UFC and MMA Still Have Miles To Go in Catching Up with Boxing
by Anthony Pace on Nov 14, 2010 1:19 PM EST
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Yesterday saw Cameron Newton, quarterback of the undefeated Auburn Tigers and favorite to win the Heisman Trophy, lead his team to a come-from-behind win against a feisty rival in the Georgia Bulldogs, clinching a birth in the SEC title game and inching the Tigers closer to the BCS Championship. He did this following a week in which questions regarding the legality of his recruitment process held the spotlight of every mainstream media sports outlet.
And so, SportsCenter - ESPN's flagship program - opened up its nighttime program with... fifteen uninterrupted minutes of coverage of Antonio Margarito's drubbing at the hands of Manny Pacquiao. Say what?
Isn't boxing dead?
A fair amount of criticism can be directed toward ESPN (I offer plenty myself), but it's undeniable that "The Worldwide Leader in Sports" is the barometer of the average sports fan's consciousness. For a relatively predictable boxing match to be the clear-cut top story, on a day when the top 3 teams in college football all face stern tests, speaks volumes as to how far behind boxing MMA is in building cache with the mainstream sports fan, the mainstream media, and general public acceptance.
At UFC 121, MMA's most recognizable athlete fell in a crushing defeat. Keeping with my SportsCenter measuring stick, it wasn't even mentioned in the first half of the program. The biggest story of the year in MMA was put on par with results in the NASCAR Nationwide Series.
That should tell you everything you need to know about Dana White's ridiculous proclamation from three years ago that "In ten years, MMA will be the biggest sport in the world."
Of course, Pacquiao is one of his sport's two biggest stars at the moment. And, his sport has a deep historical cache of which only baseball isn't envious in America. But to hear MMA fans tell it, boxing hasn't been relevant since Mike Tyson nibbled on Evander Holyfield's ear.
My point here is that us ardent MMA fans often overestimate our sphere of influence because we are so immersed in it. The UFC may have surpassed boxing in terms of pay-per-view sales, but I think that speaks more to the power of branding rather than overall popularity. For MMA to make serious gains in the latter regard, there will have to be more bouts like Silva/Sonnen, more promotion of guys like GSP and Shogun instead of Dana White, and fewer iterations of UFC 122. Seriously, pass that junk off as UFC-lite instead of your prime product.
Boxing might indeed be slipping in relevance to casual sports fans, but as long as the heavyweight champion of MMA captures less of the public consciousness than Hannah Storm's wardrobe, fans like myself should refrain from declaring boxing dead and gone.
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how many great boxing ppv’s have been on this year?
how many great match-ups between the top tier guys?
outside of katsidis, marquez, cotto, and pacman, it’s not like i’ve been tuning into any ppv’s for boxing, and i’ve been a fan for as long as i can remember.
this is only due to a lackluster free ufc card on the same night as the one megafight boxing put together this year. mayweather will never fight pacman after how great he looked last night, and thus, the two two guys in boxing will not face one another. sour, sour, sour.
as for the card, i dunno why everyone is all bent out of shape. the main event was technical and a bit slow, as were some of the other fights. from a technical standpoint, i got what i wanted from a free mma card on cable tv. beats paying $55 to see literally one fight on a boxing ppv that’s of any interest to all but most hardcore fans.
Gatti. Dekkers. Pele. Aoki. Kang. Vanderlei. Basillio. Harry Greb.
by theworldsoldestsport on Nov 14, 2010 2:29 PM EST reply actions
The only reason
Boxing was the lead on SC is because of Pacman. He transcends the sport much like Tiger did in golf. You rarely see golf leading off SC now. Why? Because Tiger isn’t dominating. That’s the bad thing about Lesnar not living up to the hype. He could have transcended the sport but we will have that type of athlete coming soon. A big, mean, fast, technical heavyweight with loads of charisma that will take this sport to the next level.
"I will do nothing lightly. When I walk, I will walk heavily. When I fight, I will fight with conviction. When I speak, I will speak strongly. When I love, I will love with everything"
For a few, there’s still some money to be made. But as a sport, boxing is dead. I can’t remember the last boxing fight I didn’t have to trick myself into caring about.
Wtf is Manny fighting Margarito? Not to mention it’s a title fight fought at a catch-weight. How is Manny the champ at 154 Ibs, when he’s never even fought at that weight? It’s a joke.
Of course this makes no difference to the casual fans who enjoy a spectacle now & then. But they won’t sustain it.
In 2010, Marquez/Katsidis is worth watching & to a lesser extent Khan/Maidana. Outside of that; nothing. The few boxing fans left are bitter as f&ck & For a few, there’s still some money to be made. But as a sport, boxing is dead. I can’t remember the last boxing fight I didn’t have to trick myself into caring about.
Wtf is Manny fighting Margarito? Not to mention it’s a title fight fought at a catch-weight. How is Manny the champ at 154 Ibs, when he’s never even fought at that weight?
Of course this makes no difference to the casual fans who enjoy a spectacle now & then. But they won’t sustain it.
In 2010, Marquez/Katsidis is worth watching & to a lesser extent Khan/Maidana. Outside of that; nothing. The few boxing fans left are bitter as fuck & leaving the sport en-masse.For a few, there’s still some money to be made. But as a sport, boxing is dead. I can’t remember the last boxing fight I didn’t have to trick myself into caring about.
Wtf is Manny fighting Margarito? Not to mention it’s a title fight fought at a catch-weight. How is Manny the champ at 154 Ibs, when he’s never even fought at that weight?
Of course this makes no difference to the casual fans who enjoy a spectacle now & then. But they won’t sustain it.
In 2010, Marquez/Katsidis is worth watching & to a lesser extent Khan/Maidana. Outside of that; nothing.
The few fans left are bitter as f**k & abandoning boxing en-masse. MMA has a future, boxing does not.
Wrong
We all know that the only reason that fight was ESPN was Pacquiao, end of story. Last weekend I attended Juan Manuel Lopez vs Rafael Marquez at the MGM Grand. It registered itself as a candidate for FOTY. Add to that, Glen “Coffee” Johnson again Allen Green in a SuperSix bout, not only were the results nowhere ESPN but our seats were upgraded because the even didn’t sell out. In fact there sections of the arena that were curtained off because the tickets sold so poorly. So let’s rethink this article before we seriously believe this.
by Cestus84 on Nov 14, 2010 5:51 PM EST via mobile reply actions
Yeah?
Because JuanMa’s fight with Marquez meant a whole hell of a lot to a whole hell of a lot more people than, say, Urijah Faber beating Mizugaki.
"Tim Sylvia’s sphincter is demonstrably weaker than Andrei Arlovski’s chin." – hlebtasic
by Anthony Pace on Nov 14, 2010 7:23 PM EST up reply actions
Cachet.
Bolts from the Blue // "It is what it is." - A.J. Smith
Bloody Elbow // "Richard is a jewel." - Kid Nate
Stamp of approval from Richard Wade? My work here is done.
"Tim Sylvia’s sphincter is demonstrably weaker than Andrei Arlovski’s chin." – hlebtasic
by Anthony Pace on Nov 14, 2010 7:24 PM EST up reply actions
You are correct though
Mma does have miles to go to catch up with boxing. It takes time though. The sport is in it’s infancy really. We need a dominant fighter, with an aura, a stone cold killer. Jordan, bird, Johnson, tiger, Earnhardt, Tyson, Ali, etc. That’s what they had. Part of the problem is that it’s hard to have that in mma because, as we’ve seen, anybody can be best at anytime. But they need to have that personality too. Gsp is to robotic and pc to be that guy. Anderson doesn’t speak enough english and flakes on and off. Fedor could have been the guy if he’d done what he did in pride in the ufc. Jon Jones is the next step in the evolution of these superstars. He has it all. I believe he’s the guy to take it to the next level.
"I will do nothing lightly. When I walk, I will walk heavily. When I fight, I will fight with conviction. When I speak, I will speak strongly. When I love, I will love with everything"
the 2nd raters being brought into the super six is hardly a way to support the notion that boxing is off the tilt awesome this year. It is NOVEMBER. more accurately halfway through November and how many fights on one hand were super anticipated?
pacman vs clottey? PBF versus Shane 3 years too late? PBF ducking Pacman? Pacman beating a guy caught red-handed trying to cheat in his last bout nearly 2 years ago?
wooooo, awesome year for boxing all right. be serious. Malignaggi versus Khan? Kiltschko beating can after can in one sided beatdowns?
i’ll give you the super six as a great part of boxing this year and something that really topped the ufc’s TUF alumni undercards, and i follow guys in boxing like malignaggi, download all the 24/7, the super six 360 shows, been following the newly turned pro cuban group of rigondeaux, lara, and gamboa…..but the current model is a joke when compared to the strength of UFC/mma cards for entertainment value.
Gatti. Dekkers. Pele. Aoki. Kang. Vanderlei. Basillio. Harry Greb.
by theworldsoldestsport on Nov 14, 2010 9:26 PM EST reply actions
That quite a reach there, the fact is regardless how long it took for UFC 121 to be mentioned on SC as opposed to the latest Pacman fight. There was hardly a lack of hype and backing by the ESPN chanels remember they had a 1 hour postfight show on ESPN2. Boxing might be able to match and maybe even edge out the biggest MMA shows but overall the numbers don’t lie and the strenght of the UFC as a whole is head and sholders above boxing and has been for a couple of years now.
"they mad at me, I keep going hard reppin/
cause what's your Rampage to Rashad Evans/"
-Joe Budden (Something To Ride To)
http://www.zshare.net/audio/76866807deabe3c1/
You and I have our differences, Nightwhistler
But at least you’re not like the guy who is trolling below
"Tim Sylvia’s sphincter is demonstrably weaker than Andrei Arlovski’s chin." – hlebtasic
by Anthony Pace on Nov 15, 2010 10:55 AM EST up reply actions
And his comment was removed...
I’m not talking about nottheface…
"Tim Sylvia’s sphincter is demonstrably weaker than Andrei Arlovski’s chin." – hlebtasic
by Anthony Pace on Nov 15, 2010 2:18 PM EST up reply actions
Haha
no problem. These things happen in MMA
"Tim Sylvia’s sphincter is demonstrably weaker than Andrei Arlovski’s chin." – hlebtasic
by Anthony Pace on Nov 15, 2010 3:09 PM EST up reply actions
That would be me. You make a great observation that us low self-esteem mma fans always miss: the sport does not have widespread appeal. We lie to ourselves because, as you noted, we live in a bubble and we inflate the influence of the UFC because their ppv revenues are so massive. Sure the $$$ are impressive, but the truth is that only a very small percentage of the country has any interest. It just so happens that small percentage is willing to pay out more money than anyone would have ever guessed to watch it. We can always fall back on the ppv sales as proof that mma is the future, but the attention Manny is able to generate amongst the masses proves that MMA still has some distance to go before it’s truly accepted.
boxing has a number of budding stars at its disposal
Your JuanMa, Gamboa, Ward, Paul Williams types, but it lacks two things: branding and a concetrated advertising push. Pacquiao and Mayweather are brands unto themselves. But fights like Martinez/Williams II could do very well at the box office if awareness was raised.
"Tim Sylvia’s sphincter is demonstrably weaker than Andrei Arlovski’s chin." – hlebtasic
by Anthony Pace on Nov 15, 2010 2:23 PM EST up reply actions
Go ahead boxing
Keep clinging to pacman with all you can…
Boxing is dead. HBO already abandoned the HWs, Money is going to prison and Pac is retiring.
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