Stop Acting like Boxing is not a Niche Sport. UFC averages 2.43 million on a Saturday

I will not argue, Kennedy did grav the glove and is a cheat also, but Romero has grabbed the fence in multiple fight, used 12-6 elbows, had that corner fiasco, and popped for roids.

Also I'm not counting speculation, don't tell guys that seem like they are on roids or that everyone think are on roids. I want rock solid test results and the fact is Yoel popped and and non of the guys in your first list popped except Silva.

Hendricks: looked just as big

Weidman: needed to lose weight because he can't make the cut without an IV which is banned now.

Aldo: Suspicious

Jones: Suspicious

Werdum: with a new camp and can actually strike now which makes his BJJ 10x more dangerous plus HW is a division for old people, look at the average age of top 10/15 (depending on if you use UFC or outside rankings)

Anderson: I honestly don't think he used hid whole career but it's a long debate that I don't want to get into rn.

Jacare: don't think he cheats. Seen pics of him from when he was young and he has been built like a tank since forever.

Kennedy: isn't that what marines do??? **** that guy.

Those guys you listed at the end are all known cheaters and I don't condone there actions.

Makhov is a ****ing monster but there are a few things we don't know yet.

1. Can he strike?
2. Can he take a punch
3. Can he grapple and not get tapped by a Werdum?
4. Can he make 265 as he is 295 of solid muscle.

 

Ok I'll give you think but you looking at it from a glass half empty perspective. You need to know the basics and a very high level in just about everything and be able to put it together along with 1 or 2 disciplines That you have a thorough knowledge of in a unique way in or to succeed at the highest level

 

Lol nobody does PPV outside of North America. UFC has TV deal with VGTRK one of the biggest TV stations in Russia.

 

Nobody cares about them now because they are almost 40

 

He's right. Boxing is a niche sport in the U.S.

 

And over the past decade two niche sports men have been the top earners in sport
45 mill views for boxing in China not that long ago where as mma is in massive decline

 

Yet people still watch Hopkins fight...

 

Well first of all taking roids does not turn you into a Yoel Romero, especially not at that age. You had people roiding as much as they liked in PRIDE and pre-strict testing UFC and I don't remember anyone looking as good as Yoel at 38+. Maybe Couture but he was more technical fighter while Yoel is extremely athletic and explosive. He's an olympic wrestler who took MMA very late in his career way past his prime. Went 7-0 in one of the most stacked divisions in the UFC at the moment. Makes you wonder how Olympic wrestlers in their prime would do.

The upper weight limit at HW division is another UFC bull**** but I think he can make it without much problems. He'll probably lose some muscles anyway, MMA fighters need less muscle mass than pure wrestlers because striking is involved where you need to be more lean and faster. That's the reason why HW wrestlers and judokas are much heavier than HW boxers.

The thing about Makhov is that his credententials are much better than Brock's (and Brock did pretty well) and he has trained with Arlovski a lot so he probably knows what he's getting into. He comes from Caucasus so I doubt he doesn't have any submission grappling or boxing experience. Those guys usually train a bit of judo and sambo too, just like Khabib.

Werdum is the only bad styllistic match up for him but I think Werdum's ground game is overrated too. It's hard to submit a guy of Makhov's size, he can just smother him and pound him like Brock did against Mir at UFC 100. If he can't use hips his BJJ is useless. This isn't 182cm Fedor, Makhov is almost 2m tall and has huge traps he would be hard to triangle. I can see him just muscling out of submissions or doing rampage style slams. Also, Werdum will be 40 year old soon and he's getting ring rusted. Let's see if he can even get past Stipe or a better version of Cain.

Who else is there to stop Makhov? Stipe is a wrestle-boxer who will be negated by Makhov's size and superior wrestling. JDS is shot to pieces, Reem is getting old and I have trouble seeing Rothwell and Browne as anything more than high level journeymen.

Jon Jones is unproven at HW an Makhov will have a significant weight advantage over him. He's a styllistic nightmare for Jones, remember this is a guy who didn't want to fight a MW wrestler Sonnen on short notice.

If Makhov takes this seriously enough he will wipe them all out and then everyone who can will try to make the 205 limit to duck this guy.

 

As for boxing being a niche sport I think both boxing and MMA will always have problems getting constant mainstream attention because of the nature of the sports. Even if you ignore the violence, these fighters fight 1-2 times a year. Then you have all the injuries and fighters pulling out 2 weeks before a major fight like RDA now which ruin everything. It's hard to follow these sports if you're a casual fan who's only interested in big fights and big stars.

In football, people can watch Messi and Ronaldo twice a week, there's constantly something going on. In tennis Federer and Djokovic are playing on all kinds of tournaments all the time. In combat sports on the other hand it's boring most of the time, you only have to take a look at this forum to see how little real action there is in boxing/MMA. Half of the threads are about Wilder, Kovalev, Khan, GGG, Canelo and Pacman, guys who'll fight months away from now. The other half is about Mayweather, a man who's retired for half a year already. The recent fights like Chudinov-Sturm, Afolabi-Huck are hardly mentioned... You can't expect someone who's not a hardcore fan to give a flying **** about these fighters anyway.

MMA has one big star left (Conor), Ronda probably won't fight ever again and Jon Jones has been sidelined and thrown under the bus by Dana. In MMA community half of the talk is about McGregor's antics and the other half is about Ronda's soap opera.

Both sports have few big fights a year and that's it. There's no constant mainstream exposure and never will be.

 

100 % Agree mate

 

Boxing will always have the pedigree athletes, you can talk all you like about Dana White's cards, the grappling and kicks, but this shows no sign of changing. I do enjoy some mma of course, but it's like fast food, good while you're eating it but ultimately :hey unsatisfying.