Comparing boxing and striking is like comparing throwing a football and throwing a baseball. Same basic concept but totally different. Why is this such a hard concept to grasp. To answer Lyle's topic question here is why I enjoy watching MMA events.
1. I like the variety of skill sets involved. I will agree that it is more difficult to become a great boxer than mma fighter, but I like how the fighters must train in a variety of disciplines and then see how it plays out in the ring. Most of these guys were world class competitors in one thing or another (kickboxing, muaythai, wrestling, judo, BJJ) before they came to MMA
2. I train in submission grappling, so where lyle sees two men grunting and rolling I see a sweet science and appreciate the difficulty in it.
3. I think that MMA org put on better cards. A mma ppv is cheaper and you see more fights, and better fights. Obviously Pride and UFC don't pit their fighters against one another but if there is a big fight to be made in one company or the other it happens. No haggling over paychecks or alphabets. I remeber when an HBO ppv would have 3-5 fights and you were interested in at least 2-3. That never happens anymore. Rarely do you even get to see more than one fight.
4. Lastly where wacko and lyle see sloppy amaturism, I see some of the top athletes in the world using technical skills to savagely beat the crap out each other. You rarely see an out of shape or lackluster perfromance from MMA fighters. It doesn't matter if it is a championship fight or some no body these guys usually fight like their lives depend on it.