Mike Tyson: UFC was kicking our butt

[Stevenseagull53]

Although I deplore the skill level of these youtube boxers, and the ridiculousness it brings to boxing,
I agree with Tyson that boxing should welcome these youtubers. Because they promote boxing much better than the pros.
Let's be real here, boxing for decades has become a niche sport because it's only technical people fighting, and people don't understand what they're watching. Average people just want to see two men duke it out, that's what boxing was originally about and why I consider it the best combat sport, because it was the most manly way to have two men fight (fists only). Most of the boxers these days also come from mostly third world background, whether its Cuba, latin America, Eastern Europe, etc...So lets be real, people have trouble getting emotionally invested into some highly technical boxer from philipines or Kazakstan. Its not like the old days of Jack Dempsey or Tyson when fighters were all American and exciting.

And I totally disagree with part of the boxing world jumping at this and being all like "buuuut if we allow this there will be injuries and low awareness of danger of boxing, etc". This is just old senile bastards talking. Honestly if you box and step into a ring you should know from the get go that you're risking your life or CTE, sign the fucking waiver and let people fight. Boxing is not a cuddled children sport. It's war. If feels like these old senile promoters wanted too much to legitimise Boxing into the mainstream and forget the nature of boxing.

So yeah, although I really dislike these fuckers Logan & Jake Paul, I have no problem seeing them pummel people in boxing, and I thank them for actually doing this for the sport.

Sad thing is, the Paul brothers are way better than the journey men in todays HW division

 

[Stevenseagull53]

Can someone explain to me how roided Youtubers managed to get on the same fight card as the real boxers?

 

[Sisyphos]

Sad thing is, the Paul brothers are way better than the journey men in todays HW division

Probably because they went into boxing by choice, after being rich. Jake Paul obviously spent lots of money into proper training.
It's sad but lots of poorer pro boxers probably go to sub-par gyms, do way too much fighting, and don't get trained properly.
Also if you're rich and doing it by choice, you probably have a shit-ton more motivation to fight.
But if you're poor, it's just another fight out of 100+ fights you have to do to make a living.

Fuck it brings tears to my eyes.

 

[Stevenseagull53]

Probably because they went into boxing by choice, after being rich. Jake Paul obviously spent lots of money into proper training.
It's sad but lots of poorer pro boxers probably go to sub-par gyms, do way too much fighting, and don't get trained properly.
Also if you're rich and doing it by choice, you probably have a shit-ton more motivation to fight.
But if you're poor, it's just another fight out of 100+ fights you have to do to make a living.

Fuck it brings tears to my eyes.

That's what they did in the 60s too, boxed to survive, yet they those people had real abilities. Ali said most of his opponents were tough. Ever since the 80s, top fighters get padded records against cans, including Mike Tyson. It wasn't like that in the 60s.

 

[LHWBelt]

The glory days of boxing were something special

Some of Ali's best fights were watched live by half the world's population

I doubt any MMA fight ever reaches those heights

There's just so much more to consume now. Of course no mma fight will ever reach that pinnacle. No sport at all ever will. Too many options. When you had boxing or fuck all you watched boxing but now we got 800 shows on our streaming devices along with television, movies you can stream straight to your TV, etc. It's just a different ballgame.

 

[1s1k]

I'd assume it was easier back then..

Today you can calculate how many people were watching a specific episode of a show..

Back then it should theoretically have been easier with no streaming, just raw channels..


With that said i might be talking out of my ass as i don't know these things.. it's just assumptions..

If one tv is on in a house of 5 people how many are watching? It would be impossible to know real numbers.

If 5 guys live there the number could be 5. If 4 women live there with 1 man it might be one. What if some are babies. Just impossible.

 

[Assman66]

I just looked it up and Ali vs Spinks II was watched by 2 billion people live.

The world's population at the time was 4.2 billion.

Wtf...

Clear cut BS lmao

Half the world didn't even have TVs back then. Then you got the fact that most would have been children.

 

[Celeron]

It’s boxing own fault. The people that run it claim they love and respect the sport, but the truth is they are all greedy and only care about themselves.

And it’s not just not the managers, promoters and governing bodies either, it’s also the boxer themselves who keep each other down so they can one day get paid big. Instead of organizing and unionizing, they act as independent contractors who only care about making money and not improving the sport that helped them get rich in the first place.

 

[Naoya#1]

Mike Tyson is an US guy he thinks USA = worldwide

Boxing has been dying since 100 years for God's sake.

Thats like saying MMA is ded just because it's not a thing anymore in Japan aka boxing and kb dwarf mma in Japan.

But I think boxing should follow UFCs aka WWEs business model in a few decades.

BTW some nerds here don't realize how popular Ali was. This fucker reached soccer status. Petty much the only combat athlete in history of combat sports who became that popular. My brothers friends never watched boxing and even he knows who Tyson and Ali are.

 

[PalmStrike]

Boxing is doing just fine.

GGG vs Canello ... Spence vs Porter

There have been some great fights in the last decade.

 

[kimocomplex]

Can someone explain to me how roided Youtubers managed to get on the same fight card as the real boxers?

by training in the sport and becoming a part of it

 

[brackis1]

The truth is Mike is an equity partner in his "Legends League" with some silly TV execs.
He is just talking to help promote his freakshow league.

 

[egk]

Oh I know, I wasn't saying anything about UFC... Apparently it was estimated 1 Billion anyway after a quick google, so that's a Quarter of the Population not half.

Which fight has more views than Rumble in the Jungle? How do they even know these viewing figures? I can't find any sources at all other than the Rumble of the Jungle 1 Billion figure which seems weird anyway to say it had 50 Million PPV buys, how do you count the extra nine hundred fifty million people? Dodgy 70's streams LOL.

Back then they didn't have PPV in homes in the US. You had to go out to venues that had closed-circuit TV piped in. I went to one in the 80's, the first WW title fight with Sugar Ray Leonard and Tommy Hearns at the Syracuse War Memorial. There was no option to view from home.

My guess is they have the number of closed circuit tickets sold then estimate in countries in the rest of the world that may have got it on free TV. Just like today, the North American market basically subsidizes everywhere else.

 

[ultra321]

I just looked it up and Ali vs Spinks II was watched by 2 billion people live.

The world's population at the time was 4.2 billion.

Wtf...

uh huh... who tabulated that exactly? The Promoter? did half the world even have TV sets that could tune it in 1978??? No Sale

 

[diffuzn]

The glory days of boxing were something special

Some of Ali's best fights were watched live by half the world's population

I doubt any MMA fight ever reaches those heights

and the world would stop to wave for the queen. we get it boomers are a bunch of sheep. when people said watch they watched, there were what, 3 tv channels available or dream of genie?

 

[Naoya#1]

Another thing to keep in mind about viewership back then: there was less stuff to watch on TV, nowadays there's not only thousands of TV channels but people also watch stuff on their computer that's not even measured by Nielsen ratings.

Uhm. You could and still can generate huge numbers, if your sport was one of the biggest or even the biggest at their prime. More than 1 billion pple watched the soccer final,but I think the number was Much bigger because you watch the world cup with your friends and family. We were at least 50 guys and 1 TV, lol!

Boxing at his best was huge as fuck. I would say I was even bigger than prime WWE.

I never gave a shit about YouTube views but a random youtuber uploaded the tyson fight and 3 hours later 15 million watched grandpa Tyson and Ali was on a different level populraty wise.

 

[GaryEric]

The glory days of boxing were something special

Some of Ali's best fights were watched live by half the world's population

I doubt any MMA fight ever reaches those heights

well to be fair we are living in a much more pussified world now

 

[Satan's Daddy.]

UFC is a bigger sport than boxing for the past decade and will continue to be so.. They have far bigger stars and talent than boxing. UFC is the premier sport rn, everyone's watching it. Sure boxing will still have decent viewership and the people that work there will over exaggerate there success when we all know their numbers is horseshit.

 

[HwoarangStyle]

Jake Paul IS boxing.

 

[Zorro]

Boxing isnt dead or dying but its kind of like post-90s Simpsons. Its there, some people still watch it, but nobody is gonna argue that its better or more relevant than it used to be.

Great comparison