Bluegrassrivals

Professional Boxing is DEAD!!!! However, IMO, the sport of boxing is still very much alive.

Outrageous Pay-Per-View costs, long awaited fights that are horrible & the lack of boxers who have 'rockstar' drawing power all contributed to the sharp decline in Professional Boxing.


June 28th, 1997 is, IMO, the day professional boxing checked in to the funeral home. The way that the Holyfield vs. Tyson II ended is what steered away the 'average joe' fan who would buy the PPV to have friends over or go to a friends house to watch it because everybody knew it was a social event.




Around that timeframe of the Holyfield vs. Tyson II fight, the WWF vs. WCW Monday Night Wars was in full swing & was the hottest thing going, the popularity of the UFC/MMA style PPV's were growing like crazy & there was really no other big named Heavyweights.

The hardcore boxing fans will say that there was some great fighters & epic fights after the Holyfield vs. Tyson II, but IMO, boxing died On June 28th, 1997.

Wladimir Klitschko & Vitali Klitschko may have held the Heavyweight title belts for years and years & they were good boxers..... but they killed the American interest in boxing. The majority of their fights were in Europe and were against no-name 'jobbers'.


The lighter weight divisions had some great fighters during the Klitschko brothers era, but boxing lives and breathes on the shoulders of the Heavyweight division.

Boxing has indeed been on a steady decline since that night some 19 years ago. Since then there hasn't been a heavy weight champ that has drawn the attention that either of those two have. But to say it died is wrong. There has been several good fights in the lower weight classes. But I do agree that the heyday of boxing has came and gone, now it's mma and ufc.