different from the other organizations, so winners of multiple belts quickly lose the IBF belt, etc. The one that is outside of the shading rules and backroom deals, and only one the public should care about is the The Ring Magazine belt. Current Heavyweight holder: Tyson Fury. Lineal and legitimate.
3. The bench isn’t as deep in the U.S. as it used to be and the talent is crawling out of every eastern bloc country where they have embraced boxing. No big U.S. champions and matchups and the U.S. public just isn’t as interested. The quality of the talent has never been better.
4. Promotors - King, Arum, Golden Boy- they are worried about PPV numbers, and protecting their cash cows, but making great fights isn’t part of their calculation. Fighters are going a year or more between fights just to sit on that belt. Its shameful really.
5. If someone, say HBO, would pair with Ring Magazine and 3 great facilities (Staples Center, Madison Square Garden, the new Las Vegas Arena) they could promote buildup fights 3 Fridays a month and a major fight in Vegas on the last Friday. All fights get reshown Saturday. All only for the Ring Magazine titles. Analysis pre and post by Teddy Atlas and Ring Magazine. In that situation, when Ring/HBO Championship Boxing would tell the current belt holder “you are boxing the #2 guy sometime in the next 3 months, make it happen,” then it would happen. I think we would be more fights, more consistent matchups, and, over time, the interest would come back. The big monthly right could be PPV friday and then reshown Saturday, which would maintain the money purses for these fights. Something else that would happen would be the other organizations would either quickly fall in line with their mandatory matchups and be happy to piggyback on Ring/HBO to produce unified champions, or get minimized and shut out of the market completely. If the IBF won’t play ball, then their fighters can’t bring IBF belts on camera a the facilities as they are not recognized, and Ring can stop writing about them/carrying their lists.
6. Ring Magazine needs a syndicated weekly show somewhere non-premium, where they talk about boxing, boxers, and technique. Perhaps Spike TV or Fox Sports. The public needs to learn about the strategy of the sport, as well as the history. This isn’t happening now.
7. Ring/HBO and the 3 areas can put together a standard promoter (managers really) share agreement which is fair and non-negotiable. Promoters not willing to abide by the equitable split and rules therein can’t be the promoter for the rights. HBO and Ring can handle promotion, so what is that other guy getting paid to do?

Basically, having someone large enough - which would be the content production owners, stepping in, promulgating, and enforcing rules for the good of the sport. Really, strong arming everyone to get them in line. after 4 or 5 years, it would be done and a) everyone will be making more money, b) the sport will be much, much more popular, c) elite athletes will want to come to the sport.

We will again be able to watch a fighter as he climbs from the Olympics all the way to the top of the profession.

Also, I am available for this job. I’m an attorney, I love boxing, and I can be on the next plane.

There will be lots of opinions, all adding to "the answer". Here's mine.

Boxing is growing in popularity in emerging economies. It's a popular sport for tough, blue collar areas. America used to be a tough, blue collar economy. It's not anymore. On the whole, America now is pretty white collar and american youth are not as tough as the youth of prior generations. We marathon/CrossFit for exercise, our grandparents built railroads.

Boxing is a brutal sport. Watch a more skilled boxer fight a less skilled boxer. It's not fun to watch. It's a beating. This is the reality of the sport.

Superstars - we had Tyson and Ali and such. Today, there aren't as many boxing superstars. They're also not looked up to as much thanks to Twitter/Facebook/Media showing how terrible some of them are. Were Ali and Tyson great people? Yes and no, but they didn't hit their prime in the age of social media.

My $0.02.

The alphabet organizations and cable TV ruined it. In 1965 there were 8 weight classes and 8 champions. Period. Now there are something like 85 weight classes and 306 “Champions”. Some time in the ‘90’s it became a big deal to have an “Undefeated” fighter. So managers won’t let anybody fight anyone who has a prayer of beating them. Guy gets a 25–0 record against a bunch of Tomato cans, then gets a title shot, and the champ destroys him in 30 seconds and everyone’s pissed off. Used to the # 1 guy would fight the # 2 guy. That’s why we had those epic bouts like Ali-Frazier, Ali-Foreman, Leonard-Duran, Leonard-Hearns, Hearns-Hagler, Holmes-Cooney, Holmes-Norton, Holyfield-Bowe, etc. Guys had lost a few but they were tough. Floyd Patterson had a 55–8–1 record. 4 of his losses are to Sonny Liston and Muhammad Ali!! No shame in that. Oscar Bonavena had a 58–9–1 record. 4 of his losses are to Joe Frazier twice-he had Frazier on the floor twice-and one to Floyd Patterson and one to Muhammad Ali. He went 15 rounds with Ali. Joe Frazier had a 32–4–1 record. His 4 losses are to George Foreman and Muhammad Ali. Cherry-picking Floyd Mayweather ducked anyone who had a prayer of beating him, never unified a title, never fought for a unified title, and for his “Record Breaking” 50th win chose a guy who’d never had an amateur or pro boxing match in his life!! Now he’s going to fight You Tube blowhard Logan Paul!!! Sugar Ray Robinson is rolling over in his grave!! That’s what’s ruined it.

How many belts does Andre Ward need?

If you ask a lot of knowledgeable boxing fans, I think the majority will say the primary reason is the presence of too many alphabet group organisations. It was bad enough in the 1980s when you had 3 governing bodies- the WBC, WBA & IBF; if 3 sanctioning bodies wasn’t bad enough then along came the 4th- the WBO. Now anybody with even a casual interest in boxing will realise that having anything up to 4 world champions per weight class, at any given time leads to a lot of confusion & a complete lack of transparency. Who is the real world champion? Who is the best fighter in the world? The fact that there are potentially 4 world champions per weight class clearly means that there is a lot of ambiguity surrounding exactly who is the best fighter………..eventually this leads to a point in time where the value & prestige of a world championship belt is grossly diluted. World titles no longer mean that much in boxing…….

I grew up watching boxing at a time when the world HW champion was perceived to be “the main man”. The HW champ was believed to be the roughest/ toughest guy in the world- at least in my mind. This is clearly no longer the case & the devaluation of the HW crown has been a massive contributor to the overall demise of boxing. The HW division had traditionally always been the marquee / glamour division & was kind of like the heart & soul of boxing. This is clearly no longer the case & actually hasn’t been so for probably close to 20 years now. I personally think the slow death of the HW division began in the mid 90s- certainly in America. When you had guys like Ali & Tyson as the HW champion - “Joe Public” could relate to them better & respected them way more than today’s HW champions.

Does Tyson Fury dressing up as Batman give any credibility to the HW division or boxing in general? After seeing Fury in such a costume, the average person will clearly think that he’s more of a clown rather than a real champion.

Other secondary factors contributing to ruining boxing are PPV, promotional disputes & dodgy points decisions. The issue of PPV has been ongoing now for decades & has definitely been detrimental to marginalising a global audience. With regards to shady promoters in boxing, you could essentially write a book just on this topic. Finally, when you have big money involved this inevitably leads to a degree of corruption & therefore dubious judging decisions. As we have seen time & again, when a big fight goes to the judges scorecards- the best man on the night doesn’t always win. Again you could write an essay on incorrect points decisions in boxing, but it contributes heavily to the concept of boxing being “fixed”.

Follow me at AuthorHouse, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, eBay & other quality booksellers. ISBN 9781665585057.

Because boxing has made it extremely difficult to be a fan of. In terms of cultural impact boxing has cemented itself for sure , it has a rich deep rooted history here in the states and it’s golden era has produced legendary fighters and fights that fans will cherish and remember forever. I also thinks this is why many of the previous answers have the perception that boxing is the more popular sport, and let the record show it might be in terms of longevity and how many people are aware of one vs the other but in terms of actual current attention and progression with ppv sales , fans , content it’s easy to see that mma numbers across all popular organizations are on the up and up while boxing has been stagnant at best if not declining and this is due to these reason.

1. Too many weight divisions - this creates the problem of having too many belts floating across too many divisions. Everyone is a 5 time multi division champ and the lofty title of “world champion” just doesn’t hold as much weight. It also makes it hard to keep up with.
2. Corruption - Just listen to any of Teddy Atlas’s rants on this, a boxing purist he keeps it real. Also there is always fan outrage on this topic so it’s not like it’s going over fan heads, they notice and are upset by it.
3. Decline of the heavyweight division - This is actually just now starting to turn around but not by much let me point to the last highly anticipated and hyped heavyweight fight between Deontay Wilder and Tyson fury only doing 300,000 ppv buys that’s a lowball number for any ufc fight. And this has been historically the most popular weight class in boxing so that should be a little insight about the current state of boxing as whole.
4. Promoters and Organizations - Again too many organizations created a cluttered mess and hard for fans to keep up with . The fights that fans want to see are either being made way too late or aren’t being made at all. Promoters are defending their champions and cherry picking opponents , and at the end of the day the best fighters aren’t fighting the best fighters and that’s a huge let down for the fans of the sport and turns them away.
5. A lack of super stars - There’s only a handful of names that promoters can put their pr machine behind , my theory is that Floyd for better or worst ( worst IMO) has created a generation of defensive , businessmen fighters who all try to replicate what he’s done. Leaving fight fans craving real fighters.

Those are just some of the reasons personally I dislike they’re setup in general as well, from their press conferences to their out of ring politics. Mma currently has the more comprehensible platform , more exciting fights , putting the fans first and has a farther global reach due to its many incorporated martial arts fans , it even includes boxing in attracting boxing fans as well. Overall it’s just more exciting at the moment and that’s fundamentally what fight fans want out of a combat sport.

Question: What ruined boxing?

“Ruined it”?

Boxing has always been terrible.

If anything, it’s cleaner NOW than it was 50–75 years ago.

What some people may not like about it now is that:

1. The changes in this country’s socioeconomics and demographics have made it difficult to attract a number of American boxers, particularly White ones - The US boxing industry is still trying to locate a “Great White Hope” now almost three decades after the late Tommy Morrison failed to live up to the hype. It’s even difficult to find interesting Black or Latino fighters like those who existed up until the latter 1990s. Basically boxing is leaning toward immigrants from developing world nations and that’s not appealing to some long time fans.
2. MMA is more exciting - Mixed martial arts is more interesting than most boxing matches. Boxing is growing dull and the promoters are doing very little to liven it up. MMA is what younger audiences prefer and its sapping away boxing’s future fanbase
3. There aren’t the number of charismatic boxers that there were in the past - Most boxers today are dull, and dull performers makes for dull viewing.
4. There aren’t the number of charismatic promoters that there were in the past - Whether or not you dislike Don King, he certainly made for interesting viewing. Today’s promoters are varying levels of bland and they don’t seem to have the ability to attract fans to the sport.
5. The major networks have lost interest in the sport - I grew up watching boxing on the weekends on all three major networks, with an an occasional fight or two on Home Box Office (That’s HBO for you younger people out there). Unfortunately for boxing, pro football, college football,college basketball, and reruns of syndicated programming now pull in higher ratings than it does. Basically the networks rarely air boxing and that does little to keep fans interested.

Boxing has always been a corrupt and dirty sport. That’s part of the reason that the networks dropped it for a while and that it’s only been coming back in the last few years or so. To claim that it’s somehow been “ruined” by anything that’s occurred within the last two decades or so, is an indication that the person making that claim is woefully unfamiliar with the sport and its history.

The below is a good read on this topic. Boxing has clearly lost its popularity in the United States but enjoying an increased popularity of sorts in Europe.

Simply put, the fall of the USSR and spread of capitalism to other parts of the world have produced countries who are "embracing" boxing.

As a result, the sport is more competitive today, internationally, that it has ever been and is no longer dominated by Americans, Mexicans and Puerto Ricans.

And consequently, there are fewer stars in the North American region, especially the United States.

Source: Boxing's popularity decline in the U.S: The real reason why

What ruined boxing?

Pay Per View.

In the 80s, boxing had declines markedly in popularity from its heyday, but it still had a solid market/following.

There were fights on free TV every Saturday. You got to see a guy’s career develop. Not unlike falling in love with a player you see playing for your area AA baseball team, and follow his career through the big leagues.

When fights were taken off of free TV, it shifted the focus to the biggest fighters in the biggest fights. But that base — the lower to middle rank guys that you used to watch grow — was gone from the public perception. Next thing you know you’re coughing up $50 to see Mike Tyson in a fight that lasted under a minute.

PPV enriched Don King, Bob Arum, and some others. The fighters at the very top of the heap made a lot of money, too. But PPV hasn’t been good for the sport overall.

Certainly the proliferation of boxing authorities hasn’t helped either. I imagine the genesis of this proliferation goes back to PPV money, too.

For better than half a century American boxers largely outclassed the rest. Often black from a tough upbringing boxing was a way for a a few at least to better themselves.

The heavyweight giants led the way. I've boxed a little- its incredibly tough. And I never made it past amateur. Now all those guys who could be taught to be great boxers are playing American football- three times the money for less than half the pain. Or basketball, or athletics etc etc.

Because if you have the balls and skill to be a top heavyweight you've the innate ability to do very well at any sport. And if I could have gone pro I'd have chosen Rugby- more fun, less pain and similar money.

In the lower divisions many of the gifted are banging away. Or have taken up MMA. But the golden heavyweight age: Marciano, Frazier, Ali, etc etc etc has passed; sadly.

A lot of things, but there are three major reasons.

1) The complete lack of decent American heavyweights. There hasn't been an American heavyweight champion that has grabbed the national attention since Mike Tyson.

2) The end of the Four Kings mentality. In the 1980s, you had four great fighters in the welterweight and middleweight divisions - Sugar Ray Leonard, Tommy Hearns, Marvin Hagler and Roberto Duran. They all fought each other, and with one exception (Leonard-Hearns II when both fighters were washed up), every fight was memorable. You had Duran beating Leonard and the "No Mas" rematch. There was Hearns' wars with Leonard and Hagler, and his crushing destruction of the iron-jawed Duran. Duran gave Hagler more trouble than anyone expected, and Leonard's controversial win over Hagler.

[EDIT: My apologies - Leonard-Duran III was so bad that I forgot about it.]

That mentality of testing yourself against all of the other top fighters doesn't exist any more. There's not even the pull of titles to help it happen, because the organizing bodies are now so ridiculously corrupt that they often have multiple champions of their own in each weight class and will sanction any fight for some kind of belt if you hand them some money.

3) The brilliant marketing strategy of Dana White's UFC. In a lot of way, UFC has more ethical questions than even boxing - UFC is now a monopoly, and White has way too much power over the sport - but he's used that power to create a marketing monster that the fractured world of boxing can't match.

As of the beginning of this year (2023), there were 18 different weight categories, 4 different front line supervisory bodies each with at least one so called “World” champion, except for those “World” titles that are vacant, and 1 new weight category, Bridgerweight, which is exclusive to Mexico’s World Boxing Council (WBC) and with a champion, therefore, who has no equivalent amongst any of the other bodies.

As a consequence of this, there are a total of potentially (17x4 +1 =) 69 “World” Champions. If that was not enough, there is yet another supervisory body, the International Boxing Organisation (IBO), formed in the US in 1988. This has not as yet acquired the status of the other 4 bodies, but if their 17 World Champion categories are counted as well, this increases the potential number of “World” champions to 86!

In addition, and as a direct consequence of this shambles, there are now also Lineal World champions, Ring World Champions, BoxRec World Champions and, from October 2012, World Champions as ranked by the Transnational Boxing Rankings Board, seemingly a collection of journalists from various countries (with geographical base undisclosed though founded, it appears, in the US). And that is excluding so-called “interim” “regular” and “franchise” champions.

Until the late 1950’s there were only 8 weight categories and only one World Champion in each category. In the 60 years or so since then, the number of supervising bodies and the number of categories has steadily increased and look as though they will continue to increase as others join the “gravy train”. 8 weight categories has become 18 (with just 3lbs in many cases separating one category from the next).

This system has enabled, for example, Manny Pacquaio, to be a “World” champion in 6 different weight categories (8 if Lineal and IBO World titles are included) and, because of the number of different supervisory bodies sanctioning titles, to become champion, by winning as challenger 9 different World title fights (12 if “Ring” title fights are included).

On the other hand, Henry Armstrong, in 1938, held 3 of the then 8 weight categories at the same time. The equivalent today would have been not less than 12 titles (15 if Ring titles were included) and, if it had been feasible to fight for and win all the intermediate extra weight categories which have been added since, an even more astounding 32 (or 40 including Ring titles).

In practice, of course, there is no way that Armstrong could have won and held simultaneously 32 of today’s titles. or even titles across 8 weight categories at the same time. Why? Because the supervisory bodies are in competition, seldom recognize the same individuals as champions, prepare different rankings, and scarcely if ever agree on whom the Champion must fight next (but if a champion fails to fight the challenger mandated by that particular body within the time required, he very likely ceases to be recognized as champion and someone else replaces him). Crossing palms may help, but not always.

Nevertheless, it is this focus on money, for countless people other than the boxers themselves, coupled with the ludicrous, as well as money grubbing way, that each supervisory body is run, that singles out boxing over other sports, and contributes significantly to its decline in popularity. There is nothing in the least noble about The Noble Art nowadays. How utterly mad, for example, is the fact that currently there are 4 different Featherweight (max 126lbs) World champions, all of whom are Mexican. So we do not know even who the Mexican champion is!

All these “World” Champions talk often of wanting to fight one another. But few do, as all want to remain as a World Champion, for self esteem and, especially, to maximize earnings for everyone associated with them.

If only this shambles could be ended then boxing might become mainstream again, and return to its former position as the most popular of sports. Indeed outside the States, if anything, boxing is more popular now than before.

Having said that, the States is still the preferred destination for most boxers of whatever nationality, wanting to get recognized and to make significant amounts of money.

That boxing is not as popular in the States as it once was is due to the fact that there are far fewer US World Champions now than used to be the case (only 9 out of 43, at the beginning of the year) and none any more in the weight categories above Middleweight. This will change without a doubt.

But the way the sport is administered will need to change too – the sooner the better.

Boxing is the only sports which can be related to LIFE !! Yeah, you heard it right.

In boxing, your coach, your team, your supporters, your friends, your family - everyone will tell you how to fight, how to survive the rounds, how you should not give up, how to take the punches and still not get down, how to fight till you got nothing left inside you, and lot more things.

Our life is also similar in every aspect. Everyone will tell you what to do when you lost hope, how to tackle the problems but in reality you are the one who's gonna face the punches of life. It's all up to you how to react, how to face, how to make a decision, how you should get back on your feet, how to keep hustling, how to keep trying and trying and trying and trying until you reach the final dream destination. No one would ever know how does it feel to be in your shoes.

And let me tell you one more thing about boxing and life - every time you stand in the ring, the opponent will be brutal, stronger, merciless. There's no easy way out of it. It's up to you to choose - to fight back or walk away.

"The more you get hit, the harder you fight." - Southpaw

“Going that one more round when you don’t think you can - that’s what makes all the difference in your life.” - Rocky Balboa

“Fighter’s Fight !!”

Sonny Liston is the forgotten champion and forgotten great.

And it was deliberate, this downgrading of the Great Sonny Liston.

CREDIT PICTURE OF SONNY AND JOE LOUIS TO AJ DUGGER

One fanboy continues to claim that:

“Liston broke no rules, but had his license to box revoked for years in all 50 states for “faking” the knockdown...”

Bob Garrett's answer to Why has boxing decide to not credit Sonny Liston. He never seems to get mentioned in popular boxing circles?

That is completely and utterly false. Sonny never ever had his license revoked. It was only suspended once, in 1961, for a year, (3 years before the Ali fight) and it was reinstated on appeal in 90 days.

After the second defeat to Ali, a concerted effort by boxing officials was made to keep Liston from fighting again in the United States, and absolutely keep him away from being able to fight for the title again.

But that effort did not include revoking his boxing license, that part is pure myth, argued here by fanboys who simply don’t know anything about boxing or its history.

Time and a deliberate effort by the boxing establishment has downgraded the feats and accomplishments of one of the 4 greatest heavyweights to ever live.

In doing so, it also downgrades Ali’s incredible victories over the most feared heavyweight in history, Sonny Liston. This is shameful, in that it diminishes an extraordinary accomplishment by the 22 year old Ali, and degrades a generational talent in Sonny Liston.

People have forgotten how feared Liston was. By 1964 he was considered unbeatable. He had lost once in 36 bouts – and that defeat in 1954, during which he suffered a broken jaw but ploughed on, merely added to his reputation. One contemporary profile said he was "surprisingly fast, remarkably quick" and noted his punishing jab while the former heavyweight champion Joe Louis admitted, "I'm glad he wasn't around when I was fighting."

After Ali’s first victory over Sonny, a Boxing Illustrated editorial remarked: "Nobody wants to be reminded of Sonny Liston. The idea is to forget him." And shamefully, forget him people did, with the vicious help of the media and establishment.

Fifty years on, Cassius Clay v Sonny Liston remains a pivotal moment | Sean Ingle

So what were the main factors in Sonny Liston not receiving his just due as a great heavyweight, other than the deliberate attempt to downgrade and forget him?

First, those who know boxing know how great Sonny was. Boxrec ranks him #4 of all time, despite his being denied title shots, and fighting most of his career way past his prime years.

Also boxing historians for the most part do consider Charles ("Sonny") Liston a great heavyweight. Indeed, Ring magazine ranks Liston as the seventh greatest heavyweight of all time, and boxing writer Herb Goldman ranked him second. Boxing writer Springs Toedo, in his book, The Gods of War, lays out a powerful case that Liston, when at his peak in the late 1950s and early 1960s, could be favored to beat just about every heavyweight champion in the modern era with the possible exception of a young and prime Muhammad Ali.

But make no mistake a part of the boxing establishment certainly tried to diminish and forget the legacy of Sonny Liston.

Time and a deliberate effort by the boxing establishment has the most feared heavyweight in history, Sonny Liston. This is shameful, in that it diminishes and degrades a generational talent in Sonny Liston.

How good was Sonny really?

People have forgotten how feared Liston was. By 1964 he was considered unbeatable. He had lost once in 36 bouts – and that defeat in 1954, during which he suffered a broken jaw but ploughed on, merely added to his reputation. One contemporary profile said he was "surprisingly fast, remarkably quick" and noted his punishing jab while the former heavyweight champion Joe Louis admitted, "I'm glad he wasn't around when I was fighting."

After Ali’s first victory over Sonny, a Boxing Illustrated editorial remarked: "Nobody wants to be reminded of Sonny Liston. The idea is to forget him." And shamefully, forget him people did, with the vicious help of the media and establishment.

Fifty years on, Cassius Clay v Sonny Liston remains a pivotal moment | Sean Ingle

Sonny Liston was a truly outstanding technical boxer. Despite his awesome strength and power, “he took his time to set his opponents up, to gauge their skills and reaction time, before finishing them,” said Angelo Dundee.

According to Muhammad Ali, the second greatest heavyweight of all time, was Sonny Liston. Ali was a great admirer of Liston’s talent, saying that LIston could do just about everything except dance. (and Ali said besides himself, there’d never really been a dancing heavyweight). Ali said Liston had a tremendous jab, could punch with either hand, was smart in the ring and was as strong as any heavyweight he’d ever seen.

George Foreman said "Sonny Liston could whip any other heavyweight in history except for Ali."

Joe Frazier, when asked if Larry Holmes had the best jab he had ever seen, said "nope. Ali's was better." Then he paused and said "and Sonny Liston, of course."

Rocky Marciano said of Liston, "he isn't faking his toughness, and his strength is just something you got to see, and that jab, he can knock a man out with the jab!"

A good barometer of how good Sonny Liston was comes with his twice destroying a very good heavyweight champion, Floyd Patterson, in the first round each time - when he was much older than Patterson!

Nor was it a freak accident when Liston wiped the floor up with Patterson - Boxing writer and historian Bobby Franklin said, while marveling at Liston's skills at such an advanced age, "it is interesting to note that while the fights were blow outs, Liston did not come out swinging wildly. He took Floyd apart methodically, setting his man up with left jabs and solid body shots. Sonny showed fast hands, using an accurate left jab, along with hooks and uppercuts. He had a definite game plan and executed it perfectly. If they fought a hundred times during that period the result would have been the same."

The fights which best exemplify Liston’s strengths are his two short contests with Cleveland Williams. Monte Cox said it best: “Liston used beautiful head movement and what may be the division’s greatest ever jab to avoid most of Williams’ punches and to keep him off balance. Williams does occasionally land with extraordinarily powerful shots, but Sonny shakes each one off. In their combined five rounds of boxing over the course of their two fights, Liston is only shaken briefly once, and never in danger of being dropped. The most astounding thing about his approach is that he is equally comfortable coming forward or retreating—which he does whenever he feels pressured. This runs entirely contrary to the perceived wisdom about Sonny Liston. Although he was a finisher of comparable stature to Dempsey, Louis, Marciano, and Frazier, he was the only member of this shark-like group who was a boxing conservative.”

Sonny ended his career 50-4, with 39 KO's, and all his defeats, except one, which he supposedly threw for the Mob, occurred when he was old! Indeed, his last defeat probably occurred when he was over 40 years old! At his peak, boxing historians believe he would have been a match for any heavyweight ever, with again, the possible exception of Ali, who is ranked #1.

Sonny won 15 of 16 matches after his defeats by Ali, and the only one he lost he was handily winning until getting caught with a lucky punch.

A great analysis of Sonny’s vastly underrated boxing skills, and how Sonny used his jab as the best of all time is found on:

Sonny Liston - Skills - Reemus Boxing

Sonny Liston was stronger than any modern fighter, including Lennox Lewis

Sonny Liston was born strong, but life and hard work had brought him truly incredible strength.

His strength started in his childhood. His father had literally hooked him to a plow when he was a child, and their mule died. He never learned to read and write. His father kept him home to work on the farm, treating him like an animal.

He was, quite literally, the strongest man ever to set foot in a boxing ring, according to every fighter who was in with him, including Ali.

And Sonny knew how to harness that raw strength into punching.

A good example of Sonny's sheer strength was an exercise he devised in training camp of loading an industrial sized wheelbarrow full of rocks, and wheeling it up and down a hill. Foreman, 19, and training with "the old man," could only carry one wheelbarrow for every 3 for Sonny. "His strength," said Foreman, "you just can't believe how strong he was!"

After Ali’s first victory over Sonny, a Boxing Illustrated editorial remarked: "Nobody wants to be reminded of Sonny Liston. The idea is to forget him." And shamefully, forget him people did, and with that memory loss, went how great Ali’s triumph was.

Fifty years on, Cassius Clay v Sonny Liston remains a pivotal moment | Sean Ingle

And it is wrong.

So why does the general public rank him so low?

Because the media painted Sonny as a criminal, an ex-con, a leg breaker for the Mob, and was perceived as a genuinely surly and combative human being.

After he won the title The New York Times's Arthur Daley wrote: ''Whether Patterson likes it or not, he's stuck with it. He's the knight in shining armor battling the forces of evil.''

That was not the whole story of Sonny Liston though!

No indeed. Sonny, as he rose in the ranks of contenders, began to be asked for his autograph. Sonny, who could not read or write, having been forced to forego school to work on a farm as a child, had his wife teach him, in secret, how to sign his name so he could give children his autograph.

That is a far different man than the boxing establishment loved to hate and forget.

He had the great misfortune to follow the beloved Marciano, to destroy the well liked Floyd Patterson, and then fall ingloriously to the best heavyweight of all time. Those who don't know boxing, who merely watch the Ali fights, and instead of realizing how old Liston was, and how wrong his style was against Ali, they believe he was just not a particularly good fighter.

They are wrong, and the real boxing historians, writers, trainers, fighters, and experts know how good Liston really was. Those who do not list him in the all time greats do so because using the excuses of his mob ties, criminal history, prison record, and open disdain for the press.

Only people who know absolutely nothing about boxing blame the two Ali fights for Liston's loss of place in boxing's pantheon of greats.

They were a factor, in that they destroyed his myth of invincibility, but only a factor. Anyone who knows boxing history knows Liston was at least in his later 30’s, and probably over 40 by the Ali fights, and way past his prime. All the silly excuses - Joe Walcott screwed the count up in the second fight, blah, blah, blah, miss the point. Most boxing historians believe Liston was simply too old, and his style all wrong, for the fastest heavyweight of all prime at his absolute physical peak.

He is, and was, a boxing great, one of the greatest of all time, and he deserved a lot better than what he got.

Rest in peace, champ.

CREDIT TO:

All rankings and statistics to Boxrec

Ali: A Life by Jonathan Eig

Cox’s Corner and Monte Cox

The Gods of War by Springs Toedo

Liston and Ali: The Ugly Bear and the Boy Who Would Be King by Bob Mees

New York Times and Arthur Daley

Sonny Liston - Skills - Reemus Boxing

The Devil and Sonny Liston by Nick Tosches

John M. hits it right on the head with this one.

The answer is, that most people, including me for sure, are small, unable to separate our personal feelings from our objective evaluation of an athlete.

Example, I’m on the driving range when I start to chat with an older man (yes, older than me but just as white :). I mention Tiger and he responds that he hopes Tiger never breaks Jack’s major win record. I responded that I think at his best nobody played golf like Tiger and even Nicklaus said that.

I could see the man get a little irritated with my opinion and he says, “Well, I don’t like him [Tiger].” I was expecting the man to say that he didn’t respect Tiger for his infidelity or his bust under the influence. But the man looked at me and said, “I don’t like the way he talks to kids.” WTF? Of course, I knew that any further conversation with this man would be meaningless because I had no respect for him and he couldn’t possibly be objective in his evaluation.

And that leads me back to Sonny Liston and McGlothlin’s take. Just like Larry Holmes, Sonny was perceived as a bad guy, a tough guy to like. And too many of the Liston and Holmes detractors are consciously or unconsciously influenced beyond reason by their personal feelings. They hold their personal feelings so dear, that they couldn’t possibly evaluate Liston without a heavy dose of it.

Liston had awesome skills and power in both hands. Awesome power, maybe the biggest puncher on record. He was calculated, a technician, made to look ordinary only by a once in a lifetime freak of a heavyweight. And Sonny was more intimidating than any fighter of record before or after. Ask Mike Tyson or George Foreman. Or any other heavyweight brave enough to get in the ring with Sonny.

There can only be one answer to this question, why doesn’t Sonny get the love he deserves? Human beings can’t divorce themselves from their precious feelings long enough to objectively look at the facts.

Americans still watch Boxing, but now there are so many other sports competing for American viewership, combined with decline of amateur boxing in the US, and the rise of the UFC, has led to declining viewership of boxing. The Big Boxing fights still generate big money, but the foundations of the sport in the US has eroded. Now, most Boxing champions tend to be foreign fighters.

BUT, Boxing is an interesting phenomenon. All it takes is for one US boxer to capture the attention and focus of the Media and Entertainment Industries. Then there will be another upswing in US Boxing again.

It goes in cycles.

There are old sports articles dating from the 1950’s forecasting the death of boxing in the US.

Then, a new star emerges and the US boxing scene is back in full force.

There was 8 divisions and 1 champion in each division. The top ten contenders fought each other in 12 round fights till one was the number one contender and he fought for the title in a 15 round championship fight.

You had top contenders fighting each other on the Friday night Gillete fight of the week. FREE. Later, Wide world of Sports and CBS had Title fights on Saturday Afternoon….FREE.

Everyone knew who the Champions were

Now, there are Not only main divisions, but Junior and Super divisions. Each one has 4 ‘Champions that rarely fight each other. Just showcase their ‘Talent’ against a inferior fighter who is basically ‘ranked 5 or less in a shorter 12 rd bout sanctioned by some foreign entity that puts nobodies in number 1 positions for sanctioning fees.

No promotors or managers want to put their fighters ‘undefeated’ standing in jeopardy, unless its in a PPV bout, that gets ridiculous paydays. They can milk the fighter against inferior opposition enough times, at slightly lower paydays, with no risk.

So the fans never get to see the elite fighting the elite. A perfect example is Crawford and Spence.

The fans are sick of it. So they drifted away to combat sports with more competive ,no BS, matchups, like the UFC. . Its a shame.

This could turn out to be a long post, but I will keep it brief. The main reason is the fact that it is the ultimate spectator sport- it is both simple & complex at the same time. Essentially what is boxing- two scantily clad men beating the c..p out of each other with gloves on. It taps into our primal instincts, it satisfies the primal nature that resides in us all. Even those people who maybe passivists have violent capabilities & even they will sometimes watch boxing. It is a brutal, barbaric & very risky bloodsport- but isn’t that why we tune into watch it.

It is also the highest form of combat in terms of pure skill & technique- I personally don’t think any other fighting art form comes close in terms of science. The fact that it is so simple , actually contributes to its complexity, as it is easy to learn but incredibly difficult to master- exactly like a game of chess. Out of millions of participants over the years, how many boxers can actually claim to be master boxers- very very few. So simply put there is an extremely long & steep learning curve to boxing & this adds to its mystique.

We can all relate to boxing, at some point in our lives we have had a fight & most school fights instinctively turn into fisticuffs . We often clench our fists or grind our teeth when angered- these are reflex actions, so there is something very instinctive & innate about boxing.

There are many reasons for the decline in popularity of boxing. One, if you are a gifted athlete, you can make more money playing other sports. Football, baseball, basketball, etc. Number two, boxing is all about haves and have nots. You are either a champion who can command pay per view type money, or you're a guy working a day job and fighting for a few hundred dollars per fight in anonymity. There's not a lot in between so where the incentive for guys to stick with it? There will always be good boxers out there but those guys aren't in it just for the money. They truly love boxing as a sport or art as in “ the sweet science”. The sport would maybe do better if it was run more like a league where players were paid enough so that they could develop their skills without starving. MMA might be more popular than boxing right now but you will never have a spectacle as big as Mayweather vs. Pacquiao in MMA where big money is generated. I would say the last reason boxing has declined? The heavyweight champion is not American! I think this started when the Klitschkos won the belts. Let's face it, there's a lot of money for boxing in the US.

Funny enough, I was just reading an article on The Fight City about this (I'll leave it here if you want to read it: The Fight Game Has Changed: Is Boxing Losing Something Essential?)

Boxing used to be one of the most popular sports in the world up until about the middle of the 20th century, although its current popularity pales in comparison. The powers that be were slow to fully embrace television, and as such, the sports that did, such as gridiron football, came to dominate the sporting scene in America (which is the centre of the boxing world). A few other things also happened that made big fights less likely to happen: the sport became more and more decentralised with regards to belts and promoters, and fighters began to fight less, as the sport became more lucrative (at the top end at least) and we became more aware of the negative health effects of repeated blows to the head. As such, interest in the regular goings-on of the sport all over the world faded, and the sport became less and less accessible for the regular fan. These days, it is rare for fights to take place on terrestrial TV, as there is simply not enough interest—and therefore money—especially for the big fights (though this is true of many sports— pay TV has made them far more lucrative, but decreases viewership—only the really big sports have maintained levels of interest). Boxing is unique in that a big fight can be a massive event, but this doesn't happen regularly, the kind of fans tune in to watch Mayweather or Joshua fights generally don't watch someone like Mikey Garcia, or Josh Taylor, even if those fighters don't exclusively fight on PPV these days.

In the last year, there have been some very interesting tournaments which seek to make the big fights and establish a unified champion at each weight. The World Boxing Super Series, is currently running events in the cruiserweight and super-middleweight divisions, and is due to have tournaments at bantamweight and light-welterweight. Inside the ring, it has been a great success so far, especially at cruiserweight. There have been some great fights, showcasing fights and fighters who otherwise might not get the attention they deserve.

However, it's not gone entirely swimmingly. The super-middleweight event is missing a few big names, whose US promoters don't want to cede control of their careers. TV rights have been difficult to manage too, not only do US promoters not want a competitor in the market (hence no US TV for the two tournaments), but also in Britain (to a lesser extent), ITV have been strongarmed into broadcasting their events on their fledgling PPV channel. Scheduling is also very volatile, as TV channels need set dates. Two of the finalists, George Groves and Oleksandr Usyk, are potentially out of action for the time being, which has created a major headache for the organisers, who may need to invite losing semi-finalists and undermine the competition.

It's difficult for any sport to break through into the mainstream these days, but boxing in particular has a number of obstacles. People are less and less willing to suffer potentially life-threatening injuries, not only are fewer people taking up the sport, but many fighters now are thinking about the risk/reward factor of taking certain fights. TV companies are also reluctant to invest in a sport which could leave them losing money if fights at postponed or cancelled, and of course, rivalries between promoters and TV stations have become pretty entrenched by now. Boxing will always go through peaks and troughs of popularity, but I think from now on, it will be a bit of a niche sport, but one which really captures the imagination from time to time. Not bad really when you consider the number of sports out there which would love to have the profile of boxing.

Boxing, unfortunately, is not remotely near as popular as it once was.

Boxing is now, at best, a niche sport.

CREDIT PICTURE COLORADO PUBLIC RADIO

Boxing is now a niche sport, a minor league sport, and its glory days are gone forever, I am sorry to say. Only modern fanboys claim differently…and when you ask them for proof, they have none, only their imaginary “expertise.”

The best summary of what boxing has now come to was posted by a fan on twitter after Anthony Joshua ran for his life from the fattest champion in history:

“In the 70s we had Ali and Foreman, Frazier and Norton. In the 80s we had Mike knocking everybody out. In the 90s we had Lennox and Bowe. I thought Wlad Klischko and his boring antics were bad - till now. Today we have Joshua running a foot race away from Ruiz, and Mayweather beating up his wife and hugging some guy who kills rats on You-tube - what the hell is happening?”

Why did this happen?:

• the best athletes world wide seeking other sports,
• Multiple sanctioning bodies with so many champions it is hard to keep count, (right now 7 heavyweight champions hold 9 belts!)
• The pathetic state of the heavyweight division, with the worst heavyweights ever, and more…

In the years after WW1, up to the 1950’s, boxing was the second most popular sport in the US and the world, behind baseball in the USA, and soccer elsewhere.

Then slowly, and over the decades, boxing declined to the point that when HBO ended its boxing coverage, which it had presented since the platform’s sports inception, it said it did so because:

“Boxing is neither popular nor profitable."

Boxing is now a niche sport - World wide today, Boxing is not even in the top ten most popular sports

As to March 21, 2021, boxing is nowhere to be found in the top 10 sports worldwide in viewership, or popularity…

Top 10 Most Popular Sports In The World | 2022 Power Ranking

Rugby and Golf make the top 10, boxing does not.

The Most Popular Sports In The World

Boxing is behind such sports as table tennis and volleyball which also make the top 10, while boxing does not!

Top 10 Most Watched Sports in the World Today

Mike Silver said it best in his book:

“Boxing today is a pale shadow of what it was in past generations. The best don’t fight the best. The best athletes are in other sports. There are hundreds of titles instead of one. It is sad how far the sweet science has fallen…”

UFC Boss Dana White was left absolutely flabbergasted by the announcement of the Paul-Mayweather fight, and questioned what sort of state boxing was in if one of the all time great boxers was taking on a complete novice, because he was a You-Tube celebrity for killing rats, and filming a dead suicide victim - and then making fun of her.

Dana White said sadly:

“When people ask me what’s the state of boxing right now, that’s where it’s at,”

White's stunned reaction when he first heard about Paul vs Mayweather fight

The lack of great fighters and the antics of promoters and managers, the multiple champions, no one knowing the champion’s name, have all combined to make Boxing a niche sport.

It certainly didn’t used to be.

Baseball was boxing's only competition as a national sport after WW1 up until the Golden Age and the rise of pro football. Now boxing is a niche sport.

Boxers used to be heroes to young kids. Joe Louis enlisted in the United States Army in 1942. Other fighters who served in the military during World War II included Ezzard Charles, Joey Maxim, Billy Conn, Gus Lesnevich, Fred Apostoli, Freddie Cochrane, Lew Jenkins, Bob Montgomery, Beau Jack, Marty Servo, and Tony Zale. Max Schelming served in the German Paratroopers. Each of them was a world champion at one time or another during his ring career.

Joe Louis and Rocky Marciano’s fights were followed by a nation on radio and then television. Patterson, Liston and Ali followed. The world followed the sport.

Not today. Joshua can sell out Wembley Stadium, but he is not the household name Mike Tyson was, or the world phenomena that Ali was, and never will be.

Mike Silver details the sad decline of the once world renowned sport to a niche entertainer in his very fine book The Arc of Boxing: The Rise and Decline of the Sweet Science: Mike Silver, Foreword by Budd Schulberg: 9780786493876: Amazon.com: Books

The great boxing writer Bert Sugar is quoted by Mike Silver as having once said:

“As go the heavyweights, so goes boxing.”

This is just not a very good era of heavyweight boxing, to put it mildly

Larry Holmes, asked about today’s heavyweights, said:

“They couldn’t stand a chance when I was fighting. When I was fighting … [it’s] no contest,” Holmes told YouTube channel Pro Boxing Fans. “We’d beat these guys up. They don’t have the abilities that we have, but they would’ve given us a pretty good fight. But, when you got guys like Kenny Norton, Joe Frazier, Muhammad Ali, Ron Lyle, Larry Holmes, we got a lot of good fighters out there when I was fighting.”

Larry Holmes: Current Heavyweights "Couldn't Stand A Chance" In My Era

Larry made very clear that he thought as to today’s heavyweights, he and the Golden Age greats would have:

“Beat these guys up’

Anthony Joshua and Tyson Fury written off by Larry Holmes as boxing legend insists his era would 'beat these guys up'

How far has boxing fallen? Anthony Joshua, a supposed champion, had to run for his life from a man so fat the layers jiggled, in order to “win back” 3 of 5 heavyweight championships available.

How bad was it? The papers openly mocked his running away

The Sun said it best when it wrote:

“It's so hard to root for him when he fights like this. Dude just stand and fight! Running backwards like he's getting bullied at school.

Another fan added:

“Joshua ran a marathon all fight…it's extremely boring to watch. Tap and run all night. No real punches”.

Another vented on twitter, saying…Another raved::

“Anthony Joshua would make some ballerina dancer! #worstsocalledfightever".

One commenter said::

“Has Anthony Joshua moved forward for even ONE moment in this fight?

Another ranted::

“Jab and run....... it's the only reason he lost so much weight.... Jab and run!

Another wit said:

“Joshua isn't a fighter, he didn't even look like a boxer. He is going to be once again shown that he is nothing more than a ballerina when he goes up against Wilder or Fury next year. Boring fight."

This age of heavyweights is terrible and bigger does not mean better.

There are writers on here, who confuse size with skill.

Boxing writer and historian, Frank Thomas, explains the difference between size and skill:

“In the minds of some, size trumps all. Ergo, the Klitschkos [or Joshua] should defeat any other heavyweight who is not of similar stature. This gravely misunderstands the role of size in boxing, as amply demonstrated by yesteryear’s Primo Carnera, the Golden Age’s own Ernie Terrell, or modern fighters such as Nikolai Valuev and Lance Whitaker. In addition to height, it also misreads what “size” is.

Because fighters today are bigger, does not mean they are better. A physique like Joshua's is useful if he is posing on a stage, and not a bit of help in the ring while a fat Mexican is pounding his huge posterior. His size helps him against boxers without the skill to actually box him.

It is sad but true that when he realized he could not fight Four Ton Fatty Andy, he lost 15 pounds so he could run from him.

And what is Four Ton Fatty Andy doing today?

According to Canelo Alvarez, he doesn’t even bother to come to the gym anymore…

Canelo Alvarez on Andy Ruiz: "He no longer comes to training"

Dillian Whyte was cutting:

“He's done well, changed his life. He made history… Tacos got that brother moving mad. He had the world at his feet, but he couldn’t say no to the enchiladas."

Whyte: We Made Ruiz an Offer, But Chocolate is More Important To Him

And that is your really heavy heavyweights today…

Modern fighters, and particularly the heavyweights, and their managers, make a career out of fighting cab drivers instead of contenders.

Most modern managers come right out and admit they avoid danger.

And that is exactly why the Rumble in the Jungle drew a billion viewers, and recent fights struggle to get 1,000th of that.

In the old days, as Sugar Ray Robinson said:

“You fought the best, sometimes you lost, you learned from it, went back, and won the rematch!"

As boxing writer and historian Anthony Mason also notes:

“Rematches tell the tale. Great fighters will lose if they fight other great fighters, rematches are how you tell the grand masters from the merely great.”

Today, you don't get that chance. Lose your zero, and goodbye. So fighters like Joshua or Whyte, or Wilder, are not exposed to real quality opposition - and then when they are, boom!

In 13 years, how many ranked contenders has Fury faced?

ONE.

When Joshua was preparing to fight in America for the first time, did he face Deontay Wilder, to unite the belts?

Of course not.

He picked a fat man, Jerrell Miller, with limited experience. Miller failed a drug test, and Hearn picked another fat man, this one having never beaten a contender, “Fat Andy” Ruiz. Ruiz was unranked by the sanctioning bodies, and Hearn had to pull strings to get his ranking up so the fight could be sanctioned.

Unfortunately for Hearn, the fat man could fight a little, and pounded his chiseled but ponderous champion at will.

Joshua only won the rematch by running for his life with the even Fatter Andy huffing and puffing in pursuit.

Wilder is no better.

Roy Jones is blunt about who exactly Wilder has managed to beat:

“if you look back at the names on [Wilder's] record, they don't add up to the names on Mikey Tyson's record. The only person that has a record that we knew anything about, and he never had a professional career and was a celebrated amateur, at best, was [Luis] Ortiz. Ortiz was a good fighter but with his lack of pro experience, [and age] Wilder took him into the deep water last time and drowned him.”

Boxing legend Roy Jones Jr. takes issue with Deontay Wilder's reaction to defeat

Tyson Fury summed up Wilder’s opponents other than himself:

“Wilder fought 35 bums…37 actually…Stiverne the first time he turned up came to fight…And then he’s fought Ortiz and Ortiz is 147 years-old, everybody knows that…But, he still gave him a good fight. So there’s two men, out of all of those men.”

Tyson Fury: Deontay Wilder fought 34 bums, won't want a rematch) |WBN - World Boxing News - Boxing News, Reports and Interviews

Incredibly, 7 of Wilder’s title defenses were against fighters who were not even universally ranked. Most had never been ranked.

Lou DiBella, who managed HBO's boxing programming throughout most of the 1990′s is increasingly worried the multiple title game is destroying boxing:

“The plethora of champions, often undeserving, have weakened our product and the quality of boxing, It's critical that we have undisputed champions so that the public can identify who the best is. Maybe that way, our champions will once again be significant in pop culture and their influence."

'That's what 2021 seems like it's about': Welcome to the year of the undisputed champion

When Keith Thurman and Shawn Porter announced their fights, Angel Garcia, Danny Garcia’s father and manager had this interesting reaction:

“I don’t know why they are calling each other out as they are both elite fighters. I don’t make sense. They’re still young. I don’t want people misunderstanding what I’m saying – it’s a great fight – but, at the end of the day, someone is going home with the ‘0’. If they want to do that, it’s up to them. They’re making good money to be calling each other out. At the end of the day it’s about retiring wealthy. Why would they fight each other when they could fight a Salka [an unranked nobody]?

Why would two talented boxers fight each other when one of them could lose?

Rod Salka, a lightweight never ranked in his life, was Danny Garcia’s opponent in 2014 - Danny got a million dollars for beating on a nobody, and it was no risk for a lot of money.

Lou Catalano of the The Guardian asked the most basic question about why heavyweight Andy Ruiz would choose to fight a 40 year old retired Chris Arreola over top contender Dillian Whyte:

“Why would two talented boxers fight each other when one of them could lose?”

Who is the champion? Multiple sanctioning groups meant multiple title, multiple sanctioning fees, oodles more money - and less fans

The last undisputed heavyweight champion was Lennox Lewis 23 years ago.

A whole generation has passed without an undisputed champion, the longest such period in boxing history.

The proliferation of titles has helped sink boxing's popularity from a sport that reaches people from all walks of life around the world to one that often appeals to only the most hardcore of fans. Even those who are supporters of the sport will have trouble telling you who the best boxer is in a given division.

How did this come to be?

Money.

The rise of endless cable channels gave rise to an endless need for programming - and promoters always knew they could charge more for title fights, so, presto, more titles!

Back 55 years ago there were several groups who claimed to sanction championship matches, but there generally was only one champion.

This began to change with the rise of the WBA and WBC in 1962 and 1963 and the first real sign of duelling champions occurred in 1965 with the with the WBA withdrawing recognition from Ali after he signed to rematch Sonny Liston - even though the original fight contracts called for a rematch - and sanctioning a second “world” heavyweight champion.

Multiple sanctioning bodies leave fans unsure who is champion of what

It used to be there were eight undisputed champions. Now there are 17 weight classes, and five title belts, plus the Ring Championships, for a total of 102 champions for the 17 weight classes! Then they have super, interim, and regular champions, so they have, potentially, 306 champions! That is 306 compared to 8 in the days of Sugar Ray Robinson.

Floyd Mayweather, the King of easy booking, says the current trend in all weight classes to seek out mediocre competition and one of the hundreds of titles is ruining the sport:

“Every fighter is a champion now. Belts now are like a fighter winning an amateur trophy. We gotta clean this sport of boxing up. This shit, this doesn’t look good.”

Gray Matter: Tank Davis, the WBA and the imminent death of authentic world title fights - The Ring

The WBA, by itself, right now, has 5 heavyweight championships:

• Super-champion (Oleksandr Usyk)
• Regular Champion (Trevor Bryan)
• Champion in Recess (Mahmud Charr)
• Interim Champion (Vacant)
• Gold Champion (Robert Helenius)

That is the WBA alone, the WBC has five championships as well:

• Franchise Champion (never awarded)
• World Champion (Tyson Fury)
• Champion in Recess (Vacant)
• Interim Champion (Alexander Povetkin)
• Silver Champion (Joe Joyce)

The WBO, presently has three world championships:

• Super champion (Oleksandr Usyk)
• World Champion (Tyson Fury)
• interim champion (Vacant)

The IBF, amazingly, recognizes but a single heavyweight champion, but they are talking of going with multiple titles as well!

So right now, we have…drumroll…7 different world heavyweight champions holding 10 different world heavyweight championships!

Eddie Hearn says:

“The fragmentation of belts is too confusing."

'That's what 2021 seems like it's about': Welcome to the year of the undisputed champion

Each of the four universally accepted organizations, the WBC, WBA, WBO, IBF, and the IBO, which is attempting to make it five, charge sanctioning fees for each of their title fights. They also charge for their elimination fights, and for everything else they can manage to screw a penny out of fighters for.

They are all allied in one form or another with certain promotors, and certain Television viewing options, et al. None of them work well with the others, and none of the viewing platforms do either. The horde of sanctioning organizations allows the horde of viewing platforms and promotors to con the public and bilk everyone out of more money.

Until 1965 there was basically one champion - the WBA/WBC split over Ali’s rematch with Liston was a forerunner of multiple champions, and much confusion.

Finally, there are no universally beloved and popular boxers as there once were

The 1930’s and 1940’s were dominated by the Great Joe Louis.

Rocky Marciano said of Joe:

“He represented boxing and being a good guy for the whole world.

Marciano represented the 1950’s.

Don Turner said of him:

“He was known to every school kid and their Dads too, and you won’t find that today.

Ali dominated the Golden Age, and was named one of Time’s 100 Men of the 20th Century in 1999:

“Muhammad Ali: Hero and Icon

TIME 100 Persons of The Century

Kareem Abdul-Jabber said of Ali:

“Muhammad Ali is the epitome of the concept of the living legend. He has inspired and thrilled generations of fans around the world as an athlete and humanitarian. Throughout his life he has been one of a kind. They truly threw away the mold when he was born."

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar: Muhammad Ali Became a Big Brother to Me

Today?

The Sun said it best when it wrote:

“Joshua isn't a fighter, he didn't even look like a boxer. He is going to be once again shown that he is nothing more than a ballerina when he goes up against Wilder or Fury.”

The best of what there is don’t fight each other either…the glamour is gone…For all these reasons, and more, boxing has lost its once lofty place as one of the elite sports, and is now, at best, a niche sport…

CREDIT TO:

Assassin's creed: Larry Holmes discusses his greatness, Ali, Tyson and more - Boxing Social

Boxing Illustrated March 1996. p 29., Herb Goldman

Each year, 13 boxers on average die in the ring | CNN

How Much Training Do You Need Before the First Boxing Match? | Livestrong.com

In The Ring and Out: Professional Boxing in New York by Stephen Reiss

Joe Louis by Joe Louis

KO Magazine, March 1999, Joe Frazier, Ray Arcel

The Arc of Boxing: The Rise and Decline of the Sweet Science by Mike Silver

The A-Z of Boxing: *A Boxing A to Z (The Little Book) by Ian Welch

The Old School is Far Better Than the New

Top 10 Most Popular Sports In The World | 2022 Power Ranking

The Most Popular Sports In The World

Top 10 Most Watched Sports in the World Today

For me, the best part of boxing movies is the scenes depicting the training, the workouts, the preparation for the big fight.

There's part of me that wishes I worked harder, that I had a clear objective and commitment to achieve it, that I had the will and grit to suffer in pursuit of my cause.

When I watch boxing movies, I get a vicarious thrill, motivation, and the urge to work harder, to train, to improve. That energizes me and leaves me feeling good.

Boxing movies do this, but so do other sports-related films (e.g. Miracle, Hoosiers, Rudy, Vision Quest, The Natural, White Men Can’t Jump, Jerry Maguire, Chariots of Fire, etc.)

It also helps thay boxing is rather primal and easy to understand… I can imagine the feeling of getting punched in the face, perhaps more readily than I can imagine sinking a jumpshot or hitting a baseball.

And boxing movies lend themselves to “underdog” themes… we want to believe that anyone can be a boxer, no matter how poor they are… all it (seems) to take is will. We want to believe that about our own lives.

They are now happy because Jake brought the thrill they all missed. Yes it's still considered a real sports. Thanks to non other than, Jake ‘The Real Deal’Paul.

I think there have been several factors. Competition from other combat sports like UFC and MMA has hurt boxing, because the newer sports are seen as faster moving, the fights don’t last as long and are usually more exciting. Also corruption from unsavory promoters and suspect multiple sanctioning bodies have continued to mar boxing’s reputation. And lastly, since boxing matches and boxers’ careers go on arguably too long, they can take a terrible toll on fighters’ physical and mental health. Neurological damage is no longer a joke, and when the public sees beloved figures like Ali in the state he was in for the last 20 or so years of his life, that further damages boxing’s reputation.

To my mind it is lack of visibility caused by greedy crooked promoters. I’m in my 70’s. There were local boxing gyms with local matches, and there were fights every week on TV. Big championship fights were always televised. Everyone knew who The Champ was. Then promoters figured out they could make more money with pay per view. That cut out TV matches that everyone could see. Without visibility that minimized the development of new fans for the sport. The rise of other sports options, like football & basketball, cut back on local boxing participation. So less upcoming fighters. Promoters, such as Don King, were widely seen as crooked. Big money was more to be found in championship fights, so rival boxing organizations were formed with their own championships. That diluted the value of each championship. Now there is no one Champ, but various champs. Quick, who is the heavyweight champ?? I have no idea, and that used to be a name that was known to every man, woman, and child in America, if not the World. Now only fans would be able to answer that. Sad how the mighty have fallen.

During the times of merchant trading during the 18th Century boxing was a standard for most British men. In fact the Europeans were known to be wary of the British as they were known to be tough and not afraid of conflict. Bare-knuckle fighting was not uncommon in social areas.

back around 50 years ago it wasn’t uncommon for boxing to be seen as a way to get out of poverty. Young men living in rundown, dirty working class areas could boxing on the weekend and earn some money, if they were good at it they could potentially get themselves and their families out of the area. Reggie Kray (one of the infamous Kray gangster twins that ruled parts of London) was known to be a boxer in his youth, and would let former and current boxers drink for free in his clubs.

History of boxing in Britain

What about now? Boxing is still a huge part of British culture. My own hometown has Martin Murray, I don’t know if you have heard of him.

But there’s something else…travellers are known to bare-knuckle boxing. This is like regular boxing except there’s no protection, and fights are just normal street fights. I have met some men who know men who know underground boxing matches in the vicinity of Liverpool, not legal you understand.

The rules of bare-knuckle fighting in travellers terms is brutal. If your opponent is knocked the f- out you wait. You wait for him to wake up and once either one or both hands leave the floor you can begin smacking him again. Only when one man says ‘giving best’ (saying the opponent is better than them) can the match end. Pride gets in the way a lot and can carry serious injuries.

Several people want bare-knuckle fighting to be made legal in the UK, as they see it as an important part of the history of Britain and its culture.

Then the travellers have ‘illegal’ bare-knuckle fights. The term ‘illegal’ basically means anything goes, and is normally fought between two opponents who hate each other. Nothing and I mean nothing is off limits. Chewing off ears is not uncommon, nor are tearing off noses with your teeth. If your opponent respects you they’ll spit it out so it can be re-attached, if not…swallowed.

WWE Superstar Wade Barrett is known to have boxed in Liverpool in his early 20’s, frankly I’m not surprised. It is also not uncommon for boxers in these clubs to get mugged and jumped on by guys waiting outside to steal the cash.

In certain army units boxing your comrades is also not uncommon. My grandfather fought during WW2 against the Japanese in Burma. His Sergeant told him he’s knock the shyness out of him, soon my grandfather was boxing in the army. Army boxing is during training, especially the parachute regiments you go for one minute against your comrade in a controlled environment. The reason for this? If you can kick the crap out of a friend, you can certainly kill an enemy.

The general level of quality is shockingly bad. A relatively tiny pool of female boxers means that even the worst of them get hyped up and given chances that most male boxers would never get. I recently had the “privilege” of watching, who many people describe as the greatest female boxer of all time, Clarissa Shields and it was borderline hilarious. If she was a man then you would of never even heard her name. Also the tippy happy nature of women's boxing is shockingly boring. I would say that if more women get into boxing and more women watch boxing then the quality will go up but the recent rise of only fans skanks has sent the sports image back 40 years.

I read through the existing answers and was surprised that every single one of them passed the question off as a totally false premise.

While it’s true that MMA has not objectively eclipsed boxing in popularity, the numbers are a lot closer than these other answers are indicating. The graphic I’ll paste below is from the middle of last year but it’s still highly relevant for overall popularity. My personal opinion is that the individual purse for one fighter is not really a good measure of popularity of the sport, at least not as good as what the people are willing to pay for!

Anywho - my personal take is that MMA is still gaining steam against boxing (though it has leveled out in the last year or two for reasons I won’t go into here) the primary reason that I must assume is the speed of the sport and the constant possibility of a flash knockout or submission.

Boxing is as much a science as it is a sport. While MMA is incredibly technical as well, it’s just not on the same level as boxing in that arena. I would almost equate the psychology of boxing to that of a pitcher on the mound in a Major League Baseball game.

Ultimately though, people like blood and knockouts, MMA offers that. For the same reason Americans would rather watch football than soccer, we are shifting toward MMA over boxing. Just my $.02 as this answer is always going to involve some guesswork.

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