Jump to content

Top 5 - Most popular boxers


The_budweiser
 Share

Recommended Posts

For the Ringnews24.com ratings.

 

Things to consider, Fan Base, away support, world wide audience, tv audience, fame, popularity etc.....

 

Past

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

 

Present

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

 

Past and Present

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

 

Few Names to consider: Floyd Mayweather, Mickey Ward, Prince Naseem Hamed, Arturo Gatti, Jake LaMotta, Miguel Cotto, Marvin Hagler, Tommy Hearns, Shane Mosley, Roberto Duran, Lennox Lewis, Muhammed Ali, Ricky Hatton, Rocky Marciano, Roy Jones Jr, Larry Holmes, Joe Frazier, Joe Louis, Sugar Ray Robinson, Julio Cesar Chavez, Evander Holyfield , Mike Tyson, Oscar De La Hoya, Manny Pacquiao, George Foreman, Sugar Ray Leonard. Feel free to add a boxer outside this list.

Edited by the_budweiser
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Re: Top 5 - Most popular boxers

 

For the Ringnews24.com ratings.

 

Things to consider, Fan Base, away support, world wide audience, tv audience, fame, popularity etc.....

 

 

Past

1. Ali

2. Mike the other Tyson

3. Joe Louis

4. Jack Dempsey

5. SRRobinson

 

Present

1. Manny

2. Klitschko Kollective

3. Floydy

4. Canelo

5. Probably a 20 way tie

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Re: Top 5 - Most popular boxers

 

Past

1. Muhammad Ali

2. Mike Tyson

3. George Foreman

4. Oscar De La Hoya

5. Jack Dempsey

 

Present (I assume means "active")

1. Manny Pacquiao

2. Floyd Mayweather Jr

3. Klitschko Bros.

4. Saul Canelo Alvarez

5. Miguel Cotto

 

Past and present

1-Ali

2-Tyson

3-Foreman

4-De La Hoya

5-Pacquiao

 

Be interested to see the viewing figures for Chris John fights as I think he may be the most watched fighter on the planet (his fights are streamed free world wide on RCTI in English, meaning not just Indonesians are watching him), Zu Shiming and Zhong likely get a lot of people watching as well. Interesting Daiki Kameda and Kazuto Ioka both got 15,000,000 viewers in their recent bouts, numbers that dwarf most western fighters.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Re: Top 5 - Most popular boxers

 

Past

1. Ali

2. Sugar Ray Leonard

3. Tyson

4. Sugar Ray Robinson

5. Duran

 

Present

1. Manny P.

2. Floyd

3. Wlad

4. Canelo

5. Donaire

 

Past and Present

1. Ali

2. Leonard

3. Tyson

4. Manny P.

5. Robinson/Duran

Edited by BoztheMadman
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Re: Top 5 - Most popular boxers

 

Past

1. Muhammad Ali

2. Mike Tyson

3. George Foreman

4. Oscar De La Hoya

5. Jack Dempsey

 

Present (I assume means "active")

1. Manny Pacquiao

2. Floyd Mayweather Jr

3. Klitschko Bros.

4. Saul Canelo Alvarez

5. Miguel Cotto

 

Be interested to see the viewing figures for Chris John fights as I think he may be the most watched fighter on the planet (his fights are streamed free world wide on RCTI in English, meaning not just Indonesians are watching him), Zu Shiming and Zhong likely get a lot of people watching as well. Interesting Daiki Kameda and Kazuto Ioka both got 15,000,000 viewers in their recent bouts, numbers that dwarf most western fighters.

 

 

 

Past and Present (active)

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

 

?????

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Re: Top 5 - Most popular boxers

 

Past

1. Muhammed Ali

2. Mike Tyson

3. Sugar Ray Leonard

4. Oscar De La Hoya

5. Ricky Hatton

 

 

Present

1. Floyd Mayweather

2. Manny Pacquiao

3. Wladimir Klitschko

4. Saul Alvarez

5. Donaire

 

Past and Present

1. Muhammed Ali

2. Mike Tyson

3. Floyd Mayweather

4. Manny Pacquiao

5. Sugar Ray Leonard

 

 

I need help with my past, how popular was Dempsey????????????? Can someone provide some info??? I see @iamasadlittleboy and @LondonRingRules have picked him

 

Hagler/Hears/Foreman/RJJ I struggling to pick a number 3.

 

I picked Sugar Ray Leonard, but my list might change

Edited by the_budweiser
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Re: Top 5 - Most popular boxers

 

 

I need help with my past, how popular was Dempsey????????????? Can someone provide some info??? I see @iamasadlittleboy and @LondonRingRules have picked him

 

 

Dempsey was boxing's original megastar, even crossing over into films(at which point he sadly decided that wearing makeup and mugging for the camera was oddly preferable to being beaten to within an inch of your life.)) - I think it may have been a Dempsey record that Chavez Sr broke with the fight against...Haugen was it?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Re: Top 5 - Most popular boxers

 

Dempsey at his peak was able to 'draw HUGE crowds, his fights were amongst the first to take the sport "to.the next level" and iirc the first to do million.dollar gates and million dollar paydays

 

I'm sure he did, but could he get an entire country to welcome him and cheer for him? Like Duran did.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Re: Top 5 - Most popular boxers

 

I'm sure he did, but could he get an entire country to welcome him and cheer for him? Like Duran did.

 

The population of Panama is rather small though. Heck Elly Pical got a huge number of people cheering him and just around 4% of the Indonesian population would match the Panamanian one. Think Pical v Chun got 80,000 fans in the venue, yet outside of Indonesia no one knows who Pical is.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Re: Top 5 - Most popular boxers

 

Dempsey was boxing's original megastar, even crossing over into films(at which point he sadly decided that wearing makeup and mugging for the camera was oddly preferable to being beaten to within an inch of your life.)) - I think it may have been a Dempsey record that Chavez Sr broke with the fight against...Haugen was it?

 

Yeah, Chavez-Haugen was in some bullring and drew 136,000. Your right on Dempsey and his preference for the Hollywood life, plus he was married to actress Estele Taylor, so living out in La La Land made even more sense.

 

.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Re: Top 5 - Most popular boxers

 

Most Popular

 

Past

1. Ali

2. Tyson

3. Louis

4. Dempsey

5. Leonard

 

Present

1. Mayweather

2. Pacquaio

3. W.Klitschko

4. Cotto

5. Marquez

 

My Past list is the same for my Past/Present list, and I would also point out that Floyd ranks no higher than #8, as I have both Oscar De La Hoya and Sugar Ray Robinson ahead of Floyd.

Edited by davemurphy
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Re: Top 5 - Most popular boxers

 

In his day, Dempsey was the second most popular athlete in the U.S. behind only Babe Ruth, I struggled with putting him and Ray Robinson ahead of De La Hoya, because I think they were bigger stars in their day, but Oscar got more press than either....tough call.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Re: Top 5 - Most popular boxers

 

I need help with my past, how popular was Dempsey????????????? Can someone provide some info??? I see @iamasadlittleboy and @LondonRingRules have picked him

 

--- Of course all the heavyweight champs back then were megastars. Primo Carnera probably holds the all time gate figures by a landslide if you add up his career numbers.

 

Dempsey was bigger than Babe Ruth because boxing was bigger than baseball back then. Babe was no shrinking violet being the most popular baseball player of all time and holds his own on most modern greatest athletes lists where as Dempsey's shine as faded in that regard because of boxing's lack of consistent development due to the "illegal, lawless" era of "no decisions" that Dempsey and previous fighters fought in.

 

Babe was making maybe 200K a year in endorsements, salary, and barnstorming. Dempsey was generating over a million a year, but didn't get to start keeping most of it until he left Rickard and Kearns in the lurch for Hollywood. They knew Dempsey in Europe, but not Ruth for example. That Dempsey outlived Ruth for near 40 more years helped to make him as much an all time icon as anyone even as a doddering old man whose records were assailed by silly little modern snifters.

Edited by LondonRingRules
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Re: Top 5 - Most popular boxers

 

The population of Panama is rather small though. Heck Elly Pical got a huge number of people cheering him and just around 4% of the Indonesian population would match the Panamanian one. Think Pical v Chun got 80,000 fans in the venue, yet outside of Indonesia no one knows who Pical is.

 

Doesn't matter, even if it was 100 mill they'd cheer him the same. Why'd ya always have to bring down everything I come up with?:tsk:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Re: Top 5 - Most popular boxers

 

Most well known must be Muhammad Ali. Everyone had a thought about him and he was global - Still is.

 

It's hard to gauge the press - as their importance was alot greater before TV. Plenty of lesser name fighters have had huge TV figures - Barry McGuigan is a prime example (18 million for one fight).

 

I would think the Fabulous Four minus Duran are huge fan favourites - I think the other three get abit more attention. Mike Tyson, George Foreman also are hugely known.

 

I'd rate Manny Pacquiao over Floyd Mayweather interms of popularity now - Pacman still has a fanatical following from the Philippines.

 

This is one impossible question to get right lol.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Re: Top 5 - Most popular boxers

 

 

This is one impossible question to get right lol.

 

I think this was our hardest Top Five ever, it's not even close. I never did really settle on a firm five, I finally just gave up changing the order on the #4 and #5 slots as I had about 20 names going in-and-out. I kick myself for not having Dempsey and Hamed on there, I don't have either one anywhere near my top lists on anything else, both were flawed and overrated IMO, but there's no denying the effect they had on the game. As LRR mentions, Dempsey paralleled Babe Ruth as the most popular athlete in the U.S. during the 1920's, and Featherweights were making peanuts before The Prince came along and that jumped to Millions, I don't know that you'd even know Manny Pacquaio if he hadn't opened that door for him, Barerra, Morales, etc. to walk through.

 

Great thread, but man, was it difficult picking just five!:bump2:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Re: Top 5 - Most popular boxers

 

I think this was our hardest Top Five ever, it's not even close. I never did really settle on a firm five, I finally just gave up changing the order on the #4 and #5 slots as I had about 20 names going in-and-out. I kick myself for not having Dempsey and Hamed on there, I don't have either one anywhere near my top lists on anything else, both were flawed and overrated IMO, but there's no denying the effect they had on the game. As LRR mentions, Dempsey paralleled Babe Ruth as the most popular athlete in the U.S. during the 1920's, and Featherweights were making peanuts before The Prince came along and that jumped to Millions, I don't know that you'd even know Manny Pacquaio if he hadn't opened that door for him, Barerra, Morales, etc. to walk through.

 

Great thread, but man, was it difficult picking just five!:bump2:

 

It was actually Steve Robinson that hiked up the Featherweights pay cheques. Frank Warren used to pay him a small fortune. Hamed came along on the back of that.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
 Share

×
×
  • Create New...