No it isn't, look at their PPV #'s. Their last PPV people were walking out during the main event which was a title fight.
I am sure the liability insurance coupled with this lawsuit happy soceity and outrageous real estate rentals and zoning regulations have made opening a boxing gym very difficult. Try starting a hot dog cart and see the amount of red tape you must negotiate nevermind open a facility where people get punched.
MMA is definitely more appealing to new fans, it's more attractive with all the blood, pounding on the floor etc. Boxing isn't easy to watch if you don't understand what's happening apart from throwing punches. There are more and more young guys who go into MMA since it looks alpha and it's a great way to learn how to beat someone up in a club on saturday night. MMA in its core is still undeveloped sport, which in my oppinion can't be called a sport at all. Their "striking" and skill level generally is so bad it hurts to watch, but it's in a cage and it's bloody so it's entertaining. AND it's easier to keep up with, since there is less weight divisions, and all the best fighters are under one promoter which makes it easier to make fights which fans want to see. Countries like Mexico will hardly ever transfer to because boxing is a part of their culture, like soccer is to Brazil etc. The main reason for the decline of boxing is that a highly demanded fight hasn't happened in years, and the best doesn't fight the best anymore. Too many organisations (especially WBA with 5 different kinds of belt for one division), too much money involved, weak public exposure and promoters don't wont to work together. Hagler said it right, you have a titlefight where a champion fights fully unknown challenger. Fighters win a belt, hold on to it like a dog to a bone and pick easy paydays.
I think boxing's cancer is its overabundance of money-grubbing, selfish, bitter, hateful, jealous, petty promoters which prevents the biggest fights from happening more often than not.
Look at the last UFC PPV. People were walking out during the main event. I heard it did under 100,000 PPV buys. OTOH, HBO's boxing card on that same night drew 954,000 views overall.
Sports fans are suffering from PPV fatigue. There's just too many of them. I'd argue that MMA success is actually a positive for boxing because it exposes boxing to people and areas that otherwise may not have an interest in learning about the sport. You don't have to have anything to do with MMA to be involved in boxing, but you have to train and learn about boxing to be involved with MMA (crude as much of the boxing on display may be).
This isn't 2007. It's 2014. MMA has cooled off significantly over the past couple of years. While boxing has just been boxing. Sometimes it's the hot ticket for a week and sometimes nobody gives a **** about it for long periods of time. That's just how it is. Boxing doesn't get too high and doesn't get too low. So, no, boxing isn't declining solely because of MMA.
I'm usually one the few to defend gay people on this site, that being said I find MMA far too Gay to watch. It's popular because the best usually fight the best, they are mostly all under the same promotion, and the fights get made easier. Americans have a short attention span and the multiplicity of titles and divisions coupled with the lack of English speaking athletes turns a lot of people off. We're very nationalistic and boxing is very multicultural, same reason why most Americans dislike cycling, soccer, and the Olympics. If there is no obvious exciting charismatic American standout we don't care.
Mma fighters wish they had the money boxers have. Only thing that kills boxing is the judging and all the belts we need one tru champion in each divisions