DANA WHITE TRASHES THE BOXING INDUSTRY HERE IS MY RESPONSE

Look at Pereira vs Izzy it’s already happened twice and now other big fights have happened for both. They’d still be letting that ‘marinate’ in boxing.

 

The average level of UFC cards now is definitely worse than the peak which was like 2005-2011ish. Mainly because they have to put out cards for ESPN practically every weekend now and the majority of them are free. Used to be that they'd have a card maybe every 3-4 weeks and every one would be pretty stacked, now they have a **** ton of throwaway cards every year.

Having said that, they do still typically have a handful of cards a year that are ****ing stacked compared to what boxing puts out. This weekends card and 296 in December for example.

 

Eh. Stacked? It has a good main and co main and this is an usman coming off 2 losses, that’s why he’s co-main.

 

Its also got two top 10 LHWs facing each other in Walker/Ankalaev, and the prelims has the debut of Shara Bullet who has a lot of hype behind him, and another prospect in Mokaev.

So that, plus a main event of two top 5 p4p'ers against each other, and a co-main that would have been possibly the biggest fight (not involving Conor) in MMA 2 years ago. That isnt stacked compared to boxing cards?

 

Eh, I can’t disagree. Boxing cards nowadays are horrendous. It’s like they do exactly the opposite of what boxing fans want.

 

To be fair one thing I always argue about with MMA fans is just because they’re top 10 in the UFC doesn’t mean they’re in the top 10 of their respective divisions but the UFC has basically monopolised things so that’s how it’s viewed.

The merger of PFL and Bellator will keep them on their toes a bit.

 

I do agree with you there, theres definitely a fair few top 10-15 level guys outside of the UFC and plenty of guys within the UFC who arent all that (endless DWCS signings in recent years for example or guys like Paddy who are pushed more for their marketability than skills). Still though, I think its pretty fair to say Ankalaev is definitely a top 10 LHW in the world and Walker when hes on form is up there too.

 

Is Ankalaev the one who fought Jan Blakowitz for the title?

 

Yeah, a lot of people felt he was robbed.

 

I didn’t think he might have won three rounds but definitely lost at least one 10-8 imo.

 

Almost everything Dana said is right. Boxing has too many hands in the cookie jar. Too many networks. Too many promoters. Too much self interest. Too much fragmentation in the sport. NGannou getting a one-off a$$ whooping from Fury in a boxing exho doesn’t mean much. UFC puts on cards almost every week. With everyone all working toward the same goal.