Could HBO learn from the UFC on how to promote boxing?

I always wondered why he'd put in such lacklustre performances when he chose this option. Oh well I guess only Anderson knows this. But Im sure Hamza will repeat **** he read on Shitdog's forums as fact

 

Well I may be wrong but I think he signed the new contract before the Griffin fight and if you consider since then he has been a much more exciting fighter than he was against Leites or Cote. I mean he ****ed up against Maia by getting tired but he was unbelievable for the first three rounds. And the Sonnen fight was his rib injury - I was rewatching that fight yesterday and its clear that he's all wrong from the off.

 

Im sure that's not a coincidence. I may go rewatch the Maia & Sonnen fights now actually

 

did you read through the whole thread or you just saw the last page and saw my comment?
cuz they where talking paychecks and that MMA fighters didnt get as much as boxers then someone said well brock lesnar got this much then he responded what about the other fighters who arent top 5 like lesnar

 

Yes, I did

 

I think you're the one who didn't read the thread

There is no virtue to the ridiculous sums of money that boxing is paying main eventers - its simply sucking money out of the sport. It limits the ability of promoters to put on decent undercards and of fighters below the main event level to earn a decent living. There are no indepth figures because no one's done the legwork but it seems pretty clear that the top boxers earn more than the top fighter but the regular boxer earns a lot less than the regular fighter.

 

I agree, boxing events should be more egalitarian and have better overall cards, especially the Klitschko's since they use guys from their own top heavy promotion company.

 

Nah man. I like amateur tourneys and such more than the pros sometimes. We have regular competitions over here that get on TV and there's always some entertaining bouts

 

Phew, I thought I was going to have to bring RJJ into this thread

 

UFC fighters don't get paid anything, really.

UFC has the perfect strategy to keep pay low.

Here's how it works.

When they sign a young prospect, they sign him to a 6 fight deal for a low sum, but they say, "Here, sign this! It's low, but when you go 6-0, and you will, because you're awesome, we'll negotiate a larger contract that will make you rich! You're going to be rich!"

But the thing is, nobody goes 6-0 in the UFC. There are so many ways to win and lose in MMA that the prospect probably goes 4-2 then the UFC says, "Well, you went 4-2, not great, but not bad. Sign this other 6 fight contract for a little higher sum than you were getting before and when you go 6-0 this time, and you will because you're so much better, you will get the big paydays! You're going to be rich!"

But then the level of competition changes and this prospect is now a contender, so they're fighting top dawgs and probably go 3-3.

So here's one of the top fighters in the UFC and he has a 7-5 record and he's making chump change. He's never going to get the big payday because he never won all of his fights. Nobody does. He made a healthy living, but the UFC made far more money off of him that he made off of them.

Now say this prospect gets upset and complains. He says he's been fighting for the UFC for years. He's signed over all his likeness rights and the UFC basically owns him. They put his name in video games, they make action figures of him, they use his name in everything, but he isn't getting a kick back from any of that. It's all going directly into Dana White's pocket. He's mad and he says something. Well, then the matchmaker will just give him a bad matchup. Say he has bad takedown defense, the matchmaker will put him up against a wrestler who will hold him down and make him lose. Then they will cut him. Now he's unemployed and the fans have turned on him because the majority of UFC fans care more about Dana White and the UFC brand than they do any of the actual competitors, so he's forgotten. He's broke, unemployed and now he has to go lay brick all because he stepped out of line.

It's pretty genius the way UFC has their pay scale set up. The UFC fighters really get screwed, but if they speak up, they get cut, or bad mouthed and then eventually are out of the UFC. And since the UFC owns everything, they are basically blackballed from the entire sport.

And the thing is, the people who should be sticking up the fighter, the fans, couldn't care less. Their allegiance doesn't lie with the fighters. It lies with the brand. Dana White has effectively made it seem like everyone is out to get the UFC and bury it that he's now basically made it seem like if you're against him or the brand, you're against the sport succeeding. And the majority of the fanbase is young, impressionable men who don't know any better.

And when that fighter leaves and gets cut, nobody cares, because it's a neverending cycle. Through the UFC hype machine, when one fighter can't make the UFC any more money, they just create a brand new one who can and repeat the cycle. They use scripted reality shows and sleek promos to make you think someone is the best even though they're really not. They use careful matchmaking to make who they want succeed, succeed.

The UFC is really a lot of smoke and mirrors, but unless you're a hardcore fan (which I once was), you really don't see it. The fights are real, but everything else about it is as fake as can be.

UFC isn't competing with boxing. They don't even share fanbases. It's competing with WWE and fake-fighting. But Dana White has made his fans hate boxing by acting like boxing is taking money from the UFC, and thus killing the sport of MMA, so the fans hate boxing, even though most boxing fans don't watch MMA and most MMA fans don't watch boxing.

 

I dont disagree with the post Montana but you could basically substitute Don King and Bob Arum for Dana White and the UFC brand for any of the alphabet straps and it would read the same about boxing

 

Yeah, probably. I'm pretty ignorant to how boxing works, but I don't notice the boxing fans taking the promoters side over the boxers side. Again, I'm ignorant so maybe they are, but I don't see it, really.

It would be like if a boxer stepped out of line and Bob Arum just buried them, then created a reality show and made himself a new boxer, then just hyped that boxer as the best even tho he was pretty much a bum, but the boxing fans didn't know the difference or care, really. As long as Arum says they're good, that's all that matters.