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Originally Posted by highthief
Eventually boxing will fade away or get extensive safety precautions like headgear and 16oz gloves brought in as in the amateurs. Combat sports in western society have always ebbed and flowed. The sport goes underground, it gets respectable, it gets forced underground again. Some countries in europe have, I believe, banned the sport and it might as well be banned in some states for the lack of fights that occur.
Right now, boxing is pretty weak - I don't think Johnson's death will knock it out, but if things continue - lack of participation at the grassroots level, lack of televised and club fights - it'll go down for the count, at least for a period of time.
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The reason boxing died was that it went to pay per view and premium cable channels and the greed and politics of the promoters, not because of deaths or injuries or even lack of stars (there are still stars, although ppv and cable made the stars harder and harder to associate and recognize).
The interesting thing about boxing (more so than any other sport in the USA) was that the champs could be traced to which group was starting to move out of the poverty ranks.
Early you see it was the Irish, then the Jews, then Italians, and then Blacks, and finally Latinos..... there really isn't that push to be a boxer and get out of the ghetto anymore.
Will boxing die? I doubt it, but it has to get back to its roots, small gyms in cities, boxers that work their way up, televised on "free" tv. However, as long as King, Arum and the old school promoters still maintain the reigns and politics of boxing, it will flounder.