Hey buddy, thanks for taking the time to review my post and leave a great comment, it is appreciated.

I envy you for the era of boxing that you grew up in, those guys were some great fighters, and they also produced some amazing fights. I can understand why you went of boxing after that, you had been previously spoiled.

I was a little late to the party, but was lucky enough to catch the tail end of Eubank, Benn and Collins careers, so I caught the Collins v Benn fights and the Collins v Eubanks fights.

I, like you, started as a boxing fan, before opening my horizons to other combat sports, such as, kickboxing and Muay Thai, mostly striking based sports. It took me a little longer to grasp MMA because of the grappling aspect, I think more because of a lack of understanding, rather than not liking or respecting it.

The point you make about MMA's perceived brutality is something I also found of putting, but the more you watch the more you learn, and what you learn is that it is actually safer than boxing, because repetitive punching does more damage than a quick K.O.

The corruption and bullshit decisions makes me sick and I used question my continued support of the sport, but then I thought, why should I let cheats turn me away from something I love, instead I judge fights by my own score card. I can't understand how judges and referees don't get punished, even if it is a honest mistake or just a bad night, everyone has them.

When your working a 9 to 5 job and you mess up, you take responsibility, take your warning and learn from it. If you keep making the same mistakes then you get fired. Simple and fair. If a judge or ref is taking bribes , then he doesn't deserve the job, if he keeps making bad decisions, then he is incapable of doing the job, and he doesn't deserve it, so get rid of him or her.

I take issue with your assessment of the heavyweight division after Tyson. Fat guys dancing about, I think fat guys dancing about would have been more entertaining, it was more like fat guys hugging for twelve rounds. In all seriousness though, most sports ebb and flow in terms of talent, it will be a while before we see another Mayweather in boxing, a Phelps in swimming or Bolt in sprinting, these great athletes raised the games of all their opponents. I believe it takes someone with great ability but also a great personality to capture the publics interest.

In boxing it moves up and down the divisions, in the late 90's early 2000's it was the bantamweights and featherweights, Morales, Barrera, Pacqauio, Marquez and Naseem. Then it went to welter to middleweights, Pacqauio, Cotto, Mayweather Mosley and de la hoya. Hopefully with the new young Heavyweights coming through , Wilder and Joshua, the heavyweight division will become more entertaining and competitive.

The ducking debacle is destroying boxing. Some people take issue with the amount of belts in boxing, I personally don't, the issue for me is how the holders avoid each other and how the organisations not only allow it, but are sometimes the cause of it.

Once again thanks, and sorry for the big long rant.