Do you think Floyd Mayweather retiring will hurt Boxing?

1. 86

   Alphadogg16posted 8 years ago

   Do you think Floyd Mayweather retiring will hurt Boxing?
   
   Some people say he's the greatest pure boxer in history while others say he runs. The bottom line is no one could beat him. One of the greatest boxers, smack talkers and entertainers has hung up the gloves. Will this hurt boxing going forward?
   
   

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2. 88

   Zelkiiroposted 8 years ago

   Boxing kinda already died when MMA became more popular, as spectators like the more open and less arbitrary combat of MMA over the extremely rules-heavy Boxing. But Boxing is still around and has its fans, and for those people, I highly doubt Mayweather retiring would affect them at all.
   
   Like many MMA fans, Boxing fans are all about the combat and the struggle of wills between fighters. Mayweather is infamous for being extremely passive and is generally an out-boxer (which by itself is enough to make any boxer unpopular). Fans of Boxing want to see in-fighters like George Foreman and Mike Tyson--big, bad, brutal brawlers who rush in and slam the crap out of each other until somebody falls over.
   
   Out-boxing may be a smarter strategy, but so is constantly landing light jabs and clinching to waste time; both strategies will earn you wins, but they're also what's killing the sport's fanbase. People want to see a slugmatch, not a hug and dance party.

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3. 79

   dashingscorpioposted 8 years ago

   
   
   I don't think his retiring will hurt boxing.
   Many people had grown tired of him as a human being.
   As for being the best of all time I think you have to put that in perspective. From a lot of folks point of view in order to be considered "great" on has to have "great competition".
   Back when Larry Holmes was dominating the heavy weight ranks as world champion no one spoke of him in the same terms of (Ali, Frasier, Forman, or Norton). What makes someone great is the level of the competition they had to contend with. Sugar Ray Leonard had Hearns, Duran, & Hagler.
   However it's not Floyd's fought that he reigned in era that was devoid of marquee fighters. Ali is considered a legend. Floyd will never be seen as such.
   Ali was bigger than the sport of boxing. He had to overcome being stripped of boxing license for 3 years during his prime. He protested the Vietnam War, dealt with racism, won the championship three times and fought the biggest and baddest guys of his time. Not only did he win fights he predicted the rounds he'd knock people out. Ali's last fight was December 11, 1981. That's almost 34 years ago.
   Something tells me that 34 years from now Floyd Mayweather, Jr. won't have postage stamps with his face, movies made about him, songs written about him, nor beloved by millions of people around the globe. Ali changed boxing from a backroom gym sport to filling arenas that brought out world famous celebrities and multi million payments.

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4. 41

   FencesbyJohnposted 8 years ago

   Didn't Pay per view already kill it?  I stopped watching years ago.

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