Dana White Says MMA Purses 'Smoke' Boxing's

True why am I taking the words that come out of a promoters mouth as if they mean something, shame on me. Its just annoying because its just nonsense, if he said "its a small sport, its still growing. We try and keep the guys more active than boxers and reward entertaining fighters who are on the up". Lots of things about the UFC model that are better than the shambles of boxing so why does he get caught up in chatting **** which is clearly untrue.

 

In the early days thats exactly what Dana used to say. He had a shy humble demeanor then. Even when he came to PRIDE briefly for the LHW GP he was still a very down to Earth dude. But over the years as the UFC grew so did his ego along with his "head" size thanks to the hormones. Problem is you can only fool some of the people some of the time...Many casual fans have been put off by the shameless plugging and lies..These are the same casual fans that are vital to the success of the UFC...

 

A boxer who sells 5,000 tickets makes more than an MMA fighter who sells 5,000 tickets. A boxer who sells 30,000 tickets makes more than an MMA fighter who sells 30,000 tickets.

There's no point in looking at individual fighters because ability does not dictate fan interest. Ward and Dawson was the example used and even though both are good fighters, neither is a draw, so that example is a poor one. Look at fighters like Floyd, Pacquiao, Wlad, Vitali, Canelo, JCC, Hatton, Sturm, Bute and so on - these guys are all raking in far more than the MMA fighters who sell just as many tickets as they do.

 

I'm so glad that Manny and Floyd just started their rise to the top. Otherwise i'd be worried since there aren't any global superstars outside of them. But since they will be around for many years to come, i'm sure more will be made thanx to them to keep the ball rolling.


:yep

 

Still doesnt explain the $10k purses for the top 00001% of fighters in the business.

 

i wouldnt worry about that, a superstar doesnt need years to become one in boxing, take manny for example a win over ODH and hatton made him a superstar before them he was not a superstar, when the space is there for a star to shine then a star will emerge in boxing, wait for floyd and manny to retire there will be plenty of guys to fill the void

 

Did he really claim mma is on a par with football?

Football in the UK alone has roughly 7m viewers for the Champs League final. It dwarfs all the other sports combined.

 

There's a video floating around on Youtube of him being interviewed along side Lorenzo making that claim.

 

There already are. Ward, Canelo, Donaire still has a chance. So many prospects in boxing it isnt even comparable.

 

The beauty with boxing is all it takes is one guy from one nation to build a following. Iv seen Donaire fight in Vegas. The support he got from the Philipinos made my hair stand on end. Every fan gets behind 'that' guy.
Boxing is mainstream. It has world wide appeal. An entire nation will get behind their one champion. Thus its much easier in boxing to build a fan base than the UFC which doesn't have the cross over or mainstream appeal. When all is said and done people want to see knockouts. Nothing makes that easier than a good ol fashioned slug fest under Queensbury rules. Add to that boxings social appeal and acceptance and you have an easy sell.

 

I find it cheap that Dana is using Dawson/Ward as an example to compare his promotion. It was a big fight in terms of p4p relevance but all of us boxing fans realize these two aren't high market draws as far as promotion is concerned.

 

How bout Bisping though? Didnt the Brits love him at one point?
Just the boxing prospects that are coming up from the wing wang, we have a bunch of Mexicans on the rise again, Broner, Gary Russell, theres even a few Filipinos that are ready to fight for the championships (Milan Melindo) for example. Question really is, is theres a bigger talent pool in Boxing than MMA? I would think that theres more people rolling now than actually hitting the heavy bags. Why is there such a discrepancy?

 

No. The problem with Dana and the UFC is fans think this sport is far bigger than what it is. Bisping is popular in the UFC. He's popular in the UFC/MMA expo's over here. But if he was walking on the street only a handful of guys would recognize him. Boxing is easily THE more popular sport in this country. So it doesn't matter how many Bispings the UFC can produce none of them will surpass the popularity of say Naz, Hatton, Eubank, Lewis, Bruno, Haye etc.
And the discrepancy exists because you're not seeing these guys fight. Bush leagues rarely get TV rights. MMA is hard enough as it is but its even more harder these days when fighters have even less options. For the peanuts they'd earn in a lower league is it worth it financially? Remember these men have family's and bills to pay. Its the reason why Bibiano left for ONE FC because they offered him more money. As much as Dana likes to belittle and berate fighters they ARE business men. They have no choice but to be. This isn't the early days when guys were fighting for free in a parking lot. The games changed.
Plus with even less choices its harder for guys to build their name in other promotions and develop that cross over brand appeal. Rampage, Wand, Silva Nog CC etc were all established names long before they came to the UFC. Now there is only the UFC fighters don't have that privilege. They have to perform or get dropped.

 

Sums it up, like I always stated pay them more and they will come. Maybe when they have universal healthcare in the states then Dana can justify 10k purse for PPVs.