Posted on 08/17/2024 11:14:11 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
They were like gods. John L. Sullivan. Jack Dempsey. Joe Louis. Rocky Marciano. Muhammad Ali. Joe Frazier. George Foreman. Larry Holmes. Mike Tyson. Evander Holyfield.
There was a time when the heavyweight champion was the most famous man on the planet. They were bigger than kings and more instantly recognizable than presidents. At the peak of his fame, Muhammad Ali could’ve traveled to the farthest corners of the world — some remote hut in the middle of nowhere — and somehow, every villager would know his name: “Ali boma ye!”
Today? Do you even know who the heavyweight boxing champion is?
To appreciate just how dramatically boxing has fallen, consider this: At one point, boxing was THE most popular sport in the United States. Boxing was our passion!
Sure, foreign competitors occasionally popped up. Argentinian Luis Angel Firpo famously knocked Jack Dempsey clear out of the ring in round one. Dempsey viciously KO’d him in round two. Max Schmeling of Germany had a classic two-fight rivalry with Joe Louis. Ingemar Johansson of Sweden treated us to a trilogy with Floyd Patterson in the late 1950s and early 1960s. And English folk hero Henry Cooper flattened a young, cocky kid who was still known as Cassius Clay in the fourth only to get stopped on cuts in the fifth.
But boxing was universally perceived as an American sport. Almost without fail, for 100 years, the world’s greatest boxers were Americans.
During the first half of the 20th century, boxing was ubiquitous on radio and television. Every major newspaper had three or four full-time boxing writers on their payroll. It was in our blood: Boxing was far bigger than football, exponentially bigger than basketball and hockey, and even bigger than baseball, our so-called “national pastime.”
And today?
(Excerpt) Read more at pjmedia.com ...
No controlling authorities, and the paychecks for the best vs the up and coming. Imagine if someone starts a Consolidate Boxing Enterprise, and builds a way for training fighters, managing fighters, and promoting them? Like MMA?
I agree with that.
Football is already PPV. I have antenna and streaming FREE, except for Paramount plus and Amazon. Amazon is about to be dropped, as it serves little purpose.
Roller Derby too. The ladies were more fun to watch.
True. When there are any football games that I am interested in, I avoid sports news and wait until the condensed version is up on YouTube. Takes about 45 minutes with all of the non-action removed.
if you add up all the time between the starting and ending whistle for each play, total actual playtime is about 11-15 minutes ...
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