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

Boxing did a similar thing with The Contender series. I mean Peter Manfredo got a shot at Calzaghe ffs. But yeah,the UFC is more effective in it's hype and it's a well oiled machine. Due to the centralised structure and modern media savvy mainly. But most of they guys in this forum know a good fighter from bad, and there's almost as much backlash/hate for UFC fighters due to the hype which I dont buy into either. I dont think the Zuffa monopoly will help the fighters get a bigger slice of the revenue. But the best of the best do seem to be payed well

It's a bit naieve to think Arum hasnt done the same though. Promoters screw over athletes. I guess it's just a fact of life

 

Two words that disprove you're argument - Jon Fitch. If Dana White was the evil promoter that was picking random fighters to push and only focusing on hyping popular fighters he would not have job in the UFC let alone have recieved a world title shot, featured on UFC 100 and the recent main event of UFC 127 against a living legend.

And Fitch disproves this idea that fighters don't go on long winning streaks in the UFC. Sure its not as frequent as in boxing, but the reality is once you strip away all the bull**** fights from their records very few boxers put together long winning streaks. And while there are examples of the UFC's matchmakers of punishing fighters with bad matchups, I generally think the UFC's matchmaking is incredibley fair and shows tremendous integrity. I've said it before but to me I continue to be astonish that made Velasquez vs. Lesnar so quickly - a match they could easily have postpone for another to get more juice from Lesnar.

As for some of your other points. Its true that fighters lower down the scale have no leverage - but that's the true across all combat sports. If you're not a star then you have to accept a worse deal. But you don't get things like a champion demanding that he gets a rematch should the challenger manage to beat him or the former champion's management getting a cut of the new champion's subsquent title defenses. But fighters at the top of the scale can and do reject matches - they're just more cicumspect than boxing. For example Anderson Silva had surgery on a nagging elbow injury to force White to drop plans to match him up against Dan Henderson and Nick Diaz is currently talking about going into boxing because he doesn't like the matchup offered to him.

And no the Zuffa monoply won't help fighters get a bigger slice of the pie, but it will help ensure the pie keeps getting bigger.

 

I always start my reply to these kind of threads with "I hate replying to these kind of threads, but....", but I feel like I do it so often that I must kinda secretly like it. Anyway....

I hate replying to these kind of threads, but this post, and in particular that picture is an excellent example of the strength of one promotional body controlling a sport like MMA. That image really is a remarkable "show of strength", nothing like that could ever happen in boxing (could all the champions even fit on that stage?)

I love boxing and I have done for years, but there is something fundamentally missing from it, and it's getting progressively worse. It's a hollow pyramid, built from the top down, with guys at the top refusing to fight one another in fear of tarnishing their own legacy. The guys in the middle and below have nothing to support them, there's no foundation. It has a rich and amazing history, but as of right now, that's all it's got going for it.

One of the biggest problems I believe boxing has is the alphabet soup. Exactly how many sanctioning bodies are there? With how many weight classes? How many world champions does that make? I can think of 4 or 5 major sanctions with something like 17 or 18 weight classes, often with only a few pounds of difference. It's ridiculous.

In short, the world of boxing could absolutely learn a few things from the way the UFC markets itself. I'd love to see some fresh guys come in with a shitload of money to back them up and really promote their brand as the new face of boxing.

 

Quite. I was thinking yesterday who boxing would present for the traditional eight weight classes if it had unified championships and the lineup would be great.

Heavyweight: Wlad Klitschko
Light Heavyweight: Andre Ward or Jean Pascal
Middleweight: Sergio Martinez or Lucian Bute
Welterweight: Floyd Mayweather
Lightweight: Manny Pacquaio
Featherweight: Juan Manuel Marquez or Gamboa/Lopez
Bantamweight:Nonito Donaire
Flyweight: **** Knows

The list is just for fun so let's not get into too many arguments about who would fit where but it just shows you have greater boxing could be if its resources were properly marshalled. I mean that's a much more global list than the UFC champions and would make the holders seem like huge stars on a global scale - much as they were when the titles were unified up until the mid-eighties.

 

:rofl:rofl Take that!

btw, I hope you're not the one negotiating these contracts for the fighters.

 

Put it this way, I think Bob Arum and Don King are worse than Dana White has ever been. I'd take Dana over them. Only boxing promoter I can think of that is close to Dana is GBP who are a little shady but their intention generally seems to be to make big fights and big events.

 

To be fair Bob Arum and Don King have put on their fair share of great events. You look back at the cards for those Don King shows in the nineties and they're awesome.

To me what separates Dana White/Zuffa from the likes of Bob Arum, Don King, Golden Boy and Vince McMahon is that Zuffa has made its money by growing the sport and attracting new fans. Boxing has less fans than before Arum and King got involved and pro-wrestling certainly has fans than when Vince McMahon took over the WWF. But the likes of King, Arum and McMahon made a success of their business by working out ways to make more money off a contracting fanbase.

 

don king wasnt any good for the fighters and he has no honor but he put together some great figths like ALI/Foreman

 

Think of the ratio of good fights to **** fights and corruption and then compare it to Dana White. It isn't comparable. I'd say 85% or so of UFC cards are top quality with 15% being a bit poo or taking the **** for one reason or another i.e. rematch not happening. I'd flip that statistic for Arum and King. Arum, probably less so - when you look at Cotto, Margarito, Pac, Morales etc they are generally in top fights.