[daprofessor]

With UFC (MMA) now on FOX, what does that say about boxing?

absolutely nothing.

they are two different sports with totally different demographics. the only thing they have in common is that they are combat sports.

i've never really been a fan of mma/ufc. i tried to watch but i can't. it bores me. don't get me wrong...i respect the sport and it's combatants...i just can't bring myself to watch it.

with that being said....ufc is one organization....headed in one direction. to compare it to all of boxing is ridiculous. boxing is international. there are fights being televised world wide several times a week. stadiums in the uk and germany are filled when guys like the klitschkos fight. boxing is probably the biggest it's ever been in history right now. it's just not in the mainstream the way it once was i suppose. i believe we've been riding a pretty good wave the last few years as far as fights go. promoters do need to step it up....and there is plenty that needs improvement in boxing. i'll take boxing with all of its' flaws any day over ufc.

*sidenote- there seems to be this competition between ufc/mma and boxing....moreso from the ufc/mma side. i hear these guys talk smack about boxing on the regular. why give them a free ride on a boxing website? i come to boxing websites to read/discuss/debate boxing, a sport i love...not ufc/mma a sport i have absolutely no interest in.

[The Ollie Reed F...]

With UFC (MMA) now on FOX, what does that say about boxing?

absolutely nothing.

they are two different sports with totally different demographics. the only thing they have in common is that they are combat sports.

i've never really been a fan of mma/ufc. i tried to watch but i can't. it bores me. don't get me wrong...i respect the sport and it's combatants...i just can't bring myself to watch it.

with that being said....ufc is one organization....headed in one direction. to compare it to all of boxing is ridiculous. boxing is international. there are fights being televised world wide several times a week. stadiums in the uk and germany are filled when guys like the klitschkos fight. boxing is probably the biggest it's ever been in history right now. it's just not in the mainstream the way it once was i suppose. i believe we've been riding a pretty good wave the last few years as far as fights go. promoters do need to step it up....and there is plenty that needs improvement in boxing. i'll take boxing with all of its' flaws any day over ufc.

*sidenote- there seems to be this competition between ufc/mma and boxing....moreso from the ufc/mma side. i hear these guys talk smack about boxing on the regular. why give them a free ride on a boxing website? i come to boxing websites to read/discuss/debate boxing, a sport i love...not ufc/mma a sport i have absolutely no interest in.

I agree with you here. I've tried to give it a good go and like you totally respect the skills and heart needed to compete but it just does nothing for me. I'd rather watch tennis, seriously.

Dana White and everyone in the UFC has/is doing a fantastic for their sport and it would not be a new comment to say boxing promoters should take note. Just the their use of the internet alone (I"m thinking of Toney/Couture) to build buzz for a fight. So simple but boxing totally seems to miss these kind of opportunities.

However it remains to be seen how MMA will fare once another stronger organisation comes along to challenge UFC and it will happen eventually. That and the fighters themselves starting to ask for a bigger slice of the cake. The challenges that boxing has and is facing are yet to really hit MMA (as much as I can see) and it will be interesting to see how they cope.

Would I be right in thinking that UFC can get decent fights on FOX because the purses of the fighters are smaller? my assumption being that boxing now has so many PPV's so they can accomodate the purse demands of the fighters involved. If not then once again they have beaten boxing to the punch (pun intended) on the opportunity to broaden the fanbase for their sport.

[Mean Mister Must...]

I think the sport has evolved, you can no longer dominate with just one style of fighting. The new hybrid fighters(Jon Jones/Jose Aldo/St Pierre/Anderson Silva) will continue to dominate. If you haven't seen Jose Aldo I suggest you invest 5mins in youtube. He is a true beast

The MMA fighters of today are definitely better, but that's not my point. The point is that as it stands right now, none of the champions in the UFC are as famous as Lidell, Ortiz or Couture were back in 05. Maybe that will change in the coming months though.

[gravytrain]

I agree with you here. I've tried to give it a good go and like you totally respect the skills and heart needed to compete but it just does nothing for me. I'd rather watch tennis, seriously.

Dana White and everyone in the UFC has/is doing a fantastic for their sport and it would not be a new comment to say boxing promoters should take note. Just the their use of the internet alone (I"m thinking of Toney/Couture) to build buzz for a fight. So simple but boxing totally seems to miss these kind of opportunities.

However it remains to be seen how MMA will fare once another stronger organisation comes along to challenge UFC and it will happen eventually. That and the fighters themselves starting to ask for a bigger slice of the cake. The challenges that boxing has and is facing are yet to really hit MMA (as much as I can see) and it will be interesting to see how they cope.

Would I be right in thinking that UFC can get decent fights on FOX because the purses of the fighters are smaller? my assumption being that boxing now has so many PPV's so they can accomodate the purse demands of the fighters involved. If not then once again they have beaten boxing to the punch (pun intended) on the opportunity to broaden the fanbase for their sport.

i don't think the UFC is the only thing where time will tell the future of it. boxing wont be irrelevant in November or even a decade from now but if the UFC continues to grow and boxing sits around doing nothing it's hard to expect boxing not to take a backseat to the UFC. that and Fox signed them to a multi-year deal so they've to have some plans for it, Fox isn't going to give them 100 million a year for nothing.

[Jack 1000]

Boxing has too many problems to solve and there is no quick-fix solution. You could put professional boxing on prime time tomorrow and it would still bomb, because there are too many divergent interests going on for it to work. You'd rarely, if ever, get any big name fighters to actually fight each other because they're too busy being infantile little pricks (Gayweather and Pacroid).

I mean, seriously, do you want to have Mayweather beating up another past-it bum, only to shit out the following lines:

Generic mic holder: "Great job tonight, champ. It looked like you were in complete control tonight. Can you give us your thoughts?"

Generic Gayweather: "I just want to give a shout out to my kids, Chenanay and Boo Boo, daddy loves you. And of course a shout out to my wife, the lovely Ms. Jackson. Daddy's coming home."

Generic mic holder: "Floyd, whose next?"

Generic Gayweather: "I don't know. I'ma hafta sit down with my team, you know what I'm sayin? Talk with my team, and see what's up. If it makes dollars it makes sense, know what I'm sayin?"

Generic mic holder: "Do you want Pacquiao, Floyd?"

Generic Gayweather: "It don't even matter. If he wanna take da tests... take tha damn tests! 41 have tried, 41 have failed!"

Generic mic holder: "Floyd... what are you feeling right now?"

Generic Gayweather: "Boxing needs Money May, Money May don't need boxing. Mayweather may fight again, he may not. You know, Money May gonna sit down with his family and see what's next. But I'm definitely taking the next year off."



And you get the rest. Seriously, do you think that shit will really fly on prime time? Boxing has a TON of shit it needs to get right before we can even begin to fathom taking it to prime time. Namely, a legitimate fighter's union, and a legitimate commission that can oversee the sport, instead of a mish-mash of ignorant, selfish promoters, cable networks, and ABC belt orgs.

Agree with Warlord,

The only thing left are the Mayweather-Pacquiao tidbits, and neither of these boxers, regardless of whether they fight or not are going to be around much longer. I touched on some of boxing's problems in a post in the "Old Guard Thread." The problem is also that the promoter wants to keep all his fighters in house and often refuses to work with other promoters. This is why the big fights a lot of times don't happen.

And worse, the promoters for boxing, boxers, alphabet federation organizations, and over-priced, undeserving PPV's make so much mllions of dollars. that there is no incentive for the powers that be who run boxing to change anything. And if they don't want to change anything, you will never convice these young, largely uneducated kids about boxing, that it used to be a great sport. Boxing PPV's for example are going to have to start BOMBING consistently, for any promoter to even begin to THINK about bringing boxing back to commercial TV. People keep buying mediocre PPV's, everyone makes tons of money, so the promoter thinks, "Why Change?"

Jack

[AussieLad]

You gotta remember, ortiz, couture and lidell have been around in the UFC since very early on. It takes time and a fair bit of chance (right personality, fighting style, match ups) to develop stars. I am glad that the UFC can get around the old stars moving on simply by continuing to put on the best available fights with quality match making. Eventually someone will emerge from the mix as a star to fill the void, its just a matter of time.

[PColeman28]

the way i look at is this fox deal is just like a counter to ESPN friday night fights...i get to watch boxing for free for X amount of weeks every friday it's the same for this ufc fox deal to me....unless i see the big stars fighting on this network like ortiz, evens, silva...then to me it won't be much of a difference than espn's friday night fights....rising stars will be put on the network i'm sure we'll get entertaining fights out of it, but it's just a way to promote the sport more...I love fighting so i'll watch both sports anyways...

[Eighty88Eight]

UFC is on the ascendency if it turns out great ratings on FOX. Boxing is on the slippery slope towards irrelevancy if some young guys don't come up and kick ass soon. There should be two good sizable match ups a month in the sport + a number of quality match ups between lesser fighters and prospects. Simply not enough exciting talent in boxing to sustain itself.

[Mean Mister Must...]

UFC is on the ascendency if it turns out great ratings on FOX. Boxing is on the slippery slope towards irrelevancy if some young guys don't come up and kick ass soon. There should be two good sizable match ups a month in the sport + a number of quality match ups between lesser fighters and prospects. Simply not enough exciting talent in boxing to sustain itself.

People always say the same thing, but there is always a stream of new fighters coming in and taking over the reins. When PBF and Pacquiao retire, it's not going to end boxing. Fans aren't going to walk away.

[wolterb]

But the biggest difference that I see between the two sports is that the ufc has incredible respect for its athletes while boxing analysts announcers promoters shit on boxings athletes and this continues through the fans. I think that's what truly is hurting boxing.

if it does not hurt boxing it is retarded. on this message board there are always posts filled with hyperbole that, more than critique, belittle fighters. everyone has standards, but goddamn...some people on here act like if the fight does not end with a beheading of one of the fighters than the match is a total sign of the times. hindsight is always 2020 and who knows how this era of boxing will be remembered...i do know that none of the rhetoric contemporary fans use in describing its fighters will be used, though. i don't know any other sport where the fans demand more from the participants than boxing.

"vlad won again" "yeah but it was boring!"
well go fuck yourself.