If you think about US as whole world, maybe. In Netherlands KB is more popular than pro boxing. Nope. While MT really is more in Thailand as base or one from base styles for a lot of KBers and MMA lads was/ is MT and even yeah, also for some pro boxers first striking art they had learned was MT. While you really disrespect MT as art for fighting, this had been first base or one from first base arts for a lot of lads in europe too and not all of them are small, poor and otherwise like you maybe like to think. Okey, I think most likely there is not that worth to discuss with you in depth, otherwise I had showed you some european lads with first base for striking from MT. Yeah, if you had been interested, you already had knew this.
This is pretty much true, but... Makes no sense considering KB/MT guys would beat boxers in pretty one sided fashion more often than not as long as the rules allowed for them to use their skillset. It already happened a few times in K-1.
Under K-1 rules if you have only boxing training you do not have any business there. They will kick there. A lot. Especially when they will see that you do not have experience there. It is damn easy to talk, even about boxing. How long someone had learned until he get basics in boxing, I mean good basics? I think enough long until this had been automated in depth. The same is about kicks and defense for them. You will learn more than month in row to watch for possible kick/ punches combo alone, not to talk about defense from them. Until this will be automated enough, this will take more than half year.
MMA as a sport is niche and i think a lot of the popularity has been overblown by Dana White and i think he puts a spin on UFC PPV numbers. The majority of UFC PPV's are not worth 70 dollars unless you're on hard drugs. That's the only conclusion i can get when i look at some of the PPV's they make.
MMA outside of the UFC is, but the UFC itself is a behemoth. Boxing as an overall sport is still more popular than MMA as an overall sport but nothing individually is as big as the UFC is. I dont think any PPVs are worth 70 dollars, but I mean...Arreola/Ruiz was on PPV recently.
No one cares about UFC that much outside of the USA. I'm not denying boxing PPV's aren't worth the money. I just think there's a false narrative at play in that UFC's cards are stacked all the time. If you actually look closely at the cards they make they're really not that great. I can go through numerous examples of how weak their cards are. Like in boxing they may have two fights on the card maybe three tops worth watching. The rest are filler.
If it was normal to pay top fighters peanuts and have limited negotiation ability in the contracts then you'd see the top guys fighting each other more in boxing.
No one cares about boxing that much in most places either though tbh, they're both fairly niche with the exception of a few countries. The UFC is kind of like the WWE in that it has a cult following all over the place, thats because like the WWE the name itself has brand value, it has a video game and it tours the world extensively. I would expect that UFC cards are doing better global viewing figures than any particular boxing card most weekends. I just cant see more people globally tuning in to an average Top Rank, PBC or Matchroom etc card than an average UFC card. Well yeah this is true. In the 00s most of their cards were stacked, but they were putting out less than half the cards per year that they do today. Most of their events back then were PPV, whereas since they got on Fox (and now ESPN) they're paid a flat fee to produce X amount of content per year, most of it free tv cards. Its had a pretty big effect on quality for sure, the non-PPV cards are mostly quite throwaway and the roster is very bloated with fighters that arent that great because they need filler material. Their PPV cards are still fairly good for the most part. 259 and 261 were big cards, 263 next month is too.
The 4+ million PPV buys argument is really lame. Boxing has been inactive. None of the biggest names in the sport have been fighting. Fury not fighting, Anthony Joshua not fighting, Wilder not fighting, GGG not fighting, Charlo brothers not fighting, Errol Spence not fighting, Danny Garcia/Keith Thurman/Shawn Porter not fighting, Pacquiao not fighting, Crawford not fighting, Teofimo Lopez/Gervonta Davis/Devin Haney/Ryan Garcia not fighting, Lomachenko not fighting, none of the british stars fighting... In comparison, McGregor fought once, Ngannou and Miocic fought once, Adesanya fought once and will fight again next month, Usman fought twice and we just had Chandler (Former Bellator champion) x Oliveira (Big name in Brazil/BJJ). It's easy to sell more if you're the only one selling in the first place. Not just that, but many of the boxing biggest stars are not even in the ppv model anymore, but earning from streaming services, like Canelo and GGG.
I wasnt even comparing it to boxing, but since you brought it up, it isnt just this year and it isnt just boxing being inactive. The UFC has been a more consistent draw than boxing for like 15 years now, and its gotten more lopsided post Floyd/Pac because those two pretty much carried boxing on PPV for years. Crawfords two PPVs did 150k and 55k buys respectively, the PPV with both Charlos on it did 120k, Tank/LSC did 225k, Spence/Danny Garcia did 250k, Spence/Porter 350k, Wilder/Ortiz 275k, Pac/Thurman 500k, GGG without Canelo did 170k vs Jacobs and 150k vs Lemeiux. Joshua does good numbers but its on UK PPV at less than half the price of UFC PPVs in the US so its not an equal comparison. Usman/Masvidal did 1.3m and the rematch 700k, Adesanya/Jan did 800k, Adesanya/Costa 700k, Ferg/Gaethje 700k, Khabib/Gaethje 650k, Stipe/DC 500k, Stipe/Ngannou 3 500k etc etc. Thats 8 PPVs (out of 17) that they've done from 2020 to now, not even including Conors fights.
That's probably true but not by much. I'd still rather watch actual world class boxers than journeymen masquerading as world class fighters in UFC. If i had to watch Danny Garcia vs Terence Crawford or McGregor vs Cerrone i'd pick the Crawford fight because it's two actual world class boxers. Cerrone is a journeyman who was picked for McGregors comeback to look good against.
With boxing theres so many belts, so many divisions, everyone has a huge undefeated record and theres not a clear sense of upwards progression where every win feels like its bringing someone closer to challenging the top guy in the division. It just makes individual fights feel less consequential than in the UFC. The other thing is...the UFC just has more stars that people are invested in than boxing does. Enough that they can put multiple on one card.
I mean you will need more belts and more divisions when there's way more boxers active than mma fighters. I think that's a normal progression but eventually the best will have to unify for all the belts. It's actually a longer process for a boxer to fight for a world title than it is for a UFC fighter to get one. Favouritism has happened a lot of times in UFC where a fighter got an undeserved shot at the belt. Boxing has a proper amateur system where in MMA it's obviously mixed as guys can cross train and come over from other sports. I just think the level of competition is higher in the sport of boxing. You have journeymen level guys who are high up in the rankings in MMA because there's no real true barometer on what a world class mma fighter is. It's artificially created a lot of the time unless you have obvious talents like Khabib, Usman, Jones, Adesanya and many others. Masvidal is considered world class but he leans closer to gatekeeper and journeyman realistically. He's a good talker and can sell himself well which can make him popular with the fans. You can have an elite level wrestler get wiped out with one punch and it sort of negates the quality of the fighter. Mike Perry isn't a good fighter but he's in the mix and considered world class in mma. Nate Diaz is considered world class by some but he's not that great of a fighter. I think the newer stars in UFC aren't what i consider big stars to the point they're much bigger names than boxing's stars. Adesanya is one of the newer stars but i wouldn't consider him a much bigger star than say Golovkin. You often hear MMA guys talk more about boxers than the fighters in their own sport. Canelo is a massive star but i don't think his name is bigger than McGregor. He might be a shade lower on the star level. The Paul brothers are more well known than nearly every boxer and every mma guy outside of Mayweather and McGregor. That's the reality of boxing and mma both being niche sports. I used to never miss a UFC event and lately it's just a chore to even tune in to the majority of the cards. I think Ferguson vs Gaethje and Ngannou vs Miocic 2 were the last two fights i really enjoyed. There's just too many fight nights when they could stack the main UFC cards better if they stopped pushing them out so easily. The reason why UFC can put more stars on one card is simply down to the percentages of what the fighters will make.
Okey, watch, pro boxing is business to serve casual ppl like you who are thinking that they does know boxing. For ppl like you as champs might be sold mediocre boxers too old even for ammy ranks and boring **** pro boxing with all his **** game.
