does Boxing need UFC to get it's house in order ?

**Big Dick Whittington** · 03-25-2009 03:50 PM

With Boxing as a spectator sport dwindling is UFC the new kid on the block to push Boxing to change it's ways?
I think alot of the UFC is really really amatuer !
But and this is a big but , in terms of market appeal it's leaving boxing in the slipstream , how long before we see UFC branch into Boxing seriously ? Don't say it will never happen it's what the kids are talking about and pretty soon it's gonna have enough weight to throw around and kill boxing!
Should boxing come underneath the UFC umbrella ? Some MMA events already have unlicensed boxing here in Blighty so pretty much expect UFC to turn it's tentacles and focus on boxing soon , say 10 years ?

Would it be a bad thing to have all the top fighters under 1 banner 'the premier banner' having the fights that should happen .
I look at these much loved MMA fighters with records of 14-5 and think perhaps it's the way forward !
Im not suggesting Boxers fight in the octagon just some middle ground

**Kev** · 03-25-2009 03:59 PM

Well I certainly agree that the explosion of popularity in MMA will have an effect on how boxing promotes itself, and hopefully in a good way.

In MMA the best fights always get made, fighters don't pad their records to 20-0 before they fight anybody half decent and we don't need to wait 5 years for two rivals to finally face each other, at least when they are in the same organisation.

There's no chance of the UFC buying into boxing though, the UFC is all about its own brand of mixed martial arts Octagon fighting, they won't ever license boxers.

Also MMA and UFC arn't synonymous. Right now the UFC is the most succesful organisation in MMA by far but its unlikely to remain that way.

MMA has a life of its own now and with each passing year the UFC will struggle to hold on to its best fighters and eventually the UFC will be just one organisation amongst several imo.

Then we'll be back to the age old problem of trying to get fights made between fighters in different organisations so in the longterm I think MMA will go the way of boxing in terms of infrastucture and organisation than the other way around.

**luvfightgame** · 03-26-2009 12:05 AM

Originally Posted by Bilbo

Well I certainly agree that the explosion of popularity in MMA will have an effect on how boxing promotes itself, and hopefully in a good way.

In MMA the best fights always get made, fighters don't pad their records to 20-0 before they fight anybody half decent and we don't need to wait 5 years for two rivals to finally face each other, at least when they are in the same organisation.

There's no chance of the UFC buying into boxing though, the UFC is all about its own brand of mixed martial arts Octagon fighting, they won't ever license boxers.

Also MMA and UFC arn't synonymous. Right now the UFC is the most succesful organisation in MMA by far but its unlikely to remain that way.

MMA has a life of its own now and with each passing year the UFC will struggle to hold on to its best fighters and eventually the UFC will be just one organisation amongst several imo.

Then we'll be back to the age old problem of trying to get fights made between fighters in different organisations so in the longterm I think MMA will go the way of boxing in terms of infrastucture and organisation than the other way around.

I don't think UFC will be one of many. They already bought out all the major competitors and own the lower level organizations. I think it will be more like Baseball and other organizations will function like farm leagues. Just my opinion but nobody can hold a candle to it and they continue to dominate and it's still growing, getting free t.v. deals in other countries, etc. The only other org really attempting to compete directly has to live off of ppv's and selling tshirts. There time is very limited living off of ppv's and paying huge contracts to a few marquee fighters in the twilight of their careers.

And for boxing. It won't change much. It has benefitted us by competing with MMA and making better matchups. But the major promotional outfits are already well entrenched and would have no reason to give up their control and income. Boxing isn't struggling except for the lower levels which always has. We will be seeing a changing of the guard in promotional companies but otherwise it's business as usual. GBP and Arum have been trying to promote tough matchups without dropping the loser. As long as a fighter is competetive they shouldn't lose too much ground from dropping a close fight.