It’s been three days since the sport of boxing held its last big pay-per-view event, and even now, something still stinks.

In an underwhelming main event last Saturday night, Chad Dawson defeated Bernard Hopkins via TKO, thanks to throwing the old man to the ground. Hopkins, 46 years young, finally had his “I’ve fallen and I can’t get up” moment, in a manner of speaking, and the sport itself seemed to be struggling to rise right beside him.

Hopkins was robbed of his title, and Dawson made it plain he has no intention of giving Hopkins a rematch, acting as if throwing Hopkins down and injuring his shoulder was the same thing as knocking him out with a legitimate punch. Some may say it was just a shoulder bump, but the simple fact is, the end did not come in any legitimate fashion, and Dawson’s antics after the fight were those of a punk kid.

It was another big card letdown, following the Mayweather-Ortiz debacle in September, and it was just one more time when boxing failed to deliver the goods.

Anti-climatic is the term that is quietly being associated with the sport, and for good reason. It suffers from many ailments: a sadly underwhelming heavyweight division, a host of bad calls by numerous referee’s, poor judging, promoters who don’t care about putting on compelling fights, fighters who are long on talent and short on experience who think they are due mega-paydays, and superstars who fight so infrequently that one begins to wonder if they really enjoy climbing into the ring at all.

Make no mistake about it; boxing is on the cusp of its own Ice Age, given the fact that its biggest names are nearing retirement. There are plenty of talented fighters, but few of them seem interested in testing themselves enough to challenge their promoters to give the fans what they want, and deserve.

Once upon a time in the not so distant past, big name fighters put on exciting fights worth all the media attention afforded them. Now, it seems that is the exception and not the norm. Sugar Ray Leonard called it “bragging rights,” and he was absolutely correct. If you look at the state of the sport today, such considerations are played down so low that they are trampled upon in the rush to pad a record or protect a legacy. This is an attitude that is not befitting a sport so rich in excitement and drama that to consider this current version anything more than a ghost is to live in a fantasy world.

It used to be that boxing was the premier combative sport on the planet, but that is no longer the case. The world of mixed martial arts, most noticeably the UFC, gives the combative sport fan another choice, putting on full fight cards that are stacked from top to bottom with compelling fights and clear divisional ramifications. The fact that MMA, still basically in its infancy, is now on Fox Television is a clear sign that the sporting world is more than happy to have another choice aside from boxing, and no matter what the movers and shakers in boxing say, MMA is still growing, mainly because they do it right. The fighters fight who they are told to fight, based not only on fan desire but divisional importance. Everyone in the UFC is striving for a title shot, and the man who holds the belt must defend it against all comers, not pick and choose as is sadly the case in boxing, more often than not.

In short, the sport of boxing needs to go back to the drawing board.

In all honesty, the mega bout between Mayweather and Pacquiao will probably not happen. Thirty years ago, it would have already happened twice, if not three times. If the sport is going to rebound, the fighters need to be fighting for more than money, and the promoters need to be interested in making their money by giving the fans what they want, and to do that they need to listen to those fans. After the Hopkins vs. Dawson bout, Dawson’s promoter, Gary Shaw, didn’t give a damn about if the fans felt short changed, saying: “Let Bernard take his paycheck and refund it to everybody.” Promoters like Shaw and Bob Arum, to name a few, are so brazen in their disregard of the fans and the hard earned dollars they give to boxing that they almost seem to be laughing in everyone’s faces.

As it stands now, promoters seem more interested in telling we the fans what we want to see, which is every bit as insulting as it sounds.

What we want to see is the best fighting the best. We want them to show us they are great three times a year, instead of just telling us about it. The main attraction to a fight sport is the fight, nothing more, nothing less. In boxing, the fight is the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, which is how it should be.

Until we the fans are heard and our desires recognized, the sport is going to continue its slow, uninspired march into obscurity. Until the fighters and promoters dare to be as great as some of the legends of the past, every day that passes marks nothing more than another lost day

in the countdown to extinction.