Why is MMA a threat to boxing?

[Mattyhitman]

LOL, this is a typical ignorant statement by someone who doesnt understand nor wants to appreciate the finer points of mixed martial arts.

At the end of the day everyone is entitled to their opinion, you clearly dont like MMA, hence your statement, but to ridicule a sport when you dont understand it seems ridiculous to me

maybe i dont understand, i have watched it tho with the intent of enjoying it, and i dont

they roll on the floor and after a few seconds i start to get irritated just like in a boxing fight when there is too much holding

To be fair i used to be the same, never liked it when the fight went to the ground, but after doing abit of BJJ, then ya get to understand it and learn to appreciate it more.



I like to watch golf

[erics44]

To be fair i used to be the same, never liked it when the fight went to the ground, but after doing abit of BJJ, then ya get to understand it and learn to appreciate it more.



I like to watch golf

admittedly i do watch golf if there is nothing else to do

and i do watch MMA if the only other thing to do is watch golf

[mnmc10]

its not a threat at all.

its just like rugby, American football or soccer. similar but has their own set of fans.

[erics44]

its not a threat at all.

its just like rugby, American football or soccer. similar but has their own set of fans.

you could be right, i keep on seeing lots of times on this forum comments like "no wonder mma is taking over", so i thought id ask why?

[rjj tszyu]

The only real threat it poses to boxing is basically, for about 150 years+ boxing has led the way as far as combat sports go, but these days with all the money involved in boxing the promoters and the fighters like to make more money than they can spend in a lifetime in one night therefore the cards are no longer stacked like they once were because they can't afford to make £20 million for each main event fighter and the same again for the promoter and then put big names on the undercard. MMA and in particular the UFC fighter are not on anything like the money that Boxers are (I think the record purse is $500,000 for Chuck Liddel) so they can afford to stack the cards much better than boxing has been doing recently and ultimately they are getting a lot of old boxing fans watching their events.

As far as who is more skilled?? Elite Boxers are far more polished at what they do and if for example someone from another sport wanted to become either a boxer or MMA fighter they would find MMA the easier sport to reach somewhere near the top of. I'm not bashing MMA here this is just my opinion.

For example you have Brock Lesnar, big dude, strong as an Ox and former amateur wrestler before going and doing the fake stuff for WWE. He was sick of people calling him a fake and wanted to prove he was a tough guy. Now he could have chosen to learn Boxing and earned 20 times what he does now per fight had he reached the top or he could go to MMA which he did and he became UFC world champ after I think it was 4 MMA fights. Now fair enough he already had the wrestling background so MMA would probably always be the easier route but other examples such as Kimbo Slice and Matt Mitrione etc they could have chosen Boxing but didn't because they knew their mistakes would be punished within seconds against an elite boxer whereas in MMA you can get away with a lot of big mistakes especially when your stood up and not be punished.

Anderson Silva is probably the best MMA fighter on the planet right now and certainly the best striker in MMA, but when he tried boxing he was soundly beaten by TKO against a journeyman called Osmar Teixera. He then had another boxing match against someone who was simply there to even the record out. He had never been in a boxing ring before and has never been in one since. Some MMA fans have denied it ever happened but I can assure you it did, I'm looking for the video now and if I can find it I will post it on here. I have seen it before though.

Here is Andersons Boxing record if you want to check it out. Anderson Da Silva - Boxer

We must remember they are different sports though and Anderson is not a boxer he is an MMA genius if i'm honest. Expecting Anderson to be a great boxer would be like expecting Pele to be great at tennis.

[generalbulldog]

its not a threat at all.

its just like rugby, American football or soccer. similar but has their own set of fans.

you could be right, i keep on seeing lots of times on this forum comments like "no wonder mma is taking over", so i thought id ask why?

I made such a comment and my reason being is that at least in MMA, whether it be the now defunct Pride or UFC, they manage to appease their fanbase more than boxing, and I have to say that they do a much better and thorough job attracting new fans than boxing.

In boxing you have 4+ champions in 17 weight divisions that don't fight the best half the time. Way too many divisions and way too many belts along with way too much bullshit politics. MMA doesn't have that problem, well except for Fedor not fighting the best, but he's the only 1 I can think of. Another thing I respect about MMA is at least if there is a shoddy decision, there's usually a rematch on the way like Machida-Shogun. In boxing 1 guy doesn't want a rematch and probably runs off fighting other guys or goes to another division. Then in boxing you have hyped up shitty fighters that picks and chooses their fights way too much and are manufactured, Amir Khan is a prime example.

[generalbulldog]

And about attracting new fans. Boxing in the old days was on regular network tv like NBC, ABC, and CBS. It's completely disappear in today's time in the USA. Back then my dad watched a young Muhammad Ali rose up through the ranks and challenge Liston for the title, he saw a young Duran, Leonard, Hearns, Hagler rise up in the same way, hell as a little kid I still remember watching a young Pernell Whitaker, Holyfield, Taylor, rising up through regular network tv in the 80s. Nowadays to watch those young prospects you better have a subscription to premium cable channels like HBO or Showtime. IMO and it has been documented by boxing historians, that the move from regular network tv to premium cable has severely hurt boxing and limited their exposure to a whole new generation.

You guys know why the NFL, NBA, and MLB are so popular in the US? It's on free regular network tv including the playoffs. They don't limit their exposure. Sure the NFL can go to a PPV for the superbowl or moving their games to premium cable and it will make boatloads of cash, but in the long run it hurts the sport.

Boxing shot itself in the foot by these decisions. In the 80s boxing was still a mainstream sport in the USA, what happened? Moving to premium cable where an entire generation wasn't that exposed to it. sure in the internet age you can catch a stream or watch it on youtube, but limiting your exposure on free network tv hinders the sport from growing.

I still love boxing, and always will, but boxing has a lot of problems.

[El Kabong]

I think eventually MMA and Boxing can have a Bo Jackson/Deon Sanders type of two sport star....but to be honest I think it'll be a lot easier for that to happen if the guy is a boxer first and MMA fighter second because you're going from strict rules to not so strict rules.

[johnsebastianmiran]

Plain and simple, we watch sports because we crave excitement. When kickboxing emerged and I m not talking the Thai version which has been around almost forever with a little exaggeration of course, Someone once said that those of us that crave violent sports invented another one. I really give a rat's ass about yuppies that did not have the stomach to watch a man's sport so they started by canceling a high rated show on cable network USA. Let';s face it, there are those of us that are squeamish and there are those of us that can't get enough. We are fans. while those hypocrites trying to abolish boxing and focus their attention on our sport. MMA was stepping up to the plate, raw and unorganized. Boxing has been around and taken a beating from people outside the boundaries of fans like us. MMA has rules that I can't abide by and when yopu are on the floor and get hit behind the head while you are down, where's the sport in that you might ask. All I can say is to each his own and if the MMA makes you happy then more power to you. I have been practicing martial arts in dojos and not in a ring and I boxed amateur but now remember this, Boxing has risen again but those promoters and those wannabe executives that never broke a sweat in their lives are the real threat to boxing. I usually find one more quality in all the gyms I frequent, there are more gentlemen in boxing than in other sports and I mean the fighters.

[CFH]

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.

[Beanflicker]

I think that overall MMA has actually helped boxing in a lot of ways. Dana White (UFC's president) structured the UFC to avoid all of the things that are rotten with boxing today. Instead of paying $50 for one fight you want to watch, you get multiple big, relevant fights per card. In the UFC, the best are CONSTANTLY fighting the best. There is no "Well I want a 60/40 split" or any of that crap. If you are the champ, you are fighting the #1 contenders. There are no easy fights in the UFC anymore.

I think the level of compedition the UFC has brought has actually helped boxing. It has put a ton of pressure on promoters to make the BIG fights happen and give the consumer more bang for their buck.

Of course an MMA guy will never have the handskills of a pro boxer, but thats because a pro boxer trains his hands 100% of the time. The MMA guy has to learn boxing, muay thai (punching/kicking/kneeing/elbowing), wrestling, BJJ. He has to learn to attack from many different positions and, conversely, defend from many different positions and defend so many different types of attacks.

For people who don't believe MMA fighting requires much skill, believe me when I tell you that you are just seeing the tip of the iceberg. I remember thinking boxing was boring as hell when I was a kid. I didn't understand it, why were these guys dancing around and throwing weak-looking punches at each other (jabs)? Why didn't they just run out and KO each other? Obviously that kind of ignorance wears off when you watch and learn more about the sport. Same thing in this case. What looks like two men rolling around on the ground actually involves a plethora of technique, skill and know-how.

[stebs]

I grew up watching boxing when it was mainstream and on tv almost every week on wide world of sports, now you never see boxing on regular tv and most fights are PPV if they are decent fights.

Along with that, I along with millions of other boys in school I also wrestled and my kids wrestled, with that I have an appreciation of what MMA fighters do. How many kids boxed in JR high or high school. I would think the number of boxers in schools would be very low if any at all. Wrestling is a sport known by everyone world wide from kids to their siblings, parents and grandparents that can be viewed and appreciated by all.

With that stated I would bet that 95% + of the people on this board have never put on a boxing glove yet alone actually boxed anyone in their life, compare that to how many kids and families have organized wrestling in their background against how many kids and families have boxing in their backgrounds. MMA is far more universal then boxing ever was or will be and is much more entertaining then boxing in my opinion.

Cross over appeal and the fact that in boxing you don't get the best fighting the best on any kind of consistent basis is the reason MMA has come so far in such a short time.

[SalTheButcher]

mma is no threat to boxing


the mma scene right now is in a bad state

FEG is actually close to going out of business (they struck a deal with some chinese bank that is supposed to secure over 200 million in worldwide sponsorships/investments and the word on the street is if the bank doesnt come through FEG is done)

if strikeforce ended up unable to continue promoting fights on a national level and FEG went under the sport would be fucked

the UFC already pays fighters whatever it wants, but if there was literally nowhere else a fighter could make money...

there would be no reason for anyone to view mma as a good option (assuming they had potential to make money in any other sport)

hopefully FEG/strikeforce will be fine tho and none of this will even matter

[Niko's Girl!]

It's not. Simple. Not in the long run. MMA will never have a Joe Louis, Muhammad Ali or Sugar Nicky V.