Thoughts on boxing | Syracusefan.com

Thoughts on boxing

SWC75

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- The fact that a Mayweather or Pacquiano can make $30 million for a fight proves that there are plenty of boxing fans out there, despite the inroads of MMA. They just want good fights to watch and a better run sport. I'm not an MMA guy but they do a much better job of getting the fights tyhe fans want to see and you don't hear of controversial decisions or undeserving champions the way you do in boxing. And you don't see guys squabbling over their cut of the fights the way Pacquiao and Mayweather have done. Imagine if the Green Bay Packers had said "We're 15-1 and the Giants are only 9-7 so we want 2/3 of the profits or we aren't playing". That's what we get with boxing.

- We are in the 21st century. Is it time to bring in the technology and use Compubox numbers to judge fights rather than having judges post numberical opinions? Maybe we could borrow from fensing, which is all electronic now and imbed a censor in the gloves that records when a punch is landed and measures it's force and that could be used to score the fight, (Compubox uses two people who press buttons based onw aht they think they've seen).

- Athletes have a right to know what the score is. Most sources, (including me) gave Pacquiao the first nine rounds. Since Bradley had no knock-out power, the final three rounds were jsut a formality, except on the actual judges cards, which are kept secret to the end of the bout. I can see that posting the judge's scores publically after each round could be problematic as the crowd could intimidate them in some venues. But at least the scores could be transmitted to the fighter's corners so they could know what they have to do to win the fight. Pacquiao might have fought those last three rounds very differently and we might have had a different result. Would Tom Brady have thrown that Hail Mary if he thought he was ahead?

- Pacquiao is elaving himself open for bad decisions by taking the first two mintues of rounds off and then trying to win them in the final minute. He did that here, (he landed more punches than Bradley in 10 fo 12 rounds), but it gives a judge an opening to grade that round for his opponent. Many of them grade each mintue separately and thyey may have felt that braqdley won some rounds 2 minutes to 1.

- Not sure what to make of Bob Arum. He seemed angry at the decision but he promotes both fighters and with the Mayweather fight on the back burner at best, having Pacquiao lose on a bad decision sets up a lucarative rematch, which is alreayd pre-scheduled in the fight contract, so he benefits from this. His protests might be a cover for what he arranged to happen.

- Three things make a sport popular: charismatic performers, annual events and the laundry, (teams people can root for even if the people in the uniforms change). Most individual sports have the first tow: Golf has Tiger and Phil and the Masters, US Open, British Open and PGA. Boxing only has chraismatic performers. The sport would be much better served to abandon hereditary titles where Mayweather and Pacquiao are making all the decisions and replace them with an annual tournament in each wieght class, (and get rid of the "junior" and "super" divisions). Have the quarters in the spring, the semis in the summer and the finals in the fall. Now you're on the sports calendar for the average sports fan. They could also get some laundry and have city professional boxing teams at the entry level for the sport, before the top guys are ready to contend for the overall title. Bye-bye MMA.
 

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