Top five reasons why boxing will always be better than MMA

[steady_E]

Sorry guys I feel like a complete traitor here but I BLODDY LOVE MMA!!

More than boxing now I'd say

[Kev]

As a former hater (and vocal) of all things MMA I feel I'm in a good position to comment on it's merits now that I've become a convert.

Taking your original points one at a time.

1. Submissions. Ok this is a purely subjective speculation on your part. To an untrained eye of course they are boring but to fans of the sport they are can be very exciting. Personally as a new convert to MMA I personally love the ground game, watching one guy pull of some move that I didn't even know was possible, for example to plant his foot in between a guy's arm and neck so he can grab down and choke him out. As people's knowledge of the sport grows so will the appreciation and understanding of the ground game. Look at American Football, for 90% of the world it's complete shat, boring, stop start plays with men in ridiculous padding, but to those who understand it and can appreciate the different strategies involved it can be a great sport to watch.

2. No History. Well MMA is a new sport so of course it doesn't have the history of boxing but to suggest this is an area where boxing will always be better is just stupid as MMA is building a history fast! Furthermore you could argue that we who are into this new sport are privileged to see it in it's formative years. MMA now is where boxing was 100 or so years ago, when the likes of John S Sullivan, Jim Corbett, Jack Johnson, Jim Jeffries etc were ruling the world. What true boxing fan wouldn't love to be able to go back in time and see those fights? Boxing then was new, exciting and raw, and by the way FAR bigger with the masses than it is now.

3. Undefeated fighters. I disagree with you here too. I'd rather see fighters fight the best, not pad their records with bums. Look at all the greatest boxers in history, they all had losses. Robinson has over 20, admittedly most coming towards the end but still he lost more fights than some have fights. Doesn't detract at all, just shows he fought the best. Undefeated records usually mean one of two things, they guy has only fought bums, and that he's probably a South American or European. Mayweather is the exception, an exceptional talent whose undefeated record is a true rarity in any sport.

4. Length of Matches. Again disagree. Championship matches are longer depending on organisations. 10 min first rounds are common, 5 x 5 min rounds in UFC is long enough considering how demanding the sport is. Plus some matches especially in Pride have unlimited time limits.

5. Best boxing match always better than best MMA match. Yeah probably right now, as a result of heritage and history though. Once MMA has developed more of a history and legacy the worth of it's fights will be considered more highly. Personally one of my best fights of 2007 was Coutoure's domination of Tim Silva. Can't think of many boxing matches that have topped that this year as a visual spectacle.


Finally some reasons why MMA is becoming bigger than boxing.

1. Far more personalities. Let's face it, boxing has nobody to compare to the likes of Wanderlai Silva, Fedor Emilianenko or Mirko Cro Cop as personalites. Any sport is led by it's flagship heavyweight division and sorry but guys like Cutoure, Arlovski, Cro Cop, Fedor etc just sound sooooooooo much better than Briggs, Masaev, Rahman, and Valuev.

2. No dodgy decision. Nothing ruins a fight more consistently for me than bullcrap judging. Happens all the time in boxing, hardly ever in MMA

3. The big fights get made in MMA. Rampage Jackson has one fight in the UFC and then the big fight rematch with Lydell is made. In boxing we would have had to wait until Lydell was 46 and coming out of retirement and Jackson had already won and lost the title before the two ever met.

[HeadFone39]

my way of looking at it boxing is the ultimate, this may upset ppl wot i am going to say now but mma comes across a bit like hug a homo. Im sorry but you know to grown men hugging each other sometimes its like watching paint dry................ the only bit of action you see is when they try AND BOX AND I DO MEAN WHEN :P:P:P:P:P fighters full of steroids, pfffft look at bob sapp, hell pfffft... thats all i gotta say.

I can understand how some would think this, but like boxing sometimes, you have to know which fights and fighters to look for. Sometimes the fighters style, for lack of a better expression, equal each other out, and they spend the whole fight trying to gain position. (and if you yourself are adept at groundgame, even this is exciting) But if you give it a chance, I promise the action on the ground is phenominally exciting most of the time.

Also I see a problem in the boxing community that they think MMA IS UFC. For MMA, to really understand what is goin on right now, you have to look at the big picture. There are tens of thousands of MMAists who are damn good fighters but will never get any respect or recognition. To truly understand the sport, you have to look at it globally. You can't understand whats goin on in Japan if you don't know whats goin on in Brazil and so on and so on. Just like you willl never understand MMA if all you see is UFC.

[JT Rock]

my way of looking at it boxing is the ultimate, this may upset ppl wot i am going to say now but mma comes across a bit like hug a homo. Im sorry but you know to grown men hugging each other sometimes its like watching paint dry................ the only bit of action you see is when they try AND BOX AND I DO MEAN WHEN :P:P:P:P:P fighters full of steroids, pfffft look at bob sapp, hell pfffft... thats all i gotta say.

Intelligence at its best

[JT Rock]

All of your points are subjective to some degree and it sounds like your grasping at straws to somehow prove that boxing is somehow "better".

5) No, submissions aren't boring. I could say "Hey, once a boxer lands with one good punch, the fights over." NO SH1t If you think grappling is boring, you aren't paying attention and haven't seen to much, moreover you are way over simplifying it. EXACTLY LIKE THOSE WHO SAY BOXING IS BORING!!!!!!!
4) No one is denying the rich history of boxing. But from the other perpective, MMA is exciting because it is building that history now.
3) Again oversimplification, If there where MMAists who could continue on undefeated records like some boxers, it would be because every MMAist is fighting the EXACT same way. Styles make fights, and in MMA there's about a million.
2) Dude haha Ortiz-Shamrock II never should have happened. Again, styles. And Again if you think to many high profile fights haven't gone the distance, you haven't watched much MMA. ALSO, mma has an organized history of just 15 years, and they are doing something not attempted in sports for a long long time. Give MMA time to develop the defense.
1) "The most exciting boxing match will be better than the best MMA match and the worst MMA match will be worse than the worst boxing match. It's that simple." I really really try to stick to intelligent discussion and respect other opinions, but this is just verbal diarrhea. Again if you think this, you haven't actually watched a lot of mma. Thr truth is the transition from standing to ground fights is becoming much more seemless. Fighters are becoming more well rounded. To anyone whos actually followed MMA in the last 5 years, this is glarringly apparent.

I hear many of these points repeated again and again, but they just stem from the fact that the boxing fan has spent most of their life watching boxing and just don't have the patience for other aspects of the fight. PEOPLE HAVE TO STOP TRYING TO COMPARE BOXING TO MMA. Let's build bridges (and fix boxing) people.

# 3

[JT Rock]

......let us also post a #6No rolling around on the ground like retards!







(and very few horrid tribal tatoos)

Unlike you Lyle those guys do know the difference between good touch and bad touch

[SalTheButcher]

My take on why boxing will always be better than MMA and why MMA is a little overrated:

5. Submissions. Submissions just aren't all that exciting. Right when a submission is locked in, the match is over in 90% of the cases. Plus, watching two submission specialists fight can be a lot more boring than watch two technical boxers box because of the technique involved in trying to secure a submission. It usually involves a lot of grappling and holding on the ground which can be very boring and can be drawn out an entire five minute round if the ref doesn't call both fighters to their feet.

4. History. There just isn't that much history in MMA. A lot of the elite fighters now can arguably be the best in the history of MMA because there is not that much history. You can look at this in a positive light or a negative light. It can be positive because you're watching history right now, it can be negative because at times you feel disconnected from fighters because you can't compare them to anyone great from the past. You can compare Floyd Mayweather or De La Hoya to Sugar Ray Leonard or Henry Armstrong and see how they measure up, but you can't compare Chuck Liddell to anybody. There are hardly any legends in MMA yet boxing has a Hall of Fame. It takes away a certain level of validity and nostalgia from today's MMA fighters. Boxing will always have this and will always be ahead of MMA, because it will take MMA at least twenty years to get what boxing has now.

3. Being undefeated is underrated. People in boxing cry about being undefeated is overrated. Well that's complete bullshit because being undefeated is one of the most interesting things in sports. When the Indianapolis Colts are 12-1 no one cares, when the Colts are 13-0 closing in on the Dolphins record, people start paying more attention and there's a certain awe about something hasn't been beaten before. That's exactly why Floyd Mayweather, Ricky Hatton, Joe Calzaghe, Mikkel Kessler, Miguel Cotto, and others are some of the biggest stars in the sport. People either want to see if they can stay undefeated or if they can be beaten. In MMA, everyone pretty much has been beaten. I love Chuck Liddell but I know that he can be beaten. I don't know if Joe Calzaghe can be beaten so I follow him a little more closely than I would Winky Wright. Granted, some of the biggest stars in both sports have losses, but there's just something unexplainable about being undefeated. MMA just doesn't have this.

2. Length of matches. The fights in MMA are too short IMO. I understand that MMA is more physically taxing than boxing due to all the wrestling involved but fights should at least be six to eight rounds not four or five rounds. And there are waaaay too many high profile matches that end in the first round. I understand that's just the nature of the sport but come on. If Pacman vs Morales only lasted one round, or if Marquez vs Barrera only lasted one round, I couldn't help but feel the fight was a bit anticlimatic. You don't wait for months to watch someone submit a minute into the fight. That's the great thing about boxing, when you get two elite fighters together, you know that you're usually gonna get 12 rounds of action or a mid to late round KO. Some big MMA fights end before the fight party even begins (Ortiz vs Shamrock II).

1. The most exciting boxing match will be better than the best MMA match and the worst MMA match will be worse than the worst boxing match. It's that simple. While MMA is the new rage due to the blood and sheer violence, MMA matches just don't flow. I've watched both sports and boxing flows much better, there are momentum swings, a sense of nervousness when watching a fight, and in truly special fights, there are times when you are left speechless (Corrales-JLC I). As you can tell, there's something unexplainable about an awesome match. MMA is really herky jerky, the action is so sudden and quick that there is no chance for sustained action. I've seen a lot of MMA, even back when Gracie was the king, and I've never been speechless. Which leads me to my other point. If you thought a bad boxing match was unwatchable then you haven't watched a bad MMA fight. Have you watched two fighters hug each other on the ground for two minutes straight throwing tiny elbows. The UFC has been getting better about breaking up fighters when the action stops but it's still pretty bad at times. Imagine a clinch lasting for an entire minute in boxing and that's how bad some UFC fights can be. Simply put, watch both sports, and you'll see that the ceiling for a boxing match is much higher than a MMA fight, and the floor for a MMA match is much lower than a boxing match.

Boxing will never die.

i think when u say MMA u are thinking UFC

the old PRIDE was untouchable, but it is no more

[SalTheButcher]

also, submission may be boring when you watch jock cockcheck tap out tommy fucknuts in the UFC, but when u see yoshida, nogueria or aoki do it it is an art

[HeadFone39]

also, submission may be boring when you watch jock cockcheck tap out tommy fucknuts in the UFC, but when u see yoshida, nogueria or aoki do it it is an art

ya haha, it's a shame what some of these "grappling is gay" guys are missing. WAR Aoki's standing rubber guard!!!!

[Pugilistic]

my way of looking at it boxing is the ultimate, this may upset ppl wot i am going to say now but mma comes across a bit like hug a homo. Im sorry but you know to grown men hugging each other sometimes its like watching paint dry................ the only bit of action you see is when they try AND BOX AND I DO MEAN WHEN :P:P:P:P:P fighters full of steroids, pfffft look at bob sapp, hell pfffft... thats all i gotta say.

i'm a big fan of boxing and not a mma fan but how does grappling make you a homo ??

when boxers clinch and hold does that make them shit stabbers

[HeadFone39]

It's funny cause if you read the TS's post, all this is is a list of why he personally like's boxing over MMA. This brings me to the point I am always repeating. They are different sports. There is no way to compare them. One day honestly, a boxer will step into the octagon (because of it's current popularity) and be emabarressed, and boxing will lose credibility. This is because people will be so stupid they won't realize he wasn't even competing in his own damn sport. This is why I firmly believe the Boxing VS. MMA debate is so harmfull (Someone's losing legitimacy in the eye of the public, and to be honest, it will be boxing unfortunatly). No one who actually takes part in the debate knows what they are talking about; they either don't know enough of "their own" sport or of the other. Honestly, who can deny this? Who can prove to me that Boxing and MMA (as a WHOLE) can somehow be judged on the same scale. It's all self-contradictory.

[mmaisbetter]

well I agree that boxing is more refined than MMA but I love boxing.. I think it is unique and a great sport. MMA is just not as refined and never can be.. The submission takes away the refinement. MMA will be fine for a few years, but it will never be what boxing is.. Impossible. Boxing is as much a part of the american subconscious as baseball.

why do all you harcore boxing fans hate mma so much?

[p4pking]

well I agree that boxing is more refined than MMA but I love boxing.. I think it is unique and a great sport. MMA is just not as refined and never can be.. The submission takes away the refinement. MMA will be fine for a few years, but it will never be what boxing is.. Impossible. Boxing is as much a part of the american subconscious as baseball.

why do all you harcore boxing fans hate mma so much?

Why are you even bothering to post here with a name like that.

[armin]

Jon stewart from the daily show summed up mma as a phone that can do many things decently but not one thing great. Would you rather have a digital camera and a phone, or a phone with a digital camera that's only half as good as the stand alone camera. That's kind of what you get in mma, fighters who are good at many styles but usually not excellent in any. I didn't mind watching pride every once in a while but at times did think it was to violent, like what is up with getting to kick a guy in the head while he's on the ground defenseless, might as well make away with any other rules they have. Never watched the ufc nor do I have any interest in it really since I think they were second class really to pride fighters for the most part. If I had to pick between boxing and mma I'd pick boxing any day, cause boxing to me tends to be more exciting, but tastes differ.

[katfight]

ok i wont say mma as a whole just ufc but onli because that is the onli one ive watched



i really dont like it but i love boxing but never cmpare the two i h8 football too lol


my bro will watch the ppv here and fella used to record it on sky plus

i just nevr liked how far things go
it makes me cringe and turn my face

no dissrepect for those who do like it though
but i dont