Boxing 100 Years From Now

[Slugfester]

What will boxing be like in 100 years? It didn't change sweepingly in the last 100 years. Will the next century be the same, or are giant changes coming to boxing? Personally, I see giant changes ahead if boxing is to adapt and survive. What about you?

[Willie Pep 229]

I can not envision what it will be like.

I would argue that fighting is primeval and boxing is a martial art that allows for a controlled (sporting) opportunity to express that innate drive. So boxing could very well disappear in the near future, but will reappear in some form at a later date.

I suspect it has already come and gone and come again a few times historically.

But I want to try giving an opinion anyway.

If the younger generation is as WOKE as conservative news claims it is, boxing will be driven down economically and forced back to the level of cock fighting.

I personally don't buy into the argument that WOKEism is actually a crisis, but believe it is merely just another youth culture rebellion that will fade.

So I suspect we will watch boxing slowly (continue to) move further and further away from prize fighting and more towards being a sporting event.

Stricter safety rules, less fighting, more emphasis on boxing skilll, with less money on the table.

The game may trade away rounds and add safety equipment to fend off the progressive assault on its brutality.

At the very least we will see shorter and shorter fights, with larger gloves, with very early stoppages. Lots of emphasis on 'scoring points.'

P.S. There is sport out there right now (I don't know the name of,) in which a fighter must control the power of his punches and kicks or be DQed. I.e. knocking your opponent unconscious gets you DQed.

Does anyone know what I am referring to? An American fighter several years back suffered a DQ for that reason. That may be the way boxing goes.

[kara]

I wouldnt be surpised if it gets banned in some areas, UFC too, due to brain injury studies

[Tony Trick-Pony]

They'll have to drop the ABC belts and the seventeen divisions and they'll have to get the best to fight the best. I don't how they've gotten away with this farce as long as they have but it will have to change. The popularity now compared to 100 years ago has plummeted in the states anyway.

[BKM-]

I can not envision what it will be like.

I would argue that fighting is primeval and boxing is a martial art that allows for a controlled (sporting) opportunity to express that innate drive. So boxing could very well disappear in the near future, but will reappear in some form at a later date.

I suspect it has already come and gone and come again a few times historically.

But I want to try giving an opinion anyway.

If the younger generation is as WOKE as conservative news claims it is, boxing will be driven down economically and forced back to the level of cock fighting.

I personally don't buy into the argument that WOKEism is actually a crisis, but believe it is merely just another youth culture rebellion that will fade.

So I suspect we will watch boxing slowly (continue to) move further and further away from prize fighting and more towards being a sporting event.

Stricter safety rules, less fighting, more emphasis on boxing skilll, with less money on the table.

The game may trade away rounds and add safety equipment to fend off the progressive assault on its brutality.

At the very least we will see shorter and shorter fights, with larger gloves, with very early stoppages. Lots of emphasis on 'scoring points.'

P.S. There is sport out there right now (I don't know the name of,) in which a fighter must control the power of his punches and kicks or be DQed. I.e. knocking your opponent unconscious gets you DQed.

Does anyone know what I am referring to? An American fighter several years back suffered a DQ for that reason. That may be the way boxing goes.

I'm not sure if the woke thing applies. The worse woke got, the more we got brutal combat sports in return. I'm still not over the fact that we got bare knuckle boxing now. We also got crazy underground type of fighting with insane rulesets over the past few years as well. It seems like the softer society becomes, the more real men that are left are craving combat sports.

[Willie Pep 229]

I'm not sure if the woke thing applies. The worse woke got, the more we got brutal combat sports in return. I'm still not over the fact that we got bare knuckle boxing now. We also got crazy underground type of fighting with insane rulesets over the past few years as well. It seems like the softer society becomes, the more real men that are left are craving combat sports.

OK I understand that point. Maybe it will go underground and prosper in participation and maybe in its small universe bring prestige. . . . But those moves towards satisfying that craving, in each case, sees the crowd size shrink and the flow of money lessen.

[Slugfester]

A lot depends on tightly controlled vs underground fighting. In black market fighting little would be out of bounds. Boxing may be supplanted by matches between genetically engineered monsters. Matches between various monsters are likely to be familiar monsters at first--werewolf vs mummy, vampire vs transvestite, etc. Later on, who knows how the creatures might evolve? There may be super humans by that time as well, who can keep the human element in the game.

If it weren't for pro boxing no one would take a second look at amateur boxing. Do you really think fans will go for pillow gloves, KOs banned as illegal, ritualistic non-fighting and shorter matches, when they could be watching a Zombie and a Wokie tear each other's limbs off?