I haven't read through the thread because I'm a bit drunk and more than a bit lazy, but MMA is a threat to boxing because it's well-organized, appealing to the casual fan, and because the best fighters are constantly matched up against one another. There is only one major body (UFC) and *gasp* the best fighters actually fight each other without any prima donna bullshit because a) the fights are easier to make thanks to the absolute control exercised by UFC and b) because losses are acceptable and don't seem to derail careers the way they do in boxing. MMA learned from everything that boxing has done wrong over the last 30 years and has created a sport that casual fans actually care about. Divisional champions are easy to identify and stacked cards with the best fighters actually fighting one another occur on a regular basis. The incestuous, fractured, and often overtly corrupt nature of boxing is a joke compared with the way MMA (in the form of UFC) is run.

In my mind boxing is a far superior sport, but it's organized and run in such an inept way that it is slowly killing itself.