by Tom Lee ’14

Throughout the 20th century, boxing was considered to be one of the biggest attractions in American sports. Millions of people tuned in to witness two warriors clobbering one another in a somewhat barbaric and even inhumane fashion. Only those that could combine both an indomitable spirit and superior skill could partake in “the sweet science.” Nowadays, the best boxers are still excelling in the skill department but are lacking the heart of boxers from the last century. As a result of this and other factors, the sport of boxing is on the verge of disappearing into obscurity.

Muhammad Ali was technically one of the best but, more importantly, every time he stepped into the ring, he wore his heart on his sleeve. Mike Tyson may not be known as the nicest person but when he fought, he sparred as if his very life depended on it. They not only were boxing technicians but also had the hearts of champions. Along with Ali and Tyson, fighters like Sugar Ray Leonard, Rocky Marciano, Sonny Liston and on and on would elevate pre-fight hype to soaring levels and always live up it.

In the new millennium, however, the sport lacks fighters like those mentioned above. Today’s boxers now seem to care about earning a lot of money, remaining undefeated, and cherry-picking lesser opponents. The fans—the ones that sill remain—want to see excitement, entertainment, passion and desire. The fans want to see boxers going toe-to-toe and showing exactly why they do what they do.

Boxing also suffers under a broken system. Promoters dominate the sport and have almost all the say in picking opponents for their fighters. Instead of the fighting in the ring, more energy is expended on self-defeating controversies over how much money each boxer receives. Making matters worse, the scoring system of boxing is flawed. Adding on to that, there are numerous sanctioning organizations like the World Boxing Organization, World Boxing Council and World Boxing Association that have their own respective champions. Simply put, there is always more than one heavyweight, lightweight and welterweight champion of the world. This only contributes to the broken system by causing more confusion and mixing up desired match-ups.

With the almost exponential rise in popularity of the mixed martial arts-based Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), boxing has lost even more viewers and fans who have flocked to the more gritty, barbaric, yet simple and feasible system of the UFC. Boxing has simply killed itself over the past decade as fighters, promoters and organizers do not address urgent problems. Boxing is facing extinction as an American sport unless it drastically changes course. It may even be too late.