The threat to boxing from MMA

I have been thinking about this for some time and today I had a moment of clarity.

I dont think MMA poses any threat to boxing for a number of reasons.

If you are are first atracted to combat sports by MMA then there is a good chance that in time you might also like boxing as well which is a good thing for boxing.

As gets pointed out very offten,MMA fans tend to be younger than your averge boxing fan so there is a good chance that if they were not into MMA then they would not be into boxing either.
If a few youngsters get into boxing though MMA then great.

I would say most MMA fans enjoy big boxing matches because of the glamour,history and excitment and lots of boxing fans enjoy the big MMA cards as well just for the raw violence.
The point is the fans can support both sports and still be fans.I dont know how boxing suffers because of the rise of MMA?
As far as I can see its just increase the fan bace for all fighting sports.

On Steve Bunces program of Setanta TV a point was made that a recent MMA card out sold Amir Kahn.
Diferene is that the Kahn fight on paper was a mismatch and the MMA card was not so I am told.
Also MMA is new and diferent so there is the novilty factor.

So to sum up I would say the rise of MMA increases fight fans which is good for boxing.

The way MMA fighters are matched has put pressure on boxing promotors to make more competitive fight cards and more competitive fights toghether which is also a breath of fresh air.

I would say the only area that MMA outdoes boxing is the fact that boxing has hundreds of so called world champions and its difficult for the average sports fan to know who the true champions are.

I am getting off my soap box now.;D