Mma vs. Boxing

hmm says... this topic always pops up every now and then.
Boxing is a classic and like all classics, they never die.

 

A good boxing match is alot sweeter than a good mma match, A good MMA match is when there a KO or when both guys cant get KO

 

This is what happens when a UFC champion takes on a 48 year old boxer.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dXeIzVIpN2M

 

:happy

 

I'm actually supprised by the fact that I enjoy this article. I mean I've heard this topic so many times that i was skeptiacal but the author sums things up simply and nicely.

On another note I do not believe that MMA will actually hurt boxing very much in north america anyways...short of diverting some potential stars to another sport that is. But on many levels its helping the sport. 4 years ago the average person my age would have looked at me like I was the welcome guest if I started talking about how I was a fan of the sport but know with MMA being cool people are more interested when I talk about boxing. I mean they still don't watch the fights or know who any of the fighters are but at least instead of indegnation they think I'm just a little bit more bad ass for being into this ****. And thats half a step in the right direction.

 

I'm officially a Ray Mercer fan now.

 

Look, forget this ****. MMA is for not very talented boxer/kickboxer and world class jiu jitsu and wrestling artists. As long as people crave world class sweet science, then boxing will never die.

"MMA is taking over" sorry but the world exists outside America, the only MMA guys I know over here were the guys I was murdering in the boxing gym and they couldn't take it.

 

I don't believe MMA will ever overtake American Football. Let's see one of these mma "fighters" stop a top notch defensive end from getting into the backfield.

Who has more of its athletes with nationally televised endorsements in the US? Is it boxing or the NFL?

How about world wide? MMA is not closing in on soccer. I doubt boxing is making its move on soccer either.

I really don't understand why I keep seeing all these mma vs. boxing threads. Are you trying to establish the correct placement of these sports along the bottom of the barrell? Why are there no judo vs mma, judo vs boxing, pro wrestling vs boxing, pro wretling vs mma, fencing vs archery, or any other such arguments going on around here.

 

You never define what you mean by “overtake”. Do you mean “be more popular”, as in more people read about it, watch it, participate in it etc? Do you mean “spends more on PPVs”? Do you mean “widespread acceptance by the general public”?

I’m not sure where you’re from, but boxing highlights are very VERY rarely shown on regular tv in the states. The last time I remember hearing about a boxing match on a local sports report it was “And in a shocker, Mike Tyson has been knocked out by some guy named Buster Douglas”. Even on ESPN it’s very rare to see real highlights from big boxing matches, as HBO or Showtime own the rights to the videos. The only fights people can see on network tv are very low level fights or every four years a few amateur fights.

If your point is that boxing is naturally more “mainstream” than MMA, you should know that boxing hasn’t really been mainstream for a very long time.

You’ve actually hit on what is (in my opinion) the biggest reason for boxing’s decline since the 60s-70s: Parents have moved away from having their children learn boxing in favor of less “violent” self defense forms like karate or tae kwon do or whatever. In boxing, the sooner you learn that it’s much easier if you just accept the fact that you’re going to get hit. A lot of parents no longer like the idea of their precious little ones feeling any pain at all, so the more padded and ballet-esque the martial art (cough tae kwon do cough cough) the better. When my dad was a kid, everyone learned how to box, they all boxed with their brothers and on the school yard and boxing was how you settled things. Now people don’t allow that, and lots of kids just want to dress like thugs and talk about shooting people to settle disputes (which some actually do).

Like anything else, it’s a lot harder to understand what you’re watching if you don’t actually do it yourself, so there are now many fewer people who can sit and watch boxing and really get the full benefit of what’s going on. THIS in my opinion is the major reason for boxing’s decline, and this started twenty years before MMA was on tv.

What does any of this have to do with MMA “overtaking” boxing? It’s not as if anyone watches boxing because celebrities watch it, or because they get to hear the national anthem and feel national pride. All you’re doing here is taking things that you think are better about the atmosphere before a big boxing match and assuming that it’s at all important to anyone else.

Not at all. I personally think MMA will always be hampered by the diversity of techniques that many people will never find interesting. Big fights where you’re excited to see your favorite fighter slug it out can end in a minute with both guys looking fine because one guy did some jujitsu stuff that you didn’t understand. Lots of people won’t ever enjoy that. None of the stuff you listed however has anything at all to do with why people like boxing over MMA or visa versa.

You realize that ice hockey is HUGE in Russia, Czech Republic, Sweden etc? Also, pro baseball leagues are big in Latin America, Asia and Australia, right? What link is it that you’re trying to draw here? Boxing isn’t “fast paced” enough with enough “collisions”? Boxing used to be super popular here when baseball was THE sport, so I’m not sure what correlation you’re trying to show.

…except for boxing, which is accepted. How is hockey too violent and boxing isn’t?

You’re doing a horrible job of trying to pass off weird prejudices and irrelevant things as “facts” pertaining to boxing vs mma popularity.

My main point is that boxing has declined from what it was in the “glory days” because people don’t understand the sport the way they used to. Fewer people do it, fewer sportscasters understand it, and it seems more foreign to the average person. This has been happening for many years and has nothing to do with the popularity of MMA or any other sport.

In terms of why MMA is gaining popularity faster than boxing, my guess would be that it seems more like a “real fight” and the finer points of boxing (which take forever to figure out) aren’t as important for MMA where the gorilla “smash kill!” Brock Lesnar stuff is easier for people to understand.

 

boxing is at a stand still meaning that its not going any futher than it is now. MMA on the other hand is still growing at a good rate. I think mma will be as big as boxing one day

 

what about golf and Tennis, if MMA gets bigger will we have to cancel the Olympics?

 

garbage from start to finish... i could tear this apart but whats the point. therell just be another deluded fool on here next week regurgitating the same crap..

 

I could solve that pesky meaning of life, I just can't be arsed, I'm too busy hiding behind insults and belittlement.

 

Yeah nobody I know likes boxing but me, all I hear about is how Paquiao isn't impressive because he only fights at 145. I get angry thinking about it.