Santoliquito: It Seems Philly Has Lost Its Punch

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) — There was a time when Philadelphia was one of the premier fight towns in the world. It had Joe Frazier and Muhammad Ali living in the area together at the same time. The city had a big-fight feel to it, because big fights were held in Philadelphia. Marvelous Marvin Hagler fought Bennie Briscoe at the Spectrum in 1978. There used to be 60 fights a year in Philadelphia.

Philadelphia's Municipal Stadium was where a lumped up Rocky Marciano landed "Suzie Q" square on the jaw of Jersey Joe Walcott in that iconic image to become heavyweight champion before over 120,000 on Sept. 23, 1952.

Undefeated Danny Garcia is about to take on undefeated Keith Thurman and while fans across the country have a rousing interest in the fight being shown on CBS nationally Saturday night at 9 p.m. from Barclay Center, you hear nothing in Philadelphia involving one of its own on free TV.

Related: Danny Garcia: Thurman's 'Never Been In The Ring With A Guy Like Me'

It seems Philadelphia, the home of future Hall of Famer Bernard Hopkins and where a statue of Frazier now stands, has lost its luster as a fight town.

It seems it's lost its punch.

A big part of the reason why no one cares is boxing itself. The talent pool is far shallower than it's ever been. Titles are fragmented. No one knows who the real champions are, nor bother enough to follow it, and when the handful of marquee fighters that do actually step in the ring with each other, it's shown on pay-per-view.

Related: 6 Things About The Danny Garcia-Keith Thurman Showdown

Fight fans have been waiting for Canelo Alvarez to face Gennady Golovkin, which will probably happen sometime later this year. But the handful of loyal niche fans shouldn't have to wait for it. It's one of the few crossover fights that should have happened already. It's why it's rare you'll find a diehard fight fan under the age of 30 (a fate soon to befall baseball), and with the advent of the Ultimate Fighting Championship, where the best regularly fight the best, boxing has fallen even lower on the sports food chain.

Garcia-Thurman should have been in Philadelphia. It's a fight that could have attracted a huge audience—for those that would have come in from other areas of the country. Not here.

Related: Santoliquito: Danny Garcia Is Philly's Last Standing Sports Hope

"Back in the early 1970s. and this is an amazing stat, Ring Magazine had four of the world's top 10 middleweights all from Philadelphia, it was Briscoe, Cyclone Hart, Willie 'The Worm' Monroe and Boogaloo" Watts," said esteemed boxing writer Bernard Fernandez, the retired boxing columnist of the Philadelphia Daily News. "They used to have regular fight cards at the Spectrum that used to draw over 10,000 people. They don't have a Spectrum and they don't have boxing at the Wells Fargo Center. The Blue Horizon hasn't gone away, it's still there. But it's been shuttered for years, so it might as well be gone. Philadelphia still produces some of the best fighters in the world. But there are no major fights in Philadelphia.

"Danny Garcia is fighting for the sixth time in Brooklyn, and that's become his home away from home. What's happening to boxing isn't just happening in Philadelphia. Detroit is not what it was. Chicago is not what it was. They used to have big fights in Miami Beach. Today it's Los Angeles, New York and Las Vegas and that's it. I think the people that care about the fight game in Philadelphia are people that have cared about it for a long time, it's a skewing older crowd. I think Philly, like other cities, are doing more from memory right now. Nothing stays the same forever."

Local club shows garner a nice following. Local fights provide good theater. But it's not world class, from a city that still has world-class talent like Garcia, Julian Williams and Jason Sosa, who shouldn't have to go to Oxon Hill, Maryland to face superstar Vasyl Lomachenko. That fight could have been held at Citizens Bank Park.

Boxing, regardless of what local media and sports fans may think, is far from dead. Anthony Joshua is going to fight Wladimir Klitschko before 100,000 in Wembley Stadium, in London, England, in April. Jerry Jones would get 100,000 for Alvarez-Golovkin at AT&T Stadium in Dallas. Two weeks from now, Madison Square Garden will be sold out to see the middleweight world championship fight between Golovkin and Danny Jacobs, which will also feature the pound-for-pound best fighter in the world, Roman "Chocolatito" Gonzalez, against Srisaket Sor Rungvisai, for Gonzalez's WBC junior bantamweight title.

No, boxing still has a following. It still carries interest. Cable giants wouldn't show fights if it wasn't lucrative.

It's just too bad more don't notice in Philadelphia.