Stop Acting like Boxing is not a Niche Sport. UFC averages 2.43 million on a Saturday

It is a niche sport. MMA is actually superior to boxing because it involves ground game, takedowns, kicks, wrestling etc.

MMA has better characters, too.

Before you say Ronda lost to Holly Holm...that doesn't mean much because 1. Holly is an MMA FIGHTER now 2. Ronda tried to BOX the boxer - dumb strategy from an egomaniac.

 

Contrary to the popular belief over there, USA in not the world. UFC entertains the idiots who used to watch the nonsense called professional wrestling.

 

UFC is not even a "sport", it's a private company that has no legitimacy as a sport.

This. UFC has zero relevance outside of USA and maybe Brazil.

 

Cultural variety of fighters? Please, 95% of fighters are Americans and Brazilians. I guess around 70+% of them are Americans.

Those women they promote in UFC are horrible "athletes", most of them are soccer moms who took up cardio kickboxing or got a BJJ blue belt from a mcdojo.

 

Really... who cares?

 

Half of the MMA fighters don't even know how to kick properly, their boxing is horrible (beginner level), MMA wrestling is vastly inferior to real wrestling (Greco-Roman and Freestyle) and it mostly consists of only takedowns and sprawls, same goes for ground game which extremely limited because of punches being allowed and no gi.

It used to have back in the Pride days, now it's just some generic white American fighters from middle class background who started training martial arts because they were bullied. 90% of MMA fighters have the same story and the same dull personalities. There's Conor who's getting repetitive and maybe some interesting guys like Yoel Romero (who ironically isn't interesting to dumb American audience), but other than that I don't see anyone interesting or entertaining.

Boxing has Kovalev and Fury, two of the most genuine and entertaining characters in combat sports history.

That's not true. Ronda wanted to take the fight to the ground at all costs, it didn't work because her sloppy headlock takedowns don't work against someone who's actually trained all aspects of MMA. He was rushing at Holly because she wanted to get the clinch, not because she wanted to box. She needs boxing to set up her headlock takedowns because she lacks other options.

 

UFC is the biggest trash in the history of combat sports. And I'm not anti-MMA, I liked Pride and great fighters like Fedor, Cro Cop and Igor Vovchanchyn. UFC attracts the worst possible audience and I'm actually glad if they keep those fans away from boxing.

 

Very true .we used to have big daddy and giant hay stacks in the UK on the telly when I was a kid massive rattings but just like UFC was basically a load of bloke rolling round on the floor. PS I wonder if farting on your opponents when in a hold is against the rules?.

 

MMA will be in trouble once the fighters get paid like boxing PPV stars get paid. Because they are paid less, better matches are made.

I'd argue MMA has better organization and control of the fighters, boxing is the better sport.

My beef with the MMA is this. If you are allowing chokes and arm bars, the victim should be allowed to get out any way he can...but there is rules to prevent escapes. In the MMA most holds are not barred, just the options to get out of them.

 

Lately it's not been looking good for boxing, it looked like it'd pick up with PBC doing pretty well at the beginning and some good fights happening but it's slowed down after May-Pac seemingly, maybe those guys carried the sport somewhat and with them gone so is a lot of the fanbase?

 

Those aren't "better matches", people only believe that those matches are something special because UFC hypes them as such. It's a "sport" with a really small talent recruiting pool which is getting smaller and smaller with UFC having monopoly and paying less and less. "MMA" (UFC) has better promotion and hype machine in America thanks to not having to pay **** to its fighters because they have nowhere else to go. That's why UFC can invest so much into marketing.

Take a look at the fight between say Weidman and Rockhold. Those two white Americans are supposed to be the two best MMA MWs on the planet in their prime yet the fight was sloppy as hell, they both gassed immediately and look horrible. Do you seriously believe that those two are the best fighters on the planet around that weight? If there was serious money in MMA you could get some top olympic freestyle wrestlers from Eastern Europe or Iran, train them striking and submissions for a year or two and they'd run through both of these clowns. Weidman is supposed to be some "elite" wrestler yet he was never even close the olympics.

Actual Olympic wrestler Romero walked into MMA at like 38 years of age and wrecked everybody. Brock Lesnar came to MMA from pro wrestling and became the UFC champ in few years by simply using his brute strength. DC was also way past his athletic prime when he started MMA and is now champ.

Those matches are "the best" relative to the sport which has been completely ruined by UFC monopoly but they don't mean much. It's like having a single promotion in boxing where 95% of fighters would be Americans and Mexicans. UFC-style organization would never work in boxing and it would completely ruin the sport.

 

Exactly. Worldwide revenues in boxing dwarf whatever couple million $$$ it does in the US.