Boxing Versus Mixed Martial Arts Again
When all of the receipts were tallied, the Floyd Mayweather vs Juan Manuel Marquez PPV fight card generated over a million buys. It signaled the culmination of a decade-long quest for Mayweather to become the leading draw in boxing.
To many, it also sent a strong message to denizens of mixed martial arts fight cards (i.e., UFC 103 which was staged on the same night). While UFC President Dana White and others set this up as a showdown between boxing and MMA, I never saw it that way and never will.
First, let’s get the facts straight. UFC 103 was by no means a major fight card, especially compared to a boxing event like Mayweather-Marquez, which marked Mayweather’s return to the sport after a two-year “retirement.”
Despite the over-the-top, pre-fight boasts by Dana White, expecting this MMA card to best Mayweather-Marquez was a stretch to say the least. Secondly, no one on either side of the “combat sport” pond expected Mayweather-Marquez to do this well. Not even the equally boastful Mayweather could have envisioned these numbers. And last but not least, the events aren’t really in competition if you ask me.
Don’t let the mainstream sports media fool you. Despite some superficial similarities (blood-letting, knockouts, and punching), both sports are very different with contrasting fan bases. The similarities naturally cause people to compare the sports, and that’s fair. I also understand that there will be competition for advertising and PPV dollars in the combat sport arena. But that doesn’t mean that each fan base should hate on the other to get attention.
There is room for boxing and mixed martial arts. Although both sports are inherently violent, I sincerely hope they reserve their pot-shots and low blows for the rings in which their combatants participate. If promotional heavies like Golden Boy (boxing) and the UFC (MMA) are smart, they would be looking at synergies rather than verbal beefs. Beef may be good to eat, but it ain’t necessarily good for business in the long run.
Boxing and mixed martial arts, with their violent nature, will never play well amongst many segments of society. The sooner that both sports realize this and look for ways to cooperate rather than hate, they will both be better for it.
3 Responses to “Boxing Versus Mixed Martial Arts Again”
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listen,for a discussion on a topic such as this you need only to look at the fan base of each of the sports ,who are the boxing fans and who are the mma fans? Fortunately our country boasts of a rich and diversed culture which brings us great cuisines,great music, great atheletes… and the list goes on, but lets face it , either real or imagined, the boxer who can “kick the most butt” is considered to be the baddest man on the planet! In fact there was a time in the not so distant past when the heavy weight champion of the world was even more popular than the president himself(I kid you not). But what happened to boxing’s popularity in main stream america over the years, I mean why was everyone running around talking about who was going to “save boxing”or an even better question would be why would such a rich part of our country’s history need saving? Easy, that word again, demographics! Oncemain-stream america dertermined that “the baddest man on the planet”wasn’t going to necessarily to look like the majority of the population, things changed, people began to lose interest. It’s kind of like having a baseball team in your town that seems to never win, people lose interest. So you say “well why did the the Marquez Mayweather fight generate so much money”? Easy, demographics! Since the fastest growing segment of American soceity is now of hispanic decent we have a renewed interest in a sport that has the potential to depict (either real or imagined) the dominance of one’s culture(you know that baddest man on the planet thing).Mma on the other hand is a lot more like wrestling, you don’t have that element of “flag wayving” you know, I’m going to beat you because I
‘m a proud —-warrior. No infact in mma and wwf I’m just going to kick your but cuz I’m better than you, wow(imagine that)!No wonder there’s competeion between those to wonderfully violent sports.
Jabbo, you make some really valid points. Different than the typical perspective on this topic. Why don’t you write a similar article?