Why is MMA a threat to boxing?

[Kev]

]Mma is no threat to boxing at all. No more than the ping pong people are worried about tennis.[/B] This whole mma vs boxing thing is simply retarded and a bunch of crap dana white and mma fans started to stir up buisness for themselves. Than being said ....boxings problem is that no matter what they do, how bad they screw us, how dumb they make us look as fans they rely on the true fans sticking with them no matter what. And sadley they are absolutly right. Mma is making an effort to gain new fans on top of the ones they already have while boxing says screw the fans yall ain't goin no where anyway. Look at all the catchweights, stupid belts, margo cheat supporters etc.....boxing can do no wrong and people will always dump thier money into thier pockets. In mma i doubt you would even see such garbage as jones/hopkins, chavez jr on ppv, margo/pac, haye/harrison etc.....and if you did it would be on free spike tv if anything. I don't see the dislike between the two sports really. I don't like mma but i definatly can see why those that do, do. (mma do do ? lol) ok bad joke. But do baseball fans constantly downgrade softball ? Football fans soccer ? Breakdancers talk shit about ballet ? So on and so forth.

I think this is completely wrong. Boxing IS at risk of losing something significant to MMA and that is the bragging rights of its fighters. If you ask the average American who is the baddest man on the planet, I would suggest more might now mention Brock Lesnar's name than either of the Klitschko's, that is a HUGE momentum shift in a few years when you consider boxing has always enjoyed the status of its best fighters being regarded as the baddest man.


That is simply no longer the case. Whether it is true or not, it is far easier for people to see guys like Anderson Silva, Brock Lesnar, Shane Carwin etc as unstoppable monsters as it is guys like Wlad, Vitali or even Floyd Mayweather imo.

Virtually everyone is now in agreement that in a real fight with no rules, a top MMA simply has more skills and too much against a top boxer. That is a HUGE factor working in their advantage in the long term.

It's still a developing sport but the potential for MMA is much greater. More varied action, a wider skill set, a more effective and well rounded fighting style. It really is analagous to chess vs draughts, pool vs snooker, Nascar vs Formula 1, where MMA is the most advanced of the two.


I'm not suggesting they are right now at that stage, but the potential is far greater. There is simply so much more going on in MMA. Nowadays a young kid wanting to learn to fight is probably as likely to want to learn mixed martial arts as they are boxing. In the future it could well overtake boxing. Why would you just want to use your fists and be a great boxer, when you could throw people, slam them, choke them out, break their arms and legs etc?

Kids will flock to this sport over the next 10-20 years and by around 2020 the best fighters will be mixed martial artists imo.

It's a huge threat to boxing in the longterm, even now the UFC has more stars than boxing, and that is alarming.

Chuck Liddel, Randy Coutoure, Rampage Jackson, Brock Lesnar, Anderson Silva, maybe even Forest Griffin are simply bigger household names than all but a handful of boxers.

Take away Floyd and Manny and who is bigger in boxing than Rampage Jackson and Brock?


Thats in just 10 years!

The big names in boxing are all gone, or are in their 40's, Jones Jr, Hopkins etc.

It's hard to see where the next boxing superstar is coming from, I certainly see nobody on the horizon.

[luvfightgame]

To echo a few other posters.

1. Organization- MMA is more like a league with organization than boxing. The separate promoters and separate belts are ridiculous.

2. Skill set- if you have ever trained in boxing and mma you would clearly know you have a lot more to worry about learning in mma. Just try playing the video games of each. You have all the same ability to punch in mma as boxing, but then you still have to go to the ground, and kicks. No question which is more difficult.

3. Over promise under deliver- PBF is the king of shit talking without even trying to deliver what he says. He hypes by lying. ODH and PBF the whole time he was saying he was gonna ko ODH and he never took a risk or had it anywhere in his game plan. He flat out lied to get you to buy, when he clearly intended to box not brawl.

4. Advertising money- who is a regular boxing sponsor? Beer companies. The rest of the companies pretty much capatilize on a big event but nothing regular. UFC is a different story. They have lots of regulars and have even created their own industry of products related.

5. Younger generation- i'm a fan of both. When my daughters friends come around they don't even know who boxers are, but are familiar with UFC fighters.

As far as class. Are you serious? Boxing is classy? Sorry, im a fan but that's ridiculous. The promoter that made a million dollars from a hug fest is wearing a suit and that makes it classy? The announcing team for HBO wears suits so their classy? They have classy people that know nothing about their sport announcing so that rubs off on a sport where most of the high profile stars are known for being arrested?

Sorry that's a dumb argument.

[El Kabong]

As a boxing fan I will say I am very envious of the job Dana White has done marketing the UFC....granted he's scraped the bottom of the barrell with a couple of their sponsors, but he's pulled UFC out from the obscure into the mainstream and as far as "mainstream" goes it's hurting boxing just by making boxing look exclusive rather than inclusive.

Boxing left: NBC, USA, and hell these days the only place you can find it without ordering movie channels is ESPN.

Boxing is going to get humbled, but eventually someone will bring it back around for the masses, whether it's the Pac-Mayweather Mega Fight or a special exciting fighter, or what have you, the deal is boxing isn't going anywhere because of UFC/MMA it just looks bad in comparison. Right now I think boxing is just for more sophisticated fight fans (this is due partly to the UFC's broad marketing bringing in people who know fuck all about any fighting)

[luvfightgame]

As a boxing fan I will say I am very envious of the job Dana White has done marketing the UFC....granted he's scraped the bottom of the barrell with a couple of their sponsors, but he's pulled UFC out from the obscure into the mainstream and as far as "mainstream" goes it's hurting boxing just by making boxing look exclusive rather than inclusive.

Boxing left: NBC, USA, and hell these days the only place you can find it without ordering movie channels is ESPN.

Boxing is going to get humbled, but eventually someone will bring it back around for the masses, whether it's the Pac-Mayweather Mega Fight or a special exciting fighter, or what have you, the deal is boxing isn't going anywhere because of UFC/MMA it just looks bad in comparison. Right now I think boxing is just for more sophisticated fight fans (this is due partly to the UFC's broad marketing bringing in people who know fuck all about any fighting)

I agree boxing isn't going anywhere. And I mean that both ways. It's not going away and it's not getting bigger. Mega fights will come and go and boxing has a wider audience for that, but a mega fight brings casual fans that don't stick around. There are hardcore boxing fans which most of us on here are, and there's casual mega fight fans. You have to go out of your way to try to find boxing to watch, even with all the premium cable channels its on once or twice a month and the excitement level in the broadcasting for lower level fights is akin to watching golf.

It's not about whether mma is cause boxing to go extinct. Never happen. But mma is going to be more popular than boxing in the near future and just because of their organization they can keep what they develop. Boxing would have to completely be restructured to approach any sense of being mainstream. And that will not happen.

[SEB]

I was a boxer in my youth and at 34 now I must say that I stay up at nite to watch MMA shows (Strikeforce and UFC) but not boxing anymore...

I really get bored with boxing. Except for Pacquiao/Klitchko boxing becomes boring.

The number of bad decision, the world titles, the numerous weight classes...boxing is a mess. Who can follow it ? who can understand it ? who can still watch a sport with so many wrong decision ?

Have you noticed on how hard is it to have people fighting the best in their categories ?

UFC bring more clarity and better shows to the people. You can easily watch it and enjoy it even if you're not in the game period ! not in boxing anymore...

and the HBO saying : nobody knows the klitchko...yeah great, keep going on ! and in 10 years boxing will be done. continue to have 15 or 18 (I don't remember) weight classes in 4 majors leagues...it becomes ridiculous...

Besides that, boxing gyms are deserted, all the kids want BJJ practice coupled with some Thai Boxing...that's it.