I like MMA but not as much boxing. It can be pretty exciting though, however the MMA'ers aren't exactly true professionals. They don't have world class boxing, kick boxing or thai boxing skills and possibly wrestling skills because it is a combination of all of the above so some things they do comes across a bit ameteurish , since it involves so many disciplines and it would be virtually impossible to master all of them at once.
If anyone is not YET a fan of mma i suggest they get themselves on youtube and watch some Fedor Emanlianko and Anderson Silva fights. I have always been a boxing fan since the mid 1980's and have got into mma over the last year or two watching fights on youtube and reading some mma forums etc. I really enjoy watching the top fighters fight. I think a reason why casual fight fans like it is because nearly every fight ends before the cards. You are nearly always guaranteed to see a stoppage whether that be a submission or some poor soul getting KTFO whereas in boxing you do see some great fights like the recent Paul Williams - Sergio Martinez fight but you also regularly see garbage fights like David Haye-Valuev or Vitali Klitschko-Kevin Johnson. In boxing often you see guys who are just happy to survive and lose on points which creates a **** fight for the viewer but this scenario does not happen in mma. In mma guys come to fight, they don't seem to just show up for a pay cheque which can sometimes be said about boxing.
Boxing aint dying, its only shifted down a few weight classes. You cant judge the entire state of boxing by the state of the HW division... As for MMA you can appreciate the skill for sure. I like it but there is more to MMA than UFC, and MMA has the same belt issues as Boxing. There are other MMA organisations, and the same politics apply and thats why we are not seeing Fedor fight the best that UFC has to offer. I also think its quicker to master the basics of MMA than it is to master the fundamentals of the sweet science. I say this because you dont need to be a master in MMA to be competitive, yet in boxing, if you are not close to perfection you will struggle to beat the top guns.
MMA is largely fronted by one guy, Dana White. Wait until the sport splinters when fighters realise they should be getting paid more. Lesnar/Couture did 1 mill ppv buys and Lesnar's purse was $2.5 mill with bonuses. Oscar v Pac did 1.25 milll ppv buys and how much did each fighter make? Both made over $10 mill, Oscar closer to $20 mill. So where did the money go from Lesnar/Couture? certainly not to the fighters.
You're spot on mate. Some of these guys will figure eventually they should be getting paid a lot more than what they are...