The Fight To Save Boxing?

Good article by Kevin Iole in Yahoo! Sports about the declining popularity of boxing in the States and what could be done to turn the tide.

I completely agree - the best fights are not being made in boxing for the most part. Say what you will about the UFC holding a near monopoly in the MMA world; and make no mistake about it, there are a lot of pros and cons about that. But an undeniable pro is that they have the capability to give the people the matches they want to see since these fighters are under contract to them. That's why we saw Couture-Lesnar last month, and will be seeing BJ Penn-GSP again in January.

When Oscar De La Hoya retires, I think the biggest PPV draws will be Manny Pacquiao, Miguel Cotto and Ricky Hatton, but a) their appeal will mostly be ethnicity based and b) they are not gonna draw anywhere near De La Hoya's numbers. One thing about Oscar - he wanted the best fights no matter what. Winning or losing seemed secondary, he just wanted the best possible fights and it helped him become the monster draw that he is. I'm glad Pacquiao seems to be following that same path, but he has stated that he will not be fighting much longer (3 more fights after this was his target, if I remember correctly). Vegas may soon be MMA central rather than Boxing central at this rate.