[Kid McCoy]

Far and away the first global sport, 291 years of solid, widespread appeal, touching every continent and social sphere, and backed by an estimable history of near mythical proportions from the Greek Olympiad where fighters from throughout the ancient world vied for achievement in the most estimable contest of them all; it will literally be centuries before any other spectator sport is it’s equal on the whole time line level of relative assessment.

And insomuch, what is happening today during the current hour is relatively insignificant.

Regarding today’s game, and what is often viewed here and elsewhere as devaluation, it is time for me again to point out that that is not true, and simply a myopic perception.

The statistics presented at the top of the thread should be enough to thwart any attempt at sophomoric debate on the matter.

Boxing once commanded no less than 38 percent of the global sports take, a staggeringly high amount.
Today, no single sport (including Soccer, Football & Baseball) can claim any better than just half of that percent.

What boxing has done is simply make way for other sports to emerge onto an evermore crowded stage, and in so doing, it now appears to have ebbed.
And this has occurred only during the last 50 years, a recent development.

But, the reality is that sports as a whole have gained in status in the social consciousness of earth’s people, and Boxing, always an acquired taste, and seldom ever acquired at all by woman and the men who emulate them (groups comprising 2/3 of the population), retains a solid, sound niche within this expanded range of diversionious activities, within which many, many people make lots of money, and there is nothing whatsoever that can be gleaned statistically to indicate that this will change within our lifetimes.

So long as people acknowledge that there is honor in a fair fight, and as long as courage and dignity are still held in high esteem, Boxing will survive as the premiere method of unarmed combat sport, and excellence achieved in all other sports will be relegated to just games and stunts by comparison.

And lastly, I suppose it’s been long enough now for the ADD generation to have forgotten how it works, but the next Mike Tyson is always….always just around the corner, and when he emerges, and if he doesn’t implode into his own insanity before his peak, Pepsi, Nintendo, Life magazine and whoever else holds sway at that moment will be right back at the bargaining table, ready & able to wrap him up and roll him out for the public’s perusal, and have him fuck you till you love him through the magic of mass media.

Because friends, Money Talks, and Bullshit walks.