Boxing is on the rise again, MMA is declining

Packed arenas mean very little, especially in a tourist mecca like Vegas where unsold empty seats can be papered over with free giveaways. Even if the person sitting in the seat was given his ticket for free, he'll still buy concessions or maybe some on-site merchandise, and he'll make the TV telecast look a whole lot less disastrous. :good

:hat

 

It's not even a debate.

Anyone in the game for any period of time knows there is far more TV coverage than ten years ago.

Far more important is the fact that there is a huge number of full time MMA gyms and local scenes that never existed twenty years ago.

In Melbourne there are now four full time MMA gyms just in the CBD. Ten years ago there was one. This same formula has ocurred in almost every state in Australia.

Mixed fight shows now outnumber boxing three to one when I look at my state show roster.

 

MMA is the fastest growing sport on the planet.

 

Yep it is absolutely ludicrous to say anything other than MMA is steadily gaining in acceptance and popularity. It has passed the "fad" stage and is now settling in to become a mainstream, permanent international sport. By any metric, the sport is bigger now than ever, with more fans both hardcore and casual, more legitimacy as a sport, more media coverage and shitloads more people training, both serious professional fighters and amateur hobbyists.

But if you listen to the self-proclaimed "real fans", the Chicken Little mother****ers, it's like they are living in a dream world. Somehow they live in an alternate reality where title fights being shown free to air primetime on Fox Sports 1 and advertised during NFL games mean the sport is struggling, about to collapse and somehow worse off than it was 10 years ago. atsch

:hat

 

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These days with the gym and fight schedule I barely get the time to see UFC. I am too busy with the local and national scene and its coverage.

In the last two years we have had more UFC stars come to Australia, not only to compete but also to hold training seminars, then ever before. All these seminars sell out. If more people are making more money from a sport then the sport is growing - any of the big markets Muay Thai and MMA has brought a tidal wave of change not just in who is particapating but also in how it is done.

 

And boxing appears pretty much done. How can it possibly recover? :conf

:hat

 

i won't agree it is done. It has benefited and is evolving.

Thirty five years ago when I started boxing was in **** converted warehouses looking like something out of Rocky. Now a lot of boxing is either in modern facilities on their own and they interact with MMA gyms via boxing sparring or joined with a MMA program and have ongoing cooperation. Cooperation being the key word - there are some holdovers but all the boxing trainers I know have nothing but praise for MMA.

 

Boxing was my first love. I was married to boxing. But boxing stopped putting out so I got a mistress called MMA. MMA isn't quite as good at ****ing as boxing yet but she's getting better and she puts out all the time. Boxing and I are now divorced and I don't miss her one bit.

Basically, too many belts, too many promoters protecting their fighters, too much emphasis on having an '0', too many absolute waste of time joke fights on undercards and too many different outlets on TV, I never seemed to have the channel the particular fight I wanted to watch was on. I used to love boxing but just got sick of the politics/business/bull****.

MMA fighters tend to want to test themselves against the best whereas boxing developed a culture of negotiating easy fights to pad records and fill bank accounts. The whole Mayweather Pac non fight was the straw that broke the camels back. If you have the two best fighters for the past couple of decades in their prime and that close in weight yet can't make the fight I'm not interested in that sport. That was the fight that would have defined an era but it never happened for no good reason.

 

How many super fights has uncle Dana put on for you? Fedor vs Brock? Jones vs Silva? Silva vs GSP?

 

Jones V Silva and Jones V GSP may well happen. The fact they are talking about moving up/down weight shows at least an attempt to make them happen. Fedor wouldn't fight in the UFC for whatever reason and is really the only time they couldn't sign someone they really wanted., But at least they tried. Also no fight involving Brock would be a super fight as he is/was/will always be total dog****. Nice try though.

 

:good

 

boxers careers are always built up.
Boxer can not be too many times in hard fight, before the downhill starts.
it's not problem in MMA, losing doesn't really mean that much physically.
and even losing fights, people still think you top fighter, and you still get you chance to the belt, like we have seen.

 

<<-- like that guy.

 

The ufc has never delivered on a fan friendly super fight. So for someone to quit boxing because of mayweather vs pac not happening seems so strange.