Quote Originally Posted by Canvasback
The casual fan may be the savior of boxing. Unless you really follow MMA most people can't appreciate some of the ground work and submissions. When people go to a boxing match it's pretty easy to tell who is dominating the action or winning the fight. I know a lot of people who will watch the occassional boxing match on tv but will not watch MMA because they either think it's too bloody and violent or they don't understand what's going on. Just my humble opinion (I figure if I put this after each post people will be less apt to rag on me). Just kidding, have at it!!!!!
I have to disagree here. Almost without exception all of my mates prefer MMA (and by that I only mean UFC) to boxing.

To most casual fans UFC is more entertaining than boxing not less, because of the kicks, body slams and more no holds barred approach.

I'm honestly really worried about the state of boxing right now. The UFC is just hipper, cooler with the younger generation and more media friendly.

They have more personalites, know how to best market those personalites and because one team controls the whole of the UFC (and now Pride) they make sure the best matchups get made.

If your'e a young fan following the sports now which is going to be more entertaining to you?

A sport hosted by popular comedian Joe Rogan who also really knows his MMA or a sport hosted by ancient veterans like Lampley and Merchant who have never boxed in their lives?

Who are the cooler promoters, Dana White who pays his fighters $20,000 bonuses whenever they fight on the UFC if they get the best knockout or submission, who trained 6 months to fight one of his old stars in Tito Ortiz and who goes out of his way to make sure the best fights happen, or do you prefer Bob Arum and Don King, ancient fossils whose only interest in the sport of boxing is in making as much money for themselves as possible and preventing any big fights taking place so as to preserve their own golden geese's unbeaten records?

Boxing is in a massive decline right now and people who talk about MMA as if it's a passing fad seriously have no clue.

Unless something drastic happens in the next 5 years or so boxing will become secondary as a PPV and mass media appealing sport to the UFC specifically and MMA in general.

Boxing's image is all rooted in the past, in it's heritage, history and tradition which although great means jackshit to the younger generation of fans who want to see the best fights made and made now.

People may knock the UFC for pandering to the media and being a purely commercial product, but at the end of the day for any sport to survive and prosper it has to appeal to as big a fanbase as possible.

The UFC right now is huge. You could almost imagine there being toys of all the main fighters, Lydell, Rampage, Couture etc and kids wanting to play with them. You just couldn't even conceive of that happening with boxers.

You may scoff at this but ultimately it IS important. Right now the UFC is perceived as hip, cool, trendy whatever, whislt boxing continues to spout out crummy phrases like tradition, sweet science.

People tradition means fuckall in today's world, just look at the British Monarchy. They have more tradition, heritage and history than any other institution in the world but the vast majority of Brits believe (foolishy imo) that they are outdated and should be abolished.

Today's generations care nothing for tradition!

If boxing is ever to recover from its slump it needs to find a way to appeal to the younger audience, and that means looking to the UFC for guidance I'm afraid.