How can American boxing rebuild itself?

Working on a story for a boxing web site I work for. About how to rebuild American boxing which is major decline right now, with Floyd Mayweather ducking a $50,000,000 payday to fight Manny Pacquiao because he's afraid of getting knocked out, no US heavyweights in the top 10, and a top prospect named James Kirkland getting knocked out in the first round recently by a Japanese journeyman.

Off the top of your head, how can American boxing rebuild itself and regain it's status as one of the most popular sports in the American media and culture, like the days of Ali, Tyson, Louis, Dempsey, Sugar Ray Leonard, etc?

Thanks, any comments would be appreciated.

 

It can't. It sucks and has sucked for years. Next.

 

They need to quit breaking for TV commercials right when the only interesting thing happens.


(The bikini girls with carrying the round cards.)

 

Invent a time machine and prevent basketball, baseball, football and hockey from becoming major sports, thus ensuring more elite athletes flow back into boxing? Throw themselves on the mercy of Congress to create a regulating body?

 

More Internet biographies. They need to get their names out there.

 

More balls-out promotional efforts. The contributions of people like Don King cannot be praised enough.

 

Boxing needs to learn from the things UFC gets right.

Boxing gives fans who shell out money for PPV a big-name main event and 2-3 hours of crap on the undercard. UFC PPVs usually run 4-5 fights deep with name fighters the fans care about. If a boxing main event sucks, the fans feel ripped off. If a UFC main event sucks, as often as not the undercard saves the show.

UFC makes matches the fans want to see when they want to see them. Boxing builds up fighters artificially. This isn't the 1970s anymore, no one is impressed by a soft unbeaten record. If a UFC fighter loses a tough fight to a name opponent, they don't lose face with the fans and as often as not come out of it a bigger star for their efforts.

And so on.

 

Stop putting good fights on pay-per-view.

Start televising fights again on CBS and ESPN.

Be honest with the fighters' records.

Get rid of Don King and his ilk.

Consolidate to one group. No more WBC, WBA, IIBF, BFF, IJAG, BYH, YGBFKM and WBO.

 

Hey, the IJAG world title belt is a treasured thing.

 

Chastity Belt?

 

Bob Arum, Don King etc. need to retire or die.
The sport needs to get off PPV.
One global boxing organization.
Weekend and late night fights shouldn't be the be-all, end-all. Fight on weekdays on cable.
Exploit Internet technology, stream away for free or minimal cost and load up the broadcasts with ads featuring global brands.
Hold championship bouts in non-traditional places.

 

You need to have good fights. Like has been said about the UFC, every single card has at least one great fight and most have three or four.

After that you need to have a great American fighter. Talk all you want about Mayweather ducking Pacquiao (which I think is a bunch of crap), but even when he does fight its only once a year. You need a fighter that will fight at least twice a year and ideally three to four guys that can create an interesting card every time.

Most of all you need to get rid of promoters that insist on only matching fighters they promote. Pacquiao fighting Mosley is a joke, but the only reason its done is because Abram is never going to put in the work required to match Manny with another top fighter, including Mayweather.