Damn UFC Dana White talking trash on Boxing and Oscar De La Hoya.

[BlackRazor]

This guy is getting real tired. We should stop talking about him; i mean if UFC is so popular and boxing is dying why does he spend so much time talking about it? THe fact is this guy was probably a WWE fan before the whole UFC thing and he now has that same childish attitude!

I mean lets face it just because boxing and UFC are combat sports does not mean they are simmilar or competing for the same audience! I mean when was the last time you saw someone who plays/ likes tennis go on about how badminton is dying? or a snooker player saying pool is dying out? typical childish behaviour when it comes to combat sports and former wrestling fans.

Very good question! Is he trying to convince the public or himself when he makes these statements? I think some boxing fans took offense when some MMA fans said boxing is dying, tired & old.

[porkypara]

Does anybodt remember the Don King shows of the 90s.

They were always packed full of talent.


For example,Jeff Fench-Azuma Nelson was an undercard fight on a Tyson show.


I agree with what White said,most big fight undercards are crap tody.

[Andre]

Does anybodt remember the Don King shows of the 90s.

They were always packed full of talent.


For example,Jeff Fench-Azuma Nelson was an undercard fight on a Tyson show.


I agree with what White said,most big fight undercards are crap tody.

From memory that was fought outside wasnt it?

Which makes me think imagine a UFC title outside in a tiered seating colluseum style or greek theatre styled venue!
That would suit Ufc with the ring low and the crowd high.

[Hunter]

Dana is right about boxing PPV's....There hasnt been a card in the last few years that had 2-3 really good matchups on it....that is really pathetic.....

[KananKrus]

When UFC fighters get to the mat, and grapple 14 minutes ot of the 3, 5-minute rounds (?), it gets old fairly quick. IMO Bores me to tears, unmanly way of combat at times. Strikers? There! They're the ones who give excitement to their sport, approximating that of a second tier matchup in boxing!

To cut to the chase, UFC needs to still promote their product, cause if you are on to their overhype, their dates will be boring. So, they are still in need to trumpet their product.

Straddling on to Boxing's biggest PPV star is cheap publicity. A guaranteed cheap advertisement for UFC. The move by Dana White reeks of an intention to encroach, and capture on some of boxing's demographic.

[albsur2006]

Look it's obvious that boxing and UFC are MUCH different. Who's perceived as a star, how to become a star, etc...Boxing is much different from the UFC and I don't like how Dana is always trying to compare the two.

The UFC is great at marketing guys with a 20-9 or 2-1 record as champions and legitimate opponents. In boxing a 20-9 fighter is considered a journeyman or tomato can and a guy with a 2-1 record is considered garbage pretty much. In boxing, if you match a 20-9 guy against a 13-3 guy, that fight won't even make it on Friday Night Fights. It takes a lot longer to build people up in boxing and I think that this is something Dana White doesn't understand.

UFC doesn't have that much history so they can market guys like Lesnar, A.Silva, Rampage, and some of these other dudes because they are the best fighters in a business with basically no history. Boxing has a 100+ years of history so the fans aren't gonna buy into the fact that a 13-3 welterweight is the next big thing in boxing when history has shown that recent stars and P4Pers like SRL, Hearns, ODLH, Trinidad, Mayweather, Cotto, and whoever else, were all pretty much undefeated for their first 20-25 fights and that all these guys end up with only like 4-5 losses on their records when they retire. So if a guy starts off with 3 losses in his first 16 fights, boxing history has shown that the guy pretty much will be a journeyman and in boxing, there's really no way to market that. The public won't buy into that fighter when there's so many undefeated or better fighters out there.

But what Dana White is correct about is that NOBODY in boxing is investing in the future. Yeah sure, Dana White doesn't pay his guys all that much, but he pays them a good amount and he's always investing back into the business. Nobody in boxing does this. The so-called saviors of the sport, Golden Boy Promotions, are also probably one of the biggest rapists of the sport too. Nobody is trying to develop a new business model on how to market fighters, they are just using the same greedy methods that have plagued the sport forever especially in the last 20 years.

Two things can be done to really help boxing out, promoters must get more exposure and publicity for their younger guys. I really like what the networks were doing with guys like Angulo, Gamboa, and Kirkland. Having them together on a single televised card to keep the cost down while still profiling them during the development of their careers. More cards need to be done like this. That would require more money from HBO and Showtime but it can be viewed as an investment in the hopes that at least one, if not all, of these guys will be a PPV star and cash cow in the future. HBO especially has been really bad about focusing their money and time on old stars like ODLH, B-Hop, JoeCal, RJJ, to squeeze out every last profit from these guys before they retire. But nobody is investing in the future stars. Promoters and networks should be focused on exposure for people that are still gonna be around in at least 3-4 years.

Also, Dana was completely correct about PPV undercards. That point has been beat to death. Seriously, are you fucking telling me that ODLH can't take 2-3 Million from the entire promotion which means him taking a small pay cut to pay for better fighters and fights on the undercard? I really find that hard to believe. It's the greediest shit I've ever seen. ODLH is still thinking like a fighter and not a smart promoter.

[Boom Boom]

Hockey is to Football, what UFC is to Boxing. You never hear John Madden talk about the Bruins. Apples and Oranges ladies and gentleman. The comparisons need to end and the competition should be left in the cage or the ring for the fighters, not between the two very different sports.

[Chino]

Don king still knows how to put on a good card cuz he considers the whole event as opposed to just the main attraction

Hate him or not, Don King has brought THE BEST cards in boxing. All those fights before the main event are now main events along the year. Don King could have all those in one night before the main event. So far, my favorite Don King PPV was the one titled "Revenge: The Rematches", do you guys remember that one?

[porkypara]

Don king still knows how to put on a good card cuz he considers the whole event as opposed to just the main attraction

Hate him or not, Don King has brought THE BEST cards in boxing. All those fights before the main event are now main events along the year. Don King could have all those in one night before the main event. So far, my favorite Don King PPV was the one titled "Revenge: The Rematches", do you guys remember that one?

Yep,I think I can just about remember it.

Did that include the Simon Brown Terry Norris rematch?

[Mar]

Boxing must not be in too bad of shape if out of the blue this jack off feels he needs to bash it. I don't see professional football coming out and talking shit about pro truck pulling. This guy is a couple of kimbo slices away from being in the same boat as the rest of that mma stuff. Be happy for your success dana grow up and stfu. The time you spend trashing other sports could be used to furthur build up your own.

[DatsiK]

I think boxing should adopt a WWE/UFC approach to PPV... it would certainly justify shelling the money out more. Could you imagine this PPV:

in no particular order..

Hatton vs Pac Man
Haye vs Vitali
Calzaghe vs Dawson


That alone I imagine would outsell any one of those possible PPV's on their own by 3:1..

As someone who watches PPV's alot I don't feel interested to watch the actual PPV until the main event, which lasts on average 1 hour.. that's £15 for one hour. And I imagine the same could be said about alot of other people on here.. maybe not, but I don't enjoy watching prospects fight no names and knock them out within 2-3 rounds.

[albsur2006]

I think boxing should adopt a WWE/UFC approach to PPV... it would certainly justify shelling the money out more. Could you imagine this PPV:

in no particular order..

Hatton vs Pac Man
Haye vs Vitali
Calzaghe vs Dawson


That alone I imagine would outsell any one of those possible PPV's on their own by 3:1..

As someone who watches PPV's alot I don't feel interested to watch the actual PPV until the main event, which lasts on average 1 hour.. that's £15 for one hour. And I imagine the same could be said about alot of other people on here.. maybe not, but I don't enjoy watching prospects fight no names and knock them out within 2-3 rounds.

That would be an AWESOME type of card but because of the law of diminishing returns it wouldn't do 3 times the numbers like you're saying. There is a limit on how much these cards can possibly make. No matter how many high profile fights there are on one card, that one card still can only make so much money. That's what promoters realized and why they started putting fights on different cards altogether.

But what these promoters could do is use big high profile main events to make great economically feasible fights on the undercard. Like the Pac-ODLH PPV for example, if Izzy was healthy they could have given Izzy and Rafa 1-1.5 Million each to stage their epic fourth fight on the undercard. Even though the two are at the top of their sport, the smaller guys make less money so it'd be easier to get an awesome, serious quality fight on the undercard. Or throw in a couple million extra to get a high profile name like a Hatton or Pavlik or Pac or Tony to fight one of their mandatories. These guys even though they are stars, don't make that much money for their mandatory defenses so those fights are affordable and are reasonably competitive. Those IMO are good examples of how undercards can realistically improve. This should be happening now but the only thing stopping it from happening is straight up GREED.

Having Victor Ortiz (who is a prospect and makes hardly anything anyways) fight a washed up former prospect as the main undercard fight is complete BULLSHIT. That should maybe be an opening undercard fight. What pisses me off is that they defend the undercard by saying "we're profiling our young stars". No, you're paying fighters who don't make a lot to wipe out their overmatched opponents, who make even less. All while the main eventers are raping the revenue.

[hackey]

He makes a fair point tbh. The undercards to big fights are where we should be seeing the hot prospects generating interest. I would also like to see any 24/7 episodes spend time introducing the unkown fighters to the general public.

Amir Khan is a good example of this type of marketing at least. His career may not have been well mapped in the ring, but outside of it his stock as a known athlete is high in the UK.

Alot of the young prospects could do with his sort of publicity, but as White said, it takes investment and the boxing promoters aren't willing to take the risk it seems.