Three Things Televised Boxing Needs To Fix It's Greed Problem

(http://losthatsportsblog.com/)

Boxing is not in a great state at the moment. Heavyweight boxing once the most prized division has lost almost all of it's box office appeal. It's been ruled so long by the klitschko's who's fights to be honest are just boring. That's not a criticism on them, they are good fighters; it's more of a criticism on the total lack of quality opponents who could draw them into producing a really exciting fight.

A few men prop up boxing and most reside around the Welter weight division. The two most popular boxers Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather typify at the same time the best and the worst of today's boxing culture. They are both brilliant example of speed, power and skill; studies in hard work and determination and great multi-weight champions. However their failure to arrange a fight all the fans have wanted for the last four years shows why sports like UFC have become a threat to boxing's prime time crown. Pacquiao has just signed a new contract with hist promoter Top rank until 2016. Many state that this deal effectively kills any chance that the fight which would be the richest in the history of boxing will ever happen. This because Floyd Mayweather wants to dictate the terms of the fight and Bob Arum CEO of Top Rank does not like being dictated to. 

There are many articles on the relationship between Arum and Mayweather so I'm not going to go into it here but I do want to offer some suggestion on how boxing needs to change so that they can bring the best fights to the TV and stop fans turning away:

1 Money should be based on who wins

One of the reasons fights fall through is the amount of money each fighter is guaranteed and what share of the PPV they receive. This is usually based on who is the bigger fighter at the time; for the Mayweather vs Maidana fight Floyd took home a guaranteed $32 million compared to his opponents modest $1.5 million. This is not how sport should work, the way all other sports work is the winner gets more money. Win Wimbledon get more than the runner up. Win the English Premier you get more than the team in second place. Mayweather wouldn't fight Pacquiao initially because they wouldn't give him the lion share of the purse. Boxing needs a hard and fast rule e.g. a 65% - 35% split with the larger share going to the winner and 50-50 for draws. The decision needs to be taken away from the greedy promoters who are failing to put together the fights we want to see.     

2 All technical decisions should be made by the governing bodies

Another reason the fight fell through was Mayweather demanding blood based drugs tests and Pacquiao refusing on religious grounds. Boxers or promoters shouldn't be able to make decisions on drugs tests, boxing glove weights/padding, ring sizes etc. An impartial body should make these decisions so they are fair for both fighters

3 Copy UFC and make the best fighters fight

The main advantage of UFC over Boxing is that they have one governing body and the power to make fights happen. Boxing needs this badly, when everyone wants a fight it should happen. Boxers have a bit too much power and are far too precious over silly things like undefeated records. Forcing the best fights to happen would elevate boxing back to the level it occupied in the golden days of Ali, Foreman, Frazier and the like.

Mayweather wants to be remembered as TBE(the best ever). Someone needs to tell him that most believe he can't have that title if he doesn't fight Pacquiao. Also with both these men close to retirement boxing needs to fix itself to stop fans leaving with a bad taste in their mouths.   

   

Community - The show not afraid to have an imagination

When I was little I loved the show Rugrats. If you've never seen it (seriously?!) it's about a group of babies and toddlers who despite rarely venturing far from their houses or local playgrounds were able to go on unbelievably magical adventures - from the bottom of the ocean to the far reaches of space- all with the power of their imagination.

When I was a bit older this mantle was taken up by the Disney classic Recess (and not the dreadfully normal Rugrats: All grown up). Recess was about a group of 4th grade school friends who following their leader TJ went through a series of wild escapades in the world's craziest school. How crazy was this school, well as crazy as a school with a King, kindergarteners who were wild savages and an almost Olympic like obsession with kick ball can be.

Why do I bring these shows up? Because they have one key thing in common, a sense of wonder. The imagination to take normal and potentially boring childhood scenarios and shine them through the prism of a child's mind to show the viewer that the world is full of wonder and adventure even if you have to create it yourself. We tend to lose that sense of wonder and we pass through the barrier of adolescence into adulthood but some people retain it. This is where the recently cancelled Community comes in.

Community was a sitcom (and it hurts to write was) set in a community college. It's main protagonists were six members brought together by a Spanish study group who have all been drawn to Greendale community college after suffering personal or professional setbacks in their lives. I'm not going to go into the whole back story here because I believe if you haven't seen it already you really should go and watch this brilliant show.

Why was it brilliant? Simply because it had that sense of wonder I alluded to before from school wide paintball wars, giant blanket forts to taking "the floor is lava" game to new extremes complete with factions and furniture islands. Even the concept that an app that encourages students to rate each other caused society to fragment into a dystopian class based system showed the craziness of the adventures they were having. But that was why it was brilliant. The show was prepared to do things no other show would do. From having an entire storyline happen in the background (Abed delivers a baby) to a clip show consisting purely of clips that never appeared in any episode or even the psychiatrist who tried to convince the study group they were in a mental hospital and that their time at Greendale was actually a mass delusion.

Community was brilliant, quirky and clever but because of this was never going to have the broad reach of a show like The Big Bang Theory. It was the kid at school who was pick on for being different even though that's what makes him awesome. And while shows like "two and half men" continue to be the school bully that refuses to graduate it seems like Community is being forced to drop out.

Communities cancellation has been met with great sadness across the internet even though no one is that surprised. A show that clever and with that much imagination will never appeal to everyone and so the NBC Grim Reaper has been stalking it for the past few years. There is talk that the show could be bought by a digital company such Hulu or even Netflix so while this seems like the end of the study group we can only hope that Community will return and meet it's main goal of six seasons and a movie