End of Boxing V MMA Debates

bilbo79

End of Boxing V MMA Debates

This was took of sherdog and is a good read, also puts this debate into perspective..

How about just one more Boxing/MMA post ?

Boxing is dead…..Oh, Noooo!

The first highly critical death sentence for professional boxing as we know it today came in 1750 from the Anglican church and was supported by the Duke of Cumberland, and there have been many attempts to kill the sport and/or proclaim it’s demise since, yet it just keeps on rolling along.

Sportswriters who cannot absorb such a rough sport today carry on the sophomoric tradition of ringing the death knoll for Boxing, but the public simply isn’t buying.

Featured on the cover of ESPN magazine for the May 7 issue, it’s just like old times again.

Before last weekend, De La Hoya's 17 fights on HBO PPV had generated 10.4 million buys and $492 million in revenue.
In recent years Tyson and Holyfield did even better with 12 fights/12.4 million buys/545 million and 14 fights/12.6 million buys/534 million respectively.

This of course doesn’t even include HBO/Showtime non-PPV revenue, which is large, nor rebroadcast revenue, nor does it take into account live gate, which also adds up; 19 million for last week’s fight, for example.

This is the work of just 3 fighters.
And De La Hoya…. He’s a star, and he’s proof that Boxing can produce a star any time it wants, including now, and tomorrow.
Ali, then Leonard, Duran, Hearns, Hagler, Tyson, Holyfield, De La Hoya, and the next guy always just around the next corner.

For this fight, big sponsorship advertising money came in, and international buys outside the U.S. were staggering.

Couple that with the incredible geographical range and frequency of live fight cards on the world’s seven continents, and you’ve got a sport that dwarfs any other ‘combat sport’, by far.

I am amazed, always and forever, at the power of PR, and the gullibility of the public, an idea alive & well as you look at Sherdog and the other top MMA sites and listen to how the kids perceive the information they receive.

If you want to know what’s happening outside the PC monitor in your bedroom, think about this:

Boxing’s current pulse is measured by it’s big event of the season, and for that, Oscar and Floyd provided the attraction of this year.

MMA’s pulse, likewise is measured in it’s big event of the season, and that, as we all know, was not an event featuring 1993 stars Gracie or Shamrock, but was the addition of superstar Mirko Cro Cop to the ranks of UFC.

Comparing these events side by side is simple, and cuts through all the smokescreen, opinion and hype, and gets right down to the brass tacks of payroll.

Mirko, for his long awaited 2nd fight debut in Zuffa’s UFC, now the only promotional company putting on major shows left in MMA, received a gross payday of $350,000.00.
(Gonzaga got just 60,000.00)

There were no bonuses registered with the athletic commission for Mirko.
After federal and state taxes, training expenses, payroll deductions, transportation and lodging costs and other assorted tips, fees and gratuities, Mirko would be lucky to have actually pocketed $190,000 for his Knockout loss.

Oscar, for his part in the big fight last weekend, received a guaranteed purse of 24.4 million, plus a percentage of PPV, a piece of the promotional rights, and residuals, which will net him approximately 32.3 million dollars U.S., at a minimum.

$32,300,000.00 to be a star in Boxing.
Vs.
$190,000.00 to be a star in MMA.

Oscar gets 170 times what Mirko gets !

That’s where it stands today, and everything else is the bull**** spin.

What’s a stellar natural fighting machine to do here ? Which skills should he choose to work on ? What direction should he develop himself in ?

From a knowing Boxing fan’s perspective, the beauty of MMA’s recent emergence, and something entirely overlooked in print to date, is the fact that MMA is perceived by those who don’t understand it or want to understand it, which is most people, as "ultra violent".

I don’t think it’s ultra violent because like most sherdoggers, I love fight sports, and furthermore, I like the added facets that MMA brings to pro fight sports in the form of grappling and kick strikes, and all of the layers of strategy that go with that.

But the mainstream, they see it as evil, and what this does, is it takes the heat off of Boxing.

I’ve read Boxing lately being described as “a real sport, graceful, artistic, a sweet science….not like that other thing, that barbaric cage fighting”

Always the bad-boy of sports, to the mainstream, Boxing is now being portrayed as outright dignified in the presence of MMA and it’s growing youth appeal.

For the first time in 257 years of being vilified, the mainstream is cuddling up to Boxing now that there's an even bigger slut in town !

MMA may turn out to be the best thing to happen to Boxing since Television…….Mark my words.

Broughton, by the way, despite his loss to Jack Slack serving as the catalyst for the first big push to ban Boxing 257 years ago, lived a very long life, served as Yeomen of the Guard (head of security for the British monarch), and was interred at Westminster Abbey alongside royalty………so, let history serve here as a lesson, as it always should.

Amz

I'll be keeping a close eye on this thread. Any crap at all and I'll be banning people.

cowzerp

Actually this was used as a sticky on the sherdog boxing site to direct any mma fans to when they started to say boxing is dead!
maybe it should be a sticky here also, the whole boxing is dead argument is mma propaganda that i believe was started by dana white who was a failed boxer and failed boxing promoter turned mma promoter-his main way of getting publicity is by knocking boxing as this gaurantee's them press coverage. this argument is pathetic as proved above..

mark.leonard

I don't think any serious MMA fans think that boxing is dead or dying, indeed MMA needs boxing right where it is to continue to thrive. Peaceful co-existence is the way forward, but antagonism and hype are what sells tickets so expect to see this argument rear its head plenty of times again in the future.

For an example of Boxing doing the same back to MMA - try Flyod Mayweather before the DLH fight and his comments relating to MMA which he retracted when the fight was done and he didn't need publicity too much. Its all in the spirit of promotion and should be taken with a pinch of salt IMO

walshb

I think the bottom line is that without boxing, MMA would never exist.
Of all the styles in MMA, boxing is the most natural and possibly effective.
It can be used so deadly. I train in an MMA gym (boxing) and a lot of the lads are really doing
well in the boxing part of their training and also they are taking the boxing element quite serious as they know that if they can become good with the footwork and hands, they have a great advantage.

cowzerp

mark.leonard wrote:

I don't think any serious MMA fans think that boxing is dead or dying, indeed MMA needs boxing right where it is to continue to thrive. Peaceful co-existence is the way forward, but antagonism and hype are what sells tickets so expect to see this argument rear its head plenty of times again in the future.

For an example of Boxing doing the same back to MMA - try Flyod Mayweather before the DLH fight and his comments relating to MMA which he retracted when the fight was done and he didn't need publicity too much. Its all in the spirit of promotion and should be taken with a pinch of salt IMO

Mark this is 1 of the best replies i've heard on this subject from a person who is into mma-most people read way too much into the hype which is mostly bull**** anyway-keep it up..