“What happened to the fans of The Sweet Science?” By M.DeTyrone

Boxing:  “What happened to the fans of The Sweet Science?”

By M.DeTyrone

I often read the comments by so called boxing fans on the countless social networks boxing pages, and online boxing forums. Then I ask myself what happened to the intelligence of the boxing fans? I understand that there is the casual fan that just watches boxing for the entertainment value many just watch to see boxers beat each other thus satisfying some sadist needs. Then you have the nationalistic fan this type of fan watches boxing not for the sport, because they truly believe the accomplishments of a boxer from their respective culture validates their supremacy over others, as a result, they find a sense of loyalty and belonging to a community.  Boxing networks and promoters more and more appeal to these types of fans since the exodus of many USA fans in the 2000’s to MMA and other sports. 

They don’t understand that a true boxer adjusts to an opponent’s style and strategy. Many do understand but it doesn’t fit their narrative that’s why you’ll see a lot of hypocrisy in their comments. A true boxer is not one dimensional and doesn’t complain about an opponent not standing in front of him to get hit. Boxing is not two opponents beating each other senseless as if they were human piñatas or punching bag that’s not skills but glorified brute force. A true elite boxer uses defensive skills, controls the distance to his advantage, uses timing, and knows how to utilize space. Great boxers like Roberto Duran, Julio Cesar Chavez Sr., Erik Morales, Wilfredo Benitez, Sugar Ray Robinson, Carlos Ortiz, and Sugar Ray Leonard all adjusted. I suggest casual fans take their time to appreciate the skills of these great boxers, and maybe educate themselves on various styles.

Nowadays these so called boxing fans believe that a boxer that constantly applies pressure and tries to overwhelm his opponents with brute force is “Boxing” that it’s not the case. Pressure Boxers, Sluggers, Infighters, and Swarmers are part of boxing history but are not boxing. It’s what I call the “Rocky Effect” many of these people think boxing is a Rocky movie, as a result, the casual fans love Sluggers, Swarmers, Infighters, Pressure boxers it’s entertainment for them.  The majority of Sluggers lack mobility, defense, finesse; their combinations are repetitive and predictable. The majority of Sluggers outside a few exceptions in boxing just rely on power and brute force to obtain victories. They don’t last long in the sport their victories are pyrrhic and after they are used up the fans forget about them within a year. The boxing media and writers refer to them as “Fan Friendly.” I recently heard a commentator calling a boxer that had not won a fight within 2 years due to his lack of defense a “Fan Friendly Fighter.” I ask myself this is what boxing has become? Technique has been demeaned, unappreciated, and disregarded. I often hear and see the comment these are gladiators and warriors. However, the reality is that gladiators were extremely skillful in their respected style and highly valuable commodities for their owners. Warriors in wars have fought with skill and strategy any “Warrior” that fought with no strategy or skills and took massive punishment ended up dead.

These “Modern Day Boxing Warriors” sadly end up taking massive punishment and end up brain damaged, yet a great majority of fans will not be there taking care of them financially.

Julio Cesar Chavez Sr. was a swarmer / infighter and he adjusted to any style his pressure was skillful and he knew how to close the distance of an opponent. He faced plenty of talented pure-boxers and managed to defeat them. Sugar Ray Robinson the greatest boxer of all time was a boxer-puncher that adjusted and defeated opponents of all styles, the same with Roberto Duran another boxer-puncher with excellent defense, and overall skills, with brutal power. He adjusted and defeated all sorts of styles. That’s what elite boxers’ do they adjust to any style, and are not one dimensional pretending to be something that they are not, and they don’t tell other boxers how to box just to accommodate their style, or do they cry about “Running”. Which is the new word used by bias ignorant casual fans to describe that which they don’t understand, and use to defend their one dimensional favorite boxers. 

These so called fans don’t know what Ring Generalship is. According to the NYSAC Rules 1929: “Such points as the ability to quickly grasp and take advantage of every opportunity offered, the capacity to cope with all kinds of situations which may arise; to foresee and neutralize an opponent’s methods of attack; to force and opponent to adapt a style of boxing at which he is not particularly skillful.” Basically, ring generalship applies to the fighter/boxer who uses skills beyond straight punching power to control the action of the ring. This is not very hard to comprehend however it seems to be ignored out of convenience or ignorance.

Another thing that you will find is the blatant bias and hypocrisy by these fans and boxing media when it comes to a fight decision or a boxer’s style. There seems to be no understanding of four things: Effective Aggression, Defense, Ring Generalship and Clean and Hard Punching boxing matches are scored that way. They are not scored on who throws the most punches or who bloodies another boxer’s nose etc…