Why is MMA a threat to boxing?

[El Kabong]

No, if MMA fans dressed to the nines it wouldn't make them classy. My issue with mma being "classless" is basically the sport itself is (in my view) at odds with what I consider gentlemanly or "sporting"...ie the hitting opponents as they are on the ground already KO'd....that's out of line IMO

[Mattyhitman]

No, if MMA fans dressed to the nines it wouldn't make them classy. My issue with mma being "classless" is basically the sport itself is (in my view) at odds with what I consider gentlemanly or "sporting"...ie the hitting opponents as they are on the ground already KO'd....that's out of line IMO

Ahh right, i did wonder what ya meant by it.

Yes i remember on a few occasions ya mentioning about striking downed opponents and how wrong that is. Yes i agree with not being able to kick someone in the head when they are on the floor and your standing ( which is not allowed in UFC ) although if someone can intelligently defend themselves whilst on the floor then crack on imo. When you watch it closely not many fighters will lunge in and strike willy-nilly a downed opponent. Reason being alot of these guys are skilled BJJ practitioners and end a fight with a submission move - ala Anderson Silva v Sonnen recently - So many will be careful.

I do take on board what ya saying though

[stebs]

I grew up watching boxing when it was mainstream and on tv almost every week on wide world of sports, now you never see boxing on regular tv and most fights are PPV if they are decent fights.

Along with that, I along with millions of other boys in school I also wrestled and my kids wrestled, with that I have an appreciation of what MMA fighters do. How many kids boxed in JR high or high school. I would think the number of boxers in schools would be very low if any at all. Wrestling is a sport known by everyone world wide from kids to their siblings, parents and grandparents that can be viewed and appreciated by all.

With that stated I would bet that 95% + of the people on this board have never put on a boxing glove yet alone actually boxed anyone in their life, compare that to how many kids and families have organized wrestling in their background against how many kids and families have boxing in their backgrounds. MMA is far more universal then boxing ever was or will be and is much more entertaining then boxing in my opinion.

Cross over appeal and the fact that in boxing you don't get the best fighting the best on any kind of consistent basis is the reason MMA has come so far in such a short time.

[generalbulldog]

I think someone in here said it best. It was mentioned that MMA hasn't overtaken boxing in the UK, but it is very popular amongst a young demographic. And I agree it's just a matter of time before MMA overtakes boxing in that country just like the US.

Boxing not being on network tv severely limits it's exposure, yes we have the internet, but you also must have it on network tv to reach a massive audience and interest potential fans, especially the young which will become your hardcore fanbase in the future.

In simple terms, boxing fucked up by going to HBO and Showtime primarily in the US, and now someone in this thread said it's not on network tv in the UK. Which really why boxing has fallen off the mainstream.

[CFH]

I think someone in here said it best. It was mentioned that MMA hasn't overtaken boxing in the UK, but it is very popular amongst a young demographic. And I agree it's just a matter of time before MMA overtakes boxing in that country just like the US.

Boxing not being on network tv severely limits it's exposure, yes we have the internet, but you also must have it on network tv to reach a massive audience and interest potential fans, especially the young which will become your hardcore fanbase in the future.

In simple terms, boxing fucked up by going to HBO and Showtime primarily in the US, and now someone in this thread said it's not on network tv in the UK. Which really why boxing has fallen off the mainstream.

Agreed. Promoters are fucking themselves and the sport by taking short-sighted and exclusionary approaches to distribution for quick financial gains.

[Mar]

Mma is no threat to boxing at all. No more than the ping pong people are worried about tennis. This whole mma vs boxing thing is simply retarded and a bunch of crap dana white and mma fans started to stir up buisness for themselves. Than being said ....boxings problem is that no matter what they do, how bad they screw us, how dumb they make us look as fans they rely on the true fans sticking with them no matter what. And sadley they are absolutly right. Mma is making an effort to gain new fans on top of the ones they already have while boxing says screw the fans yall ain't goin no where anyway. Look at all the catchweights, stupid belts, margo cheat supporters etc.....boxing can do no wrong and people will always dump thier money into thier pockets. In mma i doubt you would even see such garbage as jones/hopkins, chavez jr on ppv, margo/pac, haye/harrison etc.....and if you did it would be on free spike tv if anything. I don't see the dislike between the two sports really. I don't like mma but i definatly can see why those that do, do. (mma do do ? lol) ok bad joke. But do baseball fans constantly downgrade softball ? Football fans soccer ? Breakdancers talk shit about ballet ? So on and so forth.

[Beanflicker]

In simple terms, boxing fucked up by going to HBO and Showtime primarily in the US, and now someone in this thread said it's not on network tv in the UK. Which really why boxing has fallen off the mainstream.

Great poitn and agreed 100%.

People don't know who today's boxers are outside of Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquaio. Its much easier to talk about MMA with people than it is to talk about boxing, because just about every male, whether they follow the sport religiously or have only seen a show or two, have fighters they like, dislike, ect. They have a certain emotional attachment to the different fighters.

And its not like MMA has better personalities. You have your standard "working class hero's", your flashy trash-talkers, your humble nice guys, your villains, ect, that you have in boxing. Just no exposure on the boxing side. If people have some level of emotional attachment to the characters in boxing, I believe the sport would be doing a lot better.

I'm sure everyone here can attest to the fact that your average male would have trouble naming a Heavyweight champion, or a boxing champion besides Floyd Mayweather.

Everyone has heard of Georges St. Pierre, Brock Lesnar and Anderson Silva.

[Kev]

]Mma is no threat to boxing at all. No more than the ping pong people are worried about tennis.[/B] This whole mma vs boxing thing is simply retarded and a bunch of crap dana white and mma fans started to stir up buisness for themselves. Than being said ....boxings problem is that no matter what they do, how bad they screw us, how dumb they make us look as fans they rely on the true fans sticking with them no matter what. And sadley they are absolutly right. Mma is making an effort to gain new fans on top of the ones they already have while boxing says screw the fans yall ain't goin no where anyway. Look at all the catchweights, stupid belts, margo cheat supporters etc.....boxing can do no wrong and people will always dump thier money into thier pockets. In mma i doubt you would even see such garbage as jones/hopkins, chavez jr on ppv, margo/pac, haye/harrison etc.....and if you did it would be on free spike tv if anything. I don't see the dislike between the two sports really. I don't like mma but i definatly can see why those that do, do. (mma do do ? lol) ok bad joke. But do baseball fans constantly downgrade softball ? Football fans soccer ? Breakdancers talk shit about ballet ? So on and so forth.

I think this is completely wrong. Boxing IS at risk of losing something significant to MMA and that is the bragging rights of its fighters. If you ask the average American who is the baddest man on the planet, I would suggest more might now mention Brock Lesnar's name than either of the Klitschko's, that is a HUGE momentum shift in a few years when you consider boxing has always enjoyed the status of its best fighters being regarded as the baddest man.


That is simply no longer the case. Whether it is true or not, it is far easier for people to see guys like Anderson Silva, Brock Lesnar, Shane Carwin etc as unstoppable monsters as it is guys like Wlad, Vitali or even Floyd Mayweather imo.

Virtually everyone is now in agreement that in a real fight with no rules, a top MMA simply has more skills and too much against a top boxer. That is a HUGE factor working in their advantage in the long term.

It's still a developing sport but the potential for MMA is much greater. More varied action, a wider skill set, a more effective and well rounded fighting style. It really is analagous to chess vs draughts, pool vs snooker, Nascar vs Formula 1, where MMA is the most advanced of the two.


I'm not suggesting they are right now at that stage, but the potential is far greater. There is simply so much more going on in MMA. Nowadays a young kid wanting to learn to fight is probably as likely to want to learn mixed martial arts as they are boxing. In the future it could well overtake boxing. Why would you just want to use your fists and be a great boxer, when you could throw people, slam them, choke them out, break their arms and legs etc?

Kids will flock to this sport over the next 10-20 years and by around 2020 the best fighters will be mixed martial artists imo.

It's a huge threat to boxing in the longterm, even now the UFC has more stars than boxing, and that is alarming.

Chuck Liddel, Randy Coutoure, Rampage Jackson, Brock Lesnar, Anderson Silva, maybe even Forest Griffin are simply bigger household names than all but a handful of boxers.

Take away Floyd and Manny and who is bigger in boxing than Rampage Jackson and Brock?


Thats in just 10 years!

The big names in boxing are all gone, or are in their 40's, Jones Jr, Hopkins etc.

It's hard to see where the next boxing superstar is coming from, I certainly see nobody on the horizon.

[luvfightgame]

To echo a few other posters.

1. Organization- MMA is more like a league with organization than boxing. The separate promoters and separate belts are ridiculous.

2. Skill set- if you have ever trained in boxing and mma you would clearly know you have a lot more to worry about learning in mma. Just try playing the video games of each. You have all the same ability to punch in mma as boxing, but then you still have to go to the ground, and kicks. No question which is more difficult.

3. Over promise under deliver- PBF is the king of shit talking without even trying to deliver what he says. He hypes by lying. ODH and PBF the whole time he was saying he was gonna ko ODH and he never took a risk or had it anywhere in his game plan. He flat out lied to get you to buy, when he clearly intended to box not brawl.

4. Advertising money- who is a regular boxing sponsor? Beer companies. The rest of the companies pretty much capatilize on a big event but nothing regular. UFC is a different story. They have lots of regulars and have even created their own industry of products related.

5. Younger generation- i'm a fan of both. When my daughters friends come around they don't even know who boxers are, but are familiar with UFC fighters.

As far as class. Are you serious? Boxing is classy? Sorry, im a fan but that's ridiculous. The promoter that made a million dollars from a hug fest is wearing a suit and that makes it classy? The announcing team for HBO wears suits so their classy? They have classy people that know nothing about their sport announcing so that rubs off on a sport where most of the high profile stars are known for being arrested?

Sorry that's a dumb argument.

[El Kabong]

As a boxing fan I will say I am very envious of the job Dana White has done marketing the UFC....granted he's scraped the bottom of the barrell with a couple of their sponsors, but he's pulled UFC out from the obscure into the mainstream and as far as "mainstream" goes it's hurting boxing just by making boxing look exclusive rather than inclusive.

Boxing left: NBC, USA, and hell these days the only place you can find it without ordering movie channels is ESPN.

Boxing is going to get humbled, but eventually someone will bring it back around for the masses, whether it's the Pac-Mayweather Mega Fight or a special exciting fighter, or what have you, the deal is boxing isn't going anywhere because of UFC/MMA it just looks bad in comparison. Right now I think boxing is just for more sophisticated fight fans (this is due partly to the UFC's broad marketing bringing in people who know fuck all about any fighting)

[luvfightgame]

As a boxing fan I will say I am very envious of the job Dana White has done marketing the UFC....granted he's scraped the bottom of the barrell with a couple of their sponsors, but he's pulled UFC out from the obscure into the mainstream and as far as "mainstream" goes it's hurting boxing just by making boxing look exclusive rather than inclusive.

Boxing left: NBC, USA, and hell these days the only place you can find it without ordering movie channels is ESPN.

Boxing is going to get humbled, but eventually someone will bring it back around for the masses, whether it's the Pac-Mayweather Mega Fight or a special exciting fighter, or what have you, the deal is boxing isn't going anywhere because of UFC/MMA it just looks bad in comparison. Right now I think boxing is just for more sophisticated fight fans (this is due partly to the UFC's broad marketing bringing in people who know fuck all about any fighting)

I agree boxing isn't going anywhere. And I mean that both ways. It's not going away and it's not getting bigger. Mega fights will come and go and boxing has a wider audience for that, but a mega fight brings casual fans that don't stick around. There are hardcore boxing fans which most of us on here are, and there's casual mega fight fans. You have to go out of your way to try to find boxing to watch, even with all the premium cable channels its on once or twice a month and the excitement level in the broadcasting for lower level fights is akin to watching golf.

It's not about whether mma is cause boxing to go extinct. Never happen. But mma is going to be more popular than boxing in the near future and just because of their organization they can keep what they develop. Boxing would have to completely be restructured to approach any sense of being mainstream. And that will not happen.

[SEB]

I was a boxer in my youth and at 34 now I must say that I stay up at nite to watch MMA shows (Strikeforce and UFC) but not boxing anymore...

I really get bored with boxing. Except for Pacquiao/Klitchko boxing becomes boring.

The number of bad decision, the world titles, the numerous weight classes...boxing is a mess. Who can follow it ? who can understand it ? who can still watch a sport with so many wrong decision ?

Have you noticed on how hard is it to have people fighting the best in their categories ?

UFC bring more clarity and better shows to the people. You can easily watch it and enjoy it even if you're not in the game period ! not in boxing anymore...

and the HBO saying : nobody knows the klitchko...yeah great, keep going on ! and in 10 years boxing will be done. continue to have 15 or 18 (I don't remember) weight classes in 4 majors leagues...it becomes ridiculous...

Besides that, boxing gyms are deserted, all the kids want BJJ practice coupled with some Thai Boxing...that's it.

[SalTheButcher]

mma is no threat to boxing


the mma scene right now is in a bad state

FEG is actually close to going out of business (they struck a deal with some chinese bank that is supposed to secure over 200 million in worldwide sponsorships/investments and the word on the street is if the bank doesnt come through FEG is done)

if strikeforce ended up unable to continue promoting fights on a national level and FEG went under the sport would be fucked

the UFC already pays fighters whatever it wants, but if there was literally nowhere else a fighter could make money...

there would be no reason for anyone to view mma as a good option (assuming they had potential to make money in any other sport)

hopefully FEG/strikeforce will be fine tho and none of this will even matter

[0james0]

When did this thread become so good!

I've never really thought of MMA bring a threat to boxing. Then I read this.

Now I'm still on the fence. If you read each post neutrally, each is not wrong and is a compelling argument.

Hmmm. I'm still unsure.

[SEB]

Yes I understand your point, I don't forget that Brock made 450.000$ the last time he fought which is ridiculous compared to Mayweather or Pacquiao.

nonetheless, I agree with you that if Dana doesn't increase the salary of the fighters, the show won't attract the next "athletes" of tomorrow.

May I just draw your attention to the fact that it IS the case with boxing. Boxing doesn't have the best athletes, they go in NFL or NBA period.