Marciano490 said:
It's a great time to get into boxing - despite all the coffin calls, there are a ton of great fights coming up, including this weekend when Canelo goes on free HBO. There should be a lot more action in that fight; both boxers are straight ahead punchers who don't bother much with defense.
As a semi-boxing fan, why do you say this? I've watched enough boxing over the last 10-15 years, I generally don't buy pay per views (mostly because they end up sucking) but watch a lot of the "free" HBO / Showtime / NBC (lately) fights. The sport is extremely inaccessible. You need to buy a premium channel or pay for PPV in order to watch most of the fights. There's a huge lack of stars and the boxers and their promoters can arrange who they fight and when.
Unless the boxing bodies unify, remove the power from the promoters and force rankings and matchups, I just don't see how boxing makes it. It's on the ropes (get it?) as it is, but the fact the Mayweather can avoid him for 5 years, then fight him for $500 million is everything that's wrong with the sport.
Imagine if the Patriots won the AFC and the Seahawks won the NFC and the Pats said, nah we'd rather not, we'll face the Bucs instead. As a huge NFL fan, i wouldn't pay $100 to watch the Super Bowl most years unless there was a real draw, nevermind a fight. I struggle paying the $100 a year for Redzone.
In spirit of earlier posts, id' rather watch this round on youtube repeatedly than watch the fight from Saturday once:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=71tRlcy5Nbo