Bill Simmons on DLH/Floyd, Last Big Fight?

Agent Zero · 11:08 AM

Bill Simmons from ESPN certainly thinks so.

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2...t&lid=tab2pos2

He makes some good points, and this article sheds some light on a dark secret of the sport we all love so much, there aren't very many, if any at all, superstar calibur fighters outside of Oscar. Ultimately I think the sport will be fine, kinda like how the NBA was down for a few years after Jordan, Magic and Bird all retired. We just have to wait for the next big thing in boxing, and hope it comes sooner rather than later.

moeller61 · 04-25-2007, 03:42 PM

I am Big Bill Simmons fan, and I tend to agree with a lot of what he says in the article, at least from a U.S. perspective. I am sure others will take great offense to it however.

BR · 04-25-2007, 04:23 PM

Floyd Mayweather was the 5 most searched thing/person on Yahoo! the day after a free UFC card. Think about that. There was no MMA fighter/mention in the top 10 a day after the second best fighter P4P was upset on free TV.

Zab and Cotto have sold tickets to the Garden at a rate comparible to Lennox v Lewis.

Tickets for the May 5th fight are the second most sought after tickets for any event EVER in terms of price and availabilty. It only ranks second behind this years superbowl, and tickets have yet to reach thier peak. Some are going for $22,000 thats right $22,000.

If Mayweather wins he will be bigger than he alread is and can fight Hatton, Cotto, Margarito/Williams.

Boxings demise is greatly exagerrated. MAB v Marquez sold close to 300,000 buys. While its not high its still close to what UFC 67 did, and the undercard wasnt great. Plus 25 million people saw that fight in Mexico. 40 million saw the Paquio v Solis fight in Mexico.

I have links to everything I just posted in case any of you doubt it, or would like to prove some of the boxing haters wrong.

There will be more stars just like there's always been. No one could have seen Trinidad, Morales, Pacquiao etc. coming years in advance. They came out of no where. Trinidad was a career undercard fighter until he fought DLH, then was able to do incredible numbers.

Kamehameha · 04-25-2007, 05:32 PM

i just read that and Simmons is a perfect example of why boxing is outside the mainstream: ignorance.

fuckin stupid guy. Obviously he hasn't seen Cotto or Marquez lately. He's one of these ESPN clowns who thinks the best fighter ever is Tyson and boxing is only the HW and MW division. We've all had alot of discussion about the exaggeration and ignorance concerning the state of boxing, but it's sad to see an "expert" of the "world's leader in sports" to be talking this nonsense. THIS is what hurts boxing, not the "lack of talent" or the corruption that has always been involved in the sport, and it was at its most corrupt when it was the most popular sport for christs sake.

is Oscar-PBF the first superfight in a long time? Boxing has a bunch of great fights w/ one mega fight once in a while. No sport has a bunch of mega games and such. Unfortunately, clowns like Simmons only see the megafights.

BobbyBrez · 04-25-2007, 05:43 PM

Bill Simmons was funny about 5 years ago. He's an annoying dbag that throws boxing under the bus ALL THE FUCKING TIME.

I actually was just outside the finals for his intern contest. How times change...

FIGHT FAN · 04-25-2007, 05:46 PM

i disagree. calzaghe-kessler has the potential to be HUGE. they could probably sell out the biggest stadium in britain or denmark.

SUGARSHANERULEZ · 04-25-2007, 06:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by FIGHT FAN

i disagree. calzaghe-kessler has the potential to be HUGE. they could probably sell out the biggest stadium in britain or denmark.

Simmons probably doesn't even know who those guys are.

CaseBeatButcher · 04-25-2007, 06:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BR

Floyd Mayweather was the 5 most searched thing/person on Yahoo! the day after a free UFC card. Think about that. There was no MMA fighter/mention in the top 10 a day after the second best fighter P4P was upset on free TV.

Zab and Cotto have sold tickets to the Garden at a rate comparible to Lennox v Lewis.

Tickets for the May 5th fight are the second most sought after tickets for any event EVER in terms of price and availabilty. It only ranks second behind this years superbowl, and tickets have yet to reach thier peak. Some are going for $22,000 thats right $22,000.

If Mayweather wins he will be bigger than he alread is and can fight Hatton, Cotto, Margarito/Williams.

Boxings demise is greatly exagerrated. MAB v Marquez sold close to 300,000 buys. While its not high its still close to what UFC 67 did, and the undercard wasnt great. Plus 25 million people saw that fight in Mexico. 40 million saw the Paquio v Solis fight in Mexico.

I have links to everything I just posted in case any of you doubt it, or would like to prove some of the boxing haters wrong.

There will be more stars just like there's always been. No one could have seen Trinidad, Morales, Pacquiao etc. coming years in advance. They came out of no where. Trinidad was a career undercard fighter until he fought DLH, then was able to do incredible numbers.

link to ufc ppv buys....

BR · 04-25-2007, 06:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by CaseBeatButcher

link to ufc ppv buys....

UFC 67? It was in a thread on this site. I'll look for it if you want me too.

FIGHT FAN · 04-25-2007, 06:26 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SUGARSHANERULEZ

Simmons probably doesn't even know who those guys are.

ESPN sucks. sports journalists always write how boxing is dying but they forget to mention that millions of people in mexico watched the pac/solis card a couple of weeks ago. 12 million germans watched klit/austin, calzaghe-manfredo drew attendance records in the UK, practically the whole population of uzbekistan watched ruslan chagaev capture a piece of the heavyweight gold.