The Ring Magazine top rated pound-for-pound fighter in the world today just stepped up in weight and completely dominated. Manny Pacquiao not only beat David Diaz—he made him look bad.
The HBO replay, which in past years would have been a full rebroadcast of the fight with analysis and the like, was simply an hour show to blow through the fight and move on.
Boxing just doesn't have the draw it used to.
Look at the history of boxing. The first ever nationally broadcast sporting event was on July 2, 1921, and it was a boxing match.
The so-called "Battle of the Century" between Jack Dempsey and Georges Carpentier didn't live up to its name inside the ring (a lopsided fourth round knockout for Dempsey). But then the 80,000 plus on hand and the $1.7 million draw (both astonishing numbers for sports of the day) certainly made the fight one to remember.
To this day we are familiar with the phrase "The Great White Hope," which is in reference to any white fighter who would be able to beat Jack Johnson, the first black heavyweight champion. We have the "Rumble in the Jungle," the "Phantom Punch," the "Thrilla in Manilla," Joe Louis, Joe Frazier, Muhammed Ali, Rocky Marciano, etc.
Boxing has been a mainstay of American sports. Its professional ranks are older than football, than basketball, than hockey, and yes, even older than baseball. Its rules are simple enough for all to understand. It's accessible, exciting, and intriguing.
Why, then, is its popularity diminishing like never before?
There are several reasons for this. Each on its own could damage a sport, but in adding them all together one can see a promoter's worst nightmare.
The first is simply accessibility. It's not that boxing is less accessible today—it's in fact more so. Throughout most of the year there's boxing on ESPN twice a week and Versus often once a week, not to mention Showtime and HBO fights which often air a few times per month.
There is, however, more competition. When Howard Cosell was ringside during the careers of Cassius Clay, Joe Frazier, and others, he was in the sporting world's spotlight. Cosell was single-handedly the ESPN of his day, and he covered it all. When he was reporting on a fight, the world was tuning in. We have not had another Cosell, and perhaps never will.
Related to broadcasting, each of those channels mentioned are different, and not in a good way.
Versus' coverage is just flat out awful. I remember watching Kelly Pavlik when he was maybe 15-0 on Versus (OLN at the time, I believe), and they made him hard to watch.
HBO is a mixed bag. There are guys like Jim Lampley and Emmanuel Steward who are great at their craft and excellent in communicating the sport. Harold Lederman is also very good, if not a bit overzealous. However, it seems that more and more the ringside commentary is being done by Max Kellerman and Lennox Lewis, who are both terrible.
Kellerman has his upside in that he's more interesting than Larry Merchant (not unlike how a train wreck is more interesting than a toadstool) during interviews. But it seems that whenever Kellerman and Lewis are together, the conversation always just ends up focusing on Lennox Lewis (a very unexciting fighter during a very unexciting decade for his weight class).
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