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"Well, it’s official: the UFC is now a mainstream sport in America. With the Mandalay Bay selling out for the Ken Shamrock vs. Tito Ortiz card July 8, it has become evident that the UFC is no longer the underground freak sport that it was just ten years ago. As a matter of fact, the sport is gaining so much momentum that some experts are saying it could lead to the demise of boxing! However, my fellow boxing fans, fear not. The UFC will NEVER and I mean NEVER pose a long term threat to the sweet science, and in this article, I will show the many, many reasons why."
I don't agree with many of the arguement made by the writer. I honestly believe UFC or MMA will someday will rival boxing in near future and possibly pass it.
One good example was that during UFC61, the event was sold out and UFC had to offer few private screening in Las Vegas Hotels. However, Mosley vs. Vargas fight, two of the big names in boxing and both fighters getting probably more money than all of the fight money in UFC 61, did not sell out. What does that say? The fans eventually decide what they are willing to pay the money for and it sent a clear message that they are more willing to spend the money to see UFC than boxing.
I think boxing will pick back up, but MMA is here to stay as well. I think both can exist and both be very popular and make lots of money. Right now boxing is still recovering from the Don King and Mike Tyson circus that went on, sure it made lots of money, but it made boxing kind of a joke. MMA, the UFC in particular needs to pay close attention to this and not make the same mistakes.
i've always loved combat sports: boxing, mma, kickboxing. and i always will. but this is what i've noticed. i live in small town where the closest place to buy dvds is a wal-mart that's 20 miles away.will i went to wal-mart to buy some k-1 dvds, which i couldn't find. all i could find was ufc, or pride, or kotc. so then i went to find some boxing dvds. all i could find was a video, so i didn't buy it. when i went home i went on to the k-1 website to order the dvd, and all they had was video, they didn't have dvd as an option. everything was on video.
ufc in contrast has 6 video games(1 on dreamcast,1 on playstation, 2 on ps2, 2 on xbox), every fight cataloged on dvd, a weekly cable reality show, pay per veiw ratings through the roof. people who don't even know what MMA means, will order a UFC event based on name alone. pretty soon those same people well know what triangle choke means in no time.
boxing on the other hand: has awseome games from the nintendo's classic 'punch out', all the way up to 'fightnight round 3', boxers make more money, no doubt about it. boxing's been around the block. it's got staying power. my grandpa used to box back in the 1930's as did lot's of people's grand dad's here in Virginia. Boxing been on tv since we've had tv. not to mention the Rocky movies or Million Dollar Baby. not to mention boxing has it's own reality show.
but even though boxing has staying power, what form will boxing take in order to stick around? we must remember that boxing's been around along time. we're talking like ancient egypt old here. we've only had rounds (as we know them) since 1866. john sullivan fought america's first gloved tournament at the end of the 19th century. in 1899 amateur boxing hit the u.s. in 1947 amateur boxing made it a requirement to wear helmets in amateur competition. in 1983 they banned 15 round events. and made 12 rounds the maximum for pro fighters. my point is boxing has only had "rules" for a short period of time. when we think of how old it really is, it's like one leg on a millipede.
maybe the UFC, PRIDE, and all other MMA events is boxing's return to it's gladiator days in ancient rome.
maybe that's how it has staying power.
Last edited by clockworkmechanicalman; 08-31-2006 at 07:06 PM.
Styles: mixed martial art style, jeet kune do concepts, currently capoeira and some kick boxing
Posts: 740
Home Country:
I think mma is much more entertaining than boxing. I beleive it will become an even bigger threat. I'm not saying it will make boxing extinct...but it sure will become bigger I believe...and before you know it...who knows, mma events may be an olympic game one day far down the road
Here is an article that has a different view than the previous article.
Ultimate Fighting's popularity may put boxing down for count
I sat ringside for my first boxing match when I was 14 years old. There might have been 100 people in the room, but somehow those droplets of blood chose to fly from the fighter's nose and land on my white shirt. I was infected. Whatever it was about the supposed sweet science, it got me.
So it's somewhat sad to see what's happened these past few years and to realize what's going to happen during the next few. A sport like boxing doesn't just die and disappear. It slowly fades away until one day you look around and notice that it's no longer around.
Instead, your attention is taken by something else, and it's pretty clear by now exactly what that something else is.
The heavyweight title bout between Oleg Maskaev and Hasim Rahman two weeks ago got just 60,000 pay-per-view buys. Tonight's Ultimate Fighting Championship show, headlined by Chuck Liddell vs. Renato Sobral, will likely generate more than 500,000 buys. You see where we're going?
No headstone has been erected over boxing's grave, but UFC is holding a shovel and prepared to splash dirt on a casket.
"I can't even watch boxing now," Dana White, president of UFC, said recently. "I really can't - and I came from a boxing background. It literally bores me to death. I'd rather watch Power Rangers with the kids than watch boxing."
Of course he's going to say that. It's in his interest. But he's actually right.
Officials from the boxing end and their UFC counterparts carefully try to distance themselves from each other, but it'd be naive to not recognize the cause-effect relationship. The grandfathers still like boxing; the grandkids are flocking to UFC.
"I think it's wrong to compare the two. The similarity is that they're both unarmed combat. But that's it."
That's Marc Ratner talking, the former head of the Nevada State Athletic Commission, as respected during his time as anyone in boxing. He's a former opponent of unruly mixed-martial arts and now works under the UFC banner, lending the sport a lot of credibility. He's still a huge boxing fan but concedes:
"When old boxing fans pass away, there aren't new ones to take their place."
The old guard that runs boxing - the people who made it an exciting sport for many, many years - has been slow to adjust. They don't even recognize that the two might be somehow connected. Even if you want to believe that boxing fans aren't flocking to UFC, you have to recognize that young people who might have been boxing fans 20 years ago are instead buying tonight's UFC pay-per-view show.
When I was in Las Vegas recently, I spoke with Bob Arum, who brought the world boxing iconic figures such as Muhammad Ali, George Foreman and Oscar de la Hoya.
"I don't think Ultimate Fighting has had an impact except that it has demonstrated to boxing promoters another method to promoting the product. They've done a marvelous job in promotion," he says. "But we have a totally different audience.
"The demographic of UFC are young white males. To cater to that audience, you basically only see white men who fight. Our audience for boxing is Hispanic, African-American and maybe a few whites."
I'm not saying Arum is wrong, but that's not the biggest difference. Boxing fans were alive when Cassius Clay changed his name, whereas UFC fans couldn't even name Cassius Clay. Which sport do you think has a brighter long-term future?
"My biggest beef with boxing right now is that the powers that be, the Bob Arums and Don Kings, they aren't interested in securing the future of the sport," said White, young and brash and with heady plans for the UFC. "They'll never put a dime of their own money back into it. It's all about, 'How much money can I put into my pocket right here, right now?' There's no investing in the future."
I hope boxing adjusts. White took a page from Vince McMahon's pro wrestling playbook by using cable programming to promote pay-per-view shows. UFC's reality show The Ultimate Fighter has spawned legitimate stars. Arum hopes to mimic the model using the cable network OLN to showcase younger fighters.
Unless those young fighters are in a caged octagon and are fighting mixed martial arts - a la UFC - it might be too late. Admittedly, I was a slow convert. But there's something raw and exciting about UFC and all of its disciplines: boxing, judo, jujitsu, freestyle wrestling, taekwondo and others.
When I was in Las Vegas, I toured the UFC gym, where the popular reality show is filmed. The show's first season launched the fighting career of Forrest Griffin, a former police officer from Georgia.
Griffin, who squares off against Stephan Bonnar tonight, struggled to describe UFC's appeal, before finally hitting it perfectly: "It doesn't try to be something it's not. We're not carrying sticks and chasing a puck on ice. We're the part of sports that you like. We just get in there and fight in every style we can."
UFC vs. boxing - it's not a fair fight. They're in different divisions. One's on the cusp of the mainstream. The other is best viewed on ESPN Classic.
Styles: mixed martial art style, jeet kune do concepts, currently capoeira and some kick boxing
Posts: 740
Home Country:
interesting. There are people who say boxing will stay on top, and there are people who believe that mma will slowy take over. I say lets wait and see. It will be interesting to watch and see what happens with the two sports as time goes
These people who say it's no threat to boxing is really out of touch with the reality. At least here in US, even though MMA is still in the infant stage and it's not approved in all 50 states, the rate of gaining popularity is incredible. Not only will it match boxing in very short term, it will surpass it very quickly, unless boxing does something about it.
UFC Poses No Long Term Threat to Boxing
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