Why is MMA a threat to boxing?

[El Kabong]

Boxing HAS to make it back to regular TV....some of the ESPN fights have been pretty good.

[rjj tszyu]

....you can go back in history and find great boxing cards, hell Manny Pacquiao fought on the Lewis-Tyson undercard.

MMA will have big success early and begin to fade a bit, it won't go away but it's peaked right now IMO and it's going to have to use more gimmicks, expand their stable of fighters, pay their fighters more money....eventually the economy of the sport will end up hurting the product given to the fans....more will be at stake for the fighters, they may be less likely to engage, they'll have more fights in Texas (which means shitty decisions and poorly run shows) and the product is not always going to be perfect.

Boxing can still rely on 1 big match to sell a card right now....maybe the economy of our sport gets gut checked to where we're able to put some big time cards together and maybe Don King dies or retires or something and better matches start getting made.

Boxing won't go away...it's hibernating right now in the divisions north of 168 but it'll come back with a vengence.

I totally agree with you here Lyle. If all of a sudden you Americans had a young 20 year old IN SHAPE HW who had a record of something like 15-0 (15 KO's), was exciting to watch and was well handled and promoted (something like Tyson in the early days) then boxing would fly up the popularity ladder. And then if you add an inevitable Mayweather-Pacquiao fight It would totally sky rocket again. To me these two things are only are matter of time off coming around. Boxing has had numerous quiet patches before but has always recovered. How will MMA react when they have a quiet patch??

At the end of the day if I was a young athletic kid and I had the choice of chasing either MMA and earning $250,000 a fight or Boxing and having the potential of earning $40,000,000 a fight. I know which way I would go.

[Drago]

back to what lyle was saying, i think at thie moment ufc is probably at its best, it will prob be difficult to keep paying the fighters these low pay packets (in comparison to other sports) & when that happens the fight cards will not be as stacked.

the great thing with the ufc @ the moment is that there is only 5 weight catogaries meaning all the fighters cannot just jump to another division to dodge another fighter.

this is the situation @ the moment anyway i am sure that the ufc has plenty of time to fk it all up anyway.

[Drago]

I'm more than willing to wear a tux...I wouldn't be caught dead in an Affliction t-shirt.

There's "classy" and then there's "classless" and I prefer boxing to be classy.

i would rather be caught in an affliction shirt than a liverpool shirt (i couldnt resist that lyle ha ha)

[erics44]

back to what lyle was saying, i think at thie moment ufc is probably at its best, it will prob be difficult to keep paying the fighters these low pay packets (in comparison to other sports) & when that happens the fight cards will not be as stacked.

the great thing with the ufc @ the moment is that there is only 5 weight catogaries meaning all the fighters cannot just jump to another division to dodge another fighter.

this is the situation @ the moment anyway i am sure that the ufc has plenty of time to fk it all up anyway.

boxers jump into other weight classes to avoid other boxers

funny

[killersheep]

In my estimation, MMA specifically UFC shows that a dictatorship is the most viable business model for combat sports in the modern day. The argument that MMA fighters will see a higher pay in boxing and move over to boxing promoters acts on the assumption that boxing can maintain those high of paydays, which I'm not so sure about, at least not in the US.

As to boxing making a return to network TV, I find this highly unlikely as the first step as the universal appeal of boxing is not what it once was and why would a promoter choose to go with a network when they can pocket much more money from the selected viewership of premium cable channels or better yet PPV?

I think a league type setup in boxing would be a good thing, I will probably start another thread with the particulars. It all comes down to, not only are the best fighters in a division not likely to fight each other, but the best fighters in a division are likely to fight only once a year. It's hard to really get behind a fighter you won't see for who knows how long except to talk trash on youtube.

My personal take on MMA: I am not a fan of the ground game, but I can appreciate the athleticism and skill of it, the same way as I look at the ballet, plenty of skill and athleticism just not my cup of tea. I won't go out of my way to watch MMA, but if it's on I'll watch it.

[Zelley]

people in the MMA circles tell me that theres more skill to it

i think that can be disputed but whether there is or there isnt the bottom line is, more often than not, MMA is boring

they spend most of their time lieing down

the best MMA fights i have seen are when they spend more of the time on their feet throwing punches (when it is more like boxing)

Just to be objective here
#1 There is skill to MMA but there's not more skill in it than boxing, it's just different...there are a lot more raw undisciplined fighters in MMA than in boxing and this is obvious in the fact that the fighters usually get away with flaws that if a boxer showed they would be KO'd right away. These flaws include: dropping the jab after throwing it, moving back in a straight line instead of circling out, standing in front of your opponent after you've thrown a combination, sticking your chin up high, and throwing wide looping punches. Now not every MMA fighter does those things, but I see those a lot and eventually one MMA fighter will learn to counter those things.

#2 MMA fans appreciate wrestling, ju jitsu, etc....I can understand and respect those martial arts individually but coupled with any kind of striking martial art it creates a mess

#3 You're a boxing fan, of course you like it when people fight more like that.

I'm not a huge MMA fan as it goes against my morals as a gentleman, for example I do not agree with kicking and I do not agree with hitting someone while they are down...I think especially in the hitting someone while they are down sets a bad example.

Agree with your "hitting someone while they are down" comments, the only saving grace is many of them do not hit with extreme power and appear to be arm punching. If one of the MMA fighters can get all of the elements of effective punching then hits somebody on their back on the cage flloor then somebody will be seriously hurt and one can now understand why the Canadian Medical Association wants MMA banned.

[Drago]

over the past 2 weeks i have watched 10 ufc events

the last boxing match i saw on tv was mayweather/mosley

i now see loads more ufc than boxing, & its not all thru choice

[rjj tszyu]

over the past 2 weeks i have watched 10 ufc events

the last boxing match i saw on tv was mayweather/mosley

i now see loads more ufc than boxing, & its not all thru choice

To be fair though mate, we have just come through the quietest time of year for boxing traditionally.

[Drago]

over the past 2 weeks i have watched 10 ufc events

the last boxing match i saw on tv was mayweather/mosley

i now see loads more ufc than boxing, & its not all thru choice

To be fair though mate, we have just come through the quietest time of year for boxing traditionally.

its lack of uk tv coverage as well, happy wlad peters is gonna be on tho

[jamiebhoy]

As far as a direct threat , we will always have the arguments about which sport is better but that's not the real concern for boxing. The two sports stand alone and are completely different, where we see some better things from MMA and I use the UFC as the example are the clever marketing strategies.

They have a reality show where you get to see the upcoming guys which culminates in a bout between the trainers. They do not have 100 different weight classes so as previously said they don't have people pissing about avoiding each other for years.

Here in Australia they show old bouts every week on TV and get people hooked , then they dangle the carrot of the PPV, but even then you still get to see some good stuff for free if you don't want to pay.

Walk into most DVD rental places here and you will find loads of UFC stuff, but for boxing you might get a couple of old documentaries.

Who is to say that in years to come MMA fans will be having the jitters about some other sport, the guys involved right now can't fight for relatively small purses and make a load of cash to retire on unless they stick around for a long time. There's a lot more chance of an injury to them that could end a career.

The first sign of it slipping IMO will be when the introduce more weight classes , when they rely on the James Toney's going into it to get viewing figures. Then it just becomes a bit like some wrestling where you never quite know what's real any more.

Boxing needs to be back on TV, small to middle cards to get you watching up and coming guys , then you might want to pay as you will have followed their careers. The weight divisions are so over the top now we even allow catch weights ( another subject!!) It's going to be a case of votinf with your feet, don't show up to or pay for PPV events any more where you know it's a rip off , be more selective .

Start building into contract the rights for fighter to release more to DVD, I for one would buy a heap of stuff if I could find it.

MMA is a threat to many sports not boxing alone. Let's see what we think in 5 years , when people know they heavyweight champ in UFC and can name him without being a big fan, then you have a threat. Boxing had that impact in its heyday, not now.

MMA has a long way to go, it's a long slow climb to the top but it's a quick fall down to the basement.

Rant over.
Cheers

[Drago]

ufc is giving the fans what they want

unlike boxing

[luvfightgame]

Boxing is it's own worst enemy. MMA just provides a choice for fight fans. Boxing is FUBAR.

Just follow PBF's career and you will see why. It's a classic example of what is wrong with boxing.

What other sport has their superstar constantly talking about how much money they made? How many football stars release youtube videos after the superbowl and brag they made more money than the other team?

It's really retarded. It's an embarrassment. No respectable business man, athlete, politician, or anyone else with a brain publicly discusses there paycheck.

[:::PSL:::]

Lol!

[Drago]

Boxing is it's own worst enemy. MMA just provides a choice for fight fans. Boxing is FUBAR.

Just follow PBF's career and you will see why. It's a classic example of what is wrong with boxing.

What other sport has their superstar constantly talking about how much money they made? How many football stars release youtube videos after the superbowl and brag they made more money than the other team?

It's really retarded. It's an embarrassment. No respectable business man, athlete, politician, or anyone else with a brain publicly discusses there paycheck.

never thought of that good post