T-bird's thread spurred me into posting this, as I have been thinking about it for some time.

I grew up a boxing fan. Friday Night fights on ESPN, HBO Boxing After Dark, Showtime Championship Boxing, and even a few fights on ABC Wide world of Sports back when I was really young. I even enjoyed the PPV mega fights when they came on and didn't mind paying a premium for a premium fight.

Then this streaming [censored] with DAZN and whatever else they've gone to came along and ruined the sport. You can't even catch a regular fight anymore unless you're subscribed to some service. Money killed it!

As my own personal little protest, I haven't and won't subscribe to any streaming services just to catch a fight. I do realize it ain't gonna make a difference, but it is what it is.

I sure miss boxing though.

And to pour salt in the wound, there's a kid from Grand Prairie that is the real deal and moving up the list.

Vergel Ortiz Jr

No American heavy wieght champs for a fair period of time, at least not compelling ones. Plus MMA is just a better watch. My daughter does jujitsu and my son is now doing kick boxing and jujitsu with the hope of moving into mma later. It's shocking how many people are at these gyms now. All walks of life from little kids to LEO to housewives. The small gym my son goes to will have multiple sessions a day with 30 people or more. The little kids sessions are just packed. And they all watch mma. When I went to my daughters first tournament I was blown away at how many people were there.

Yep. MMA mixes boxing, wrestling and kick boxing all into one and most folks would rather watch it. Myself included, there is more action it seems like.

MMA for the win, boxing is dead.

This. We are living in the most trained society in our lifetime for sure. I’ve been training BJJ for 21 years, along with Muay Thai etc.. The kids training today have so much exposure to knowledge and experience and they are incredible. A black belt used to be a unicorn and now it’s common to have 5+ on the mat just at our day class. Most all cross train as well. It’s a great era for combat sports.

It's easy...

UFC and other mixed martial arts.

The more intense and brutal, the better.

Boxing is jab and miss, head bob then duck, almost dancing around the ring.

It was fun until "brutality entered the ring."

...------

I've seen Vergil twice at Dickies arena, great fighter. Boxing is my favorite sport.

Boxing got into the mindset of only promoting heavyweights.
Extremely unfortunate as Roy Jones Jr was the most exciting boxer I’ve ever watched….and he was dominant for close to a decade while the typical boxing media mostly ignored him.

He carried the sport on his back for a long time.

I think my sons real goal is to kick my arse lol. He ain't there yet but I may be more careful what I say to him in a few years lol. And by the way for you guys that haven't seen the aftermath of a hard workout session these people literally are dripping wet from head to toe when they come out. My son is covered in bruises and thinks it's the best thing ever. After seeing what I have seen be careful what you say because some lady at the grocery store may choke you out.....

Boxing has been dead to me for the last 30 years. Once Don King took over professional boxing it went downhill.

That's what I was going to say. Don King and PPV killed it.

Boxing is so 1980's through 90's.

And in a few years you'll be streaming everything.

I won't ever be streaming a dam thing! EVER!

I like MMA just like everyone else. I remember around 92 or 93, you could rent the UFC #1 and #2 vids from Video King here in GP but they were required to keep them in the X-Rated video section behind the curtain.

Dana has done a pretty good job of allowing the public to still get their fair share of free viewing option and do the PPV for the mega fights. I'm OK with that format.