first of all don't get me wrong i pick boxing over MMA 9 times out of 10, but you can't be blind that boxing is constantly trying to force mediocre undercards with a decent mainevent, and there are already signs that boxing is starting to feel the pressure which is mainly evident with the 3 Vazquez/Marquez fights, all were on regular Showtime, instead of being thrown onto PPV, and now fights like Hopkins/Calzaghe, Hatton/Malignaggi, Margarito/Mosley are on regular HBO, and also now the one making the biggest attempt to make a stacked fight card worth on being on PPV is Top Rank with their proposed summer 2009 card in Madison Square Garden, undercard being, Ivan Calderon Vs. Ulisis Solis, Juanma Lopez Vs. Raphael Marquez or Israel Vazquez (if he gets past Penalosa), and the main event being Miguel Cotto Vs. Antonio Margarito II, that's a stacked card
The nfl schedule coming up is packed with great games too.....so what ufc and boxing are different sports the comparisons between the two are funny. The ufc i'm sure has great bouts and it's doing it's thing and that's fine but i don't care who they have fighting i would never watch, and that is no way a knock on those who do, hell i don't like cricket or the wwe either and just like mma or whatever i don't see what that has to do with boxing. Futbol vs football don't get compared every other week just as silly imo.
Last edited by Mar; 12-15-2008 at 05:31 PM.
Hidden Content Click clack ! Give up the purse.........or yetti will find you.
I agree this UFC is better value than recent boxing events . Oscar - Pac was a predictable farce and the undercard sucked. UFC could have made a couple of ppvs from these matches but theyve given the real xmas treat . I cant wait !
This is mixed martial arts. I loved boxing. but it's just another discipline. Does a boxer beats an MMA fighter. If it's a standup without kicking fight..Yes. But do I think boxers are the better athletes. Hell no. ain't even close. It's safe to say they're the better conditioned athletes. on the PPV thing..yes the UFC is an organization that could make fights happen if they wanted to. they have fighters, with one promoter..Dana White. you shouldn't compare it to boxing. Boxing is a science. It should be compared to MMA. The UFC should be compared to Top Rank, or GBP. Now if that's what you're pointing out. I say it's because boxing promoters won't take the risks of damaging their prized fighters just to entertain fans often. If you're aware of the physical risks and danger in boxing you know what I'm talkin about. These guys takes a tremendous amount of punisment from 2 months of training to the 12rounds of actual fight. If they would face great competition from the get go they would have been 'shot' to early. So that's why these promoters see to it that they get the fight schedules in favor of them. The big names don't fight in the same card. Coz unlike in the UFC, you can't tap out in boxing. You have to finished not 3 or 5 but 12 rounds of hell even if you want to be respected. Quitting on a fight is almost admitting you have quitted fighting for the rest of your life. It's always a do or die,a make or break situation in boxing. Most of the times there ain't no second chance.Being in the main event is a 'sign of respect and recognition' for the hardwork an accomplished boxer has put in. That's why almost all of the time you can't put them on the same card.
An empty can is always noisy.
By Bill Dettlof of The Ring:
This dovetails nicely with the sense, held among many, that the sport is in real danger because its lone huge star, Oscar De La Hoya, is 35 years old and at the brink of retirement following his humbling loss to Manny Pacquiao.
Before we get to that, it’s worth noting the immense hypocrisy inherent in Calzaghe’s observation that there are “too many belts and too many champions, which dilutes real champions like myself.”
This is like Rod Blagojevich complaining that American politics is too corrupt. For 10 years, Calzaghe paraded around as the WBO “champion,” helping to publicize what had been at the beginning a mostly European, mostly unknown and entirely laughable sanctioning body.
He had help, though. A lazy American fight press and Calzaghe’s legions of European fans kept calling him a champion, and here we are, with four “champions” per division, which Calzaghe now, suddenly, thinks is too many.
At any rate, this sense of doom at the passing of a star is as old as the sport itself, as is the worry that boxing is on the brink of extinction. But don’t take my word for it. Take a cue from the ghosts of boxing past, who were gone long before De La Hoya had to “save” boxing again and again.
Writing in the April 1930 (!) issue of The Ring after the Max Schmeling-Jack Sharkey heavyweight title fight, Nat Fleischer said, “This is a drastic cure, but something will have to be done to save boxing. The public is tired.”
Twenty years later, Jersey Jones wrote in the February 1950 issue of The Ring: “As the Twentieth Century, Anno Domini, moves into its halfway mark, the American chapter of the fistic fraternity finds itself confronted by one of the most crucial periods it has known since the knuckle dusting trade became big business. Boxing is in a mighty precarious state of artistic and financial health at the moment.”
Almost 30 years on, Nat Loubet got it right when, commenting on Muhammad Ali’s retirement, he wrote in the April 1979 issue, “Boxing will survive, Ali or no Ali. A knight on a horse will gallop onto the stage, a new young face to capture the imagination of boxing buffs – and the heavyweight handicaps will be off and running again.”
After Dempsey left, there was Louis. After Louis there came Marciano. After Marciano there was Ali and after Ali, Ray Leonard. After Leonard came Tyson, and after Tyson there was De La Hoya.
So don’t pull the sheet over this old game yet. As Gene Tunney told Ring writer Al Buck in April 1950, “There is nothing the matter with boxing that another Jack Dempsey couldn’t cure.”
No comparison. If Canseco had a long and successful amateur boxing career, then took 3 pro fights against high level competition and won 2 and lost one that he was winning you might have a comparison.
I agree that Lesner should have had a few more fights before the title but it's closer to Vitali coming out of a long retirement and is first in line for the title than comparing a baseball player fighting for a boxing title.
The point of the fight from UFC's perspective is the continuation of a "linear" legit champ. They already lost Couture a couple of times. Might as well throw the next big thing in so if he wins it's still legit and everybody won't say "he never REALLY won the title". For sure Couture can't be counted on for 5 more fights or a couple of years for Lesner to get his record up there....
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