Over at Maxboxing, Steve Kim has an excellent piece on the "State of the Game". The promoters are simply doing nothing to create new fans. They take the quick and easy money from networks and casinos and anything else is gravy. As a former Los Angeles resident, seeing a fight was hard to do. You either had to go to Temecula to the Penchanga resort, to Santa Ynez to the Chumash Casino or to Las Vegas. The shortest drive is about 2 hours. Furthermore, these are not for top level guys either.
Another problem is that some of the local LA shows were expensive. A club fight with local fighters that few have heard of should not have a top ticket anywhere near $100. To ask for young or hardworking blue collar types to shell out $100 for a series of 4 to 8 rounders and two guys in the main event with 25 combined losses is absurd. A Bruce Springsteen concert which is usually 2.5 to 3 hours long doesn't even cost $100, as he chooses to keep prices a little more reasonable.
The worst example of taking the money and running is in relation to Shane Mosley. His fight against Luis Collazo and the rematch against Winky Wright were both in Vegas casinos and both sparsely attended. One of the main reasons is that tickets were as high as $400 if I remember correctly. Even $200 only got you a decent seat. Shane should fight in LA where his fans are and with reasonable prices.
It is also time that fighters got paid in accordance with their economic pull.
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