Some people will remember scraping, digging, and clawing for all the coins they could possibly find in their couch, car seats, pockets of a jacket they haven’t worn in a few months, a season, or at the bottom of their wallets, purses, and backpacks.

Then you’d ask your friends to chip in.

Not for groceries, not for rent, not for gas, not to pay a bill, but…to watch a boxing match.

Before PPV, Joe Frazier and Muhammad Ali (especially “The Fight of the Century” on March 8, 1971, and the “Thrilla in Manila” on October 1, 1975) were must-sees.

I’m disappointed I didn’t come around until 1985, but very thankful I’ve been able to watch all the classic fight replays on ESPN and YouTube.

The list of awesome fights in the 70s, 80s, 90s, and 2000s is long, very long.

From “Marvelous” Marvin Hagler vs. Thomas “Hitman” Hearns on April 15, 1985, to Diego Corrales vs. Jose Luis Castillo on May 7, 2005, which I donated plasma for two months while a freshman at Southern Illinois University to purchase, to “Sugar” Ray Leonard vs. Roberto “Hands of Stone” Duran, to Leonard vs. Hearns, to Arturo Gatti vs. Mickey Ward, which I saved money from my newspaper route and begged my mother to let me have the TV for a few hours on May 18, 2002, to countless fights involving Mike Tyson and Floyd Mayweather Jr.

Actually, in the pay-per-view era of boxing, the Top 10 bought matches include either Tyson or “Money” Mayweather.

Manny Pacquiao vs. Mayweather on May 2, 2015, which I watched at the Gopher Hole (formerly Dillys, but now R.I.P.) with a bunch of friends was the most purchased with 4.6 million buys. Mayweather vs. UFC star Connor McGregor recorded 4.3 million buys on August 26, 2017, which I stood shoulder to shoulder, backs to chests at Mr. Salsas in Oglesby to view.

Mayweather vs. Oscar De La Hoya on May 5, 2007 (more plasma donating while in college) brought in a third-place 2.44 million. Mayweather and Canelo Alvarez (10 friends and I chipped in for) are fourth at 2.2 million views on September 14, 2013.

Then Mike Tyson vs. Evander Holyfield II (June 28, 1997), Tyson vs. Lewis (2002), Tyson vs. Roy Jones Jr. (2020), Tyson vs. Holyfield I (1996), and Tyson vs. Peter McNeely are five-nine, before Mayweather and Miguel Cotto take 10^th on the list for their May 5, 2012 fight.

I put all of these in this column to show two things.

First, boxing “back in the day” drew because it was actually boxing, and you knew it was going to be a great fight. There was no doubt you were either going to say a dramatic knockout or a warrior vs. warrior fight to the finish.

Now, we buy the pay-per-views or stream hoping we will get the same electrifying punch power of Tyson or the crafty footwork of Mayweather but are left wanting after dropping more and more jellybeans for each fight.

To be honest, you can’t even call most of them fights anymore. They’re publicity stunts to bring in money. And we buy hoping Jake Paul vs. Tyson or Mayweather vs. McGregor (not even a boxer) are going to be classics.

And they turn out to be duds in terms of a worthy contest and more of a tribute, thank you for your previous time in the boxing ring, and thank you customers for being customers and helping us pay the boxers millions.

This brings me to my second point, all of the great ones, have left us.

The passing of George Foreman, famous for “The Rumble in the Jungle” against Ali and winning the heavyweight title for the second time at the age of 45 against Michael Moorer on November 5, 1994, hit home and made me think of all of my boxing memories.

At one time, my top sports list went basketball, boxing, football, baseball. My big three included boxing because of the former greats and the current greats in the 1990s and 2000s.

Foreman, who passed away Friday, March 21 was definitely one of them.

He now joins Ali, Frazier, Leon Spinks, Hagler, Trevor Berbick, Corrales, Vernon Forrest, Tommy Morrison and Ken Norton, on the list of boxing champions (1970s until now) who are no longer with us.

Although he hadn’t been in the ring since the 1990s and at 76, he wasn’t in the public eye anymore, he still carried the nostalgic presence of a golden era of boxing.

While Foreman rests in peace, hopefully this isn’t the next step of boxing (the sport, not the spectacle) falling further into isolation as a has-been sport or resting in peace itself.