Boxing vs. MMA: A contrast of styles

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http://sports.yahoo.com/box/news;_ylt=Ai_4.5FC2iUQdlnCulT8mmKUxLYF?slug=dm-boxmma120708&prov=yhoo&type=lgns

LAS VEGAS – Oscar De La Hoya’s one-sided loss to Manny Pacquiao on Saturday night once again raises questions about the future of the boxing business.

Was Saturday night the last night that a boxing event can capture the interest of the general public and become the center-stage event on the sports calendar?

And is the rise of mixed martial arts a threat to boxing?

De Le Hoya stopped short of announcing his retirement in the ring, but he spoke in terms of the body being unable to do what the mind is willing it to do.

“If it’s the end of Oscar De La Hoya, it’s the beginning of the superstardom of Manny Pacquiao,” said HBO Sports president Ross Greenburg, insisting boxing is alive and healthy. “In my eyes it’s just the passing of the baton, like when Marciano beat Louis and Holmes beat Ali.”

Greenburg admits there will have to be some business tweaks made due to the state of the economy, such as lowering ticket prices to major events, and he foresees more major fights on HBO next year instead of pay-per-view.

While there are plenty of big matches in 2009, it’s been years since a crossover drawing card like De La Hoya, or Mike Tyson before him, has been created.

“Someone like that may be a 16-year-old kid today hitting a speedbag in the gym,” Greenburg said.

But which fighting sport will that kid decide to pursue?

“When I got here in Las Vegas, there had to be 15 boxing gyms,” said Dana White, president of the Ultimate Fighting Championship, who attended Saturday night’s card. “Now there are two. We own one and Bob Arum owns the other.”

Attending a major boxing event and a UFC event just a few weeks apart at the same MGM Grand Garden Arena doesn’t seem to support the notion that boxing fans will abandon the sport in favor of MMA.

MMA major events, like the Brock Lesnar-Randy Couture match Nov. 15 in the same venue, draws predominately white men, with a decent smattering of women, mostly between the ages of 20-35, and very few minorities.

Saturday night’s show drew a decidedly older crowd, and for the most part, the younger fans in the crowd were nationalistic, with Latinos supporting De La Hoya and Filipinos backing Pacquiao.

Boxing’s advantages are based on its longevity as a major sport, with a media contingent that dwarfs even the biggest UFC event, and a list of celebrities that seemed to take forever to run down. UFC major events have some well-known celebrities but nothing comparable.

And interestingly, one not mentioned by Michael Buffer but shown earlier in the night on the screen making a prediction (for De La Hoya), was former UFC star Tito Ortiz. Ortiz was not only recognized instantly but booed heavily, almost like he was an intruder.

“MMA doesn’t affect the popularity of boxing,” said Greenburg. “They are two entirely different sports. It would be like saying basketball affects the popularity of baseball.”

But when it comes to the show itself, pacing and live-event production, the edge clearly goes to MMA, which even Ricky Hatton noted when he attended the Lesnar-Couture match.

“The presentation and general approach of the UFC is something that boxing can learn a great deal from,” Hatton told Sky Sports. “For instance, they have big screens around the arena with pre-fight interviews which really get the crowd involved. Why can’t we do that at boxing matches?”

This didn’t go unnoticed by White. “Did you see the production? And that was HBO. Maybe they should give us some of their Emmys. The pacing was awful. There was no energy in the crowd. They had to loop Pacquiao’s music when he came out because he had to walk so far.”

At MMA events, the crowd arrives early and they get into almost every fight on the show. There isn’t nearly the amount of dead time between matches as in boxing. There are more screens set up in the arena to give spectators a better view.

While Saturday’s main event was as exciting as the best UFC main event, most of the crowd had no interest in anyone on the undercard.

Another positive on the UFC end is that it has only have five championships, and most fans know every champion, similar to boxing in a previous generation. Boxing destroyed the value of championships with so many titles that even the most ardent fans can’t keep them all straight.

While Greenburg thinks you can only ask fans to put down $50 a few times a year for the biggest fights in 2009, White doesn’t think the economy is going to make a difference in pay-per-view numbers, citing his audience will get together in big groups and chip in to buy the show about once a month.

But he does concede they also are going to have to lower the ticket prices to the live events.

“I love boxing as a sport and I came from boxing, but this was a bad day for boxing,” White said. “[Floyd] Mayweather’s probably running out of money and will probably return to face Pacquiao, and I’d pick Mayweather in that one, but nobody is going to draw like De La Hoya does.”

This a very interesting piece with a lot of valid points which is bound to provoke discussion from fans of both sports. Even before the rise of MMA, boxing was having problems with creating a sustainable level of stars. But now it seems with cannibalising this limited talent pool it seems boxing has hard times ahead. I’m just wondering what other posters think about this article. Any of you lads boxing fans current or former? How has the rise of MMA changed your perception of boxing and paying for fights on Sky Box Office?

cowzerp

The rise of MMA has helped boxing as its considered more acceptable now, also lots of MMA fighters are training boxing aswell as the boxers now so thats more people training boxing, and i believe MMA fans will become boxing fans aswell eventually as they'll start appreciating the individual skills of the likes of boxing, BJJ etc,,and want to watch them too-i already know a number of boxing fans who became fans through MMA and the same applies both ways.

there will always be a few idiots who think its 1 against the other, as fans it should not be like that-leave that to the promoters who are only interested in dominating in the money stakes and dont care about the sports them selves.

I dont see any reason why you cant like both but realistically they are not the same so should not be compared as such, like GAA and soccer, both ball games and you dont have to follow 1 or the other..

Combat sports will have peaks and troughs, this has happened since boxing began, even kickboxing had a massive peak in the 80's, i think! kung fu too-MMA will have peaks and low points too but has become large enough in my opinion that its here for the long haul-just like boxing.

So its great to be able to say that MMA should be here to stay.

Nothingcompares

The question isn't whether MMA will swallow up Pro-boxing and make it disappear; that will never happen. The question is are the days of big boxing superfight marquee vegaz shows numbered? What do all boxing ppvs have in common?

Stadium is empty until the penultimate fight.
fans are there for the show and the pomp
fans don't know anything about boxing

I wouldn't be surprised that in 10 years instead of the ushers and the pdiddys going to the big vegaz boxing matches they'l lbe going to the ufcs.

GAA/Rugby/Soccer co-exist because people play these sports and have genuine preferences. The difference between this and pro-boxing/mma is that in 10 years time, none of the big money fans are going to be boxers and none are going to be MMartists. So the decision about which show to go to watch in vegaz is going to be based a lot more in arbitrary enjoyment.

cowzerp

Nothingcompares wrote: »

The question isn't whether MMA will swallow up Pro-boxing and make it disappear; that will never happen. The question is are the days of big boxing superfight marquee vegaz shows numbered? What do all boxing ppvs have in common? stadium is empty etc....

This is more of a reason of why the big marquee fights are far from dead, 1 fight generates massive interest and ppv and the rest are just a bonus,if there where 5 top fights on 1 bill in boxing the interest and attendance would be incredible, at the top end boxing is just massive, the same interest would not be had off a UFC show even when there are 10 genuinely good fights on the bill-that has to tell you something..

Boxing is as big as ever and there is simply another choice now too-thats all good, The marquee fights live on and always will..vegas etc is not about the whole card, its about the big fight..

MMA will probably go down this route too when the fighters are getting more money than they do now as you just could not afford to put a number of massive fights on the 1 card..Pacquaio got 11 million for the fight last night and oscar probably got way more!

Nothingcompares

boxing makes its money from suckers paying 1000s for tickets. I think these casual but wealthly fans will be tempted by the UFC in the future and boxing will lose it's super pay days. it won't happen over night.

Fozzy

I'm not a big boxing fan but up until maybe 18 months ago I wasn't a fan at all. These days I'll check out the big fights. But I'm never going to be a big fan

Boxing undercards are so boring for the most part. The people who paid tickets for it don't go to see the undercard. Compare the Calzaghe/Jones Jr undercard to the UFC 91 undercard the week later. The UFC undercard was so much more interesting and the fans were all genuinely into it. The boxing just didn't compare

I find boxing to be a lot more predictable than MMA. I really enjoyed the Calzaghe/Jones Jr fight but after the fourth or fifth round it was just the same thing over and over again. Same thing last night. It was clear long before it was stopped that De La Hoya had no way to come back. Compare that to an MMA fight where there are so many different ways to win that it's never as much a sure thing as a boxing match usually is. If you're getting beaten on the feet for two rounds you could suddenly get a takedown and a submission in the third. Whereas in boxing if you're gettin outboxed for the majority of the rounds it's very rare that you can overturn that with a KO

I find MMA so much more interesting too because there's just so much to it

The Hispanic stars in boxing are keeping the big buyrates up for their PPVs. De La Hoya/Pacquiao should do big business because they're real heroes to their countrymen. The American stars aren't as big as that anymore it seems. The Calzaghe/Jones Jr PPV did well under expectations. Same with Hopkins/Pavlik. They did around 225,000 and 195,000 respectively. The UFC only does numbers that low when they put on second-rate overseas shows on a tape delay

De La Hoya could be finished as a top draw after last night and the days of the big boxing shows may be over. The younger Americans do seem to be drawn to MMA a lot more