The UFC is a Mixed Martial Arts organisation that is taking the world by storm. Over the last three years, it has sky-rocketed from being an enthusiast sport into a phenomenon broadcast around the world.
Many people have stated that the UFC’s 1000 percent year on year growth will cause similar sports like boxing and wrestling to fail.
When I was young, I was a huge wrestling fan. There was a four year period where I would watch every show, break beds and imitate special moves from wrestling superstars on my brother.
This could only last so long, and when the fad wore off, I looked back on that period and thought: “Wrestling is a well thought out/produced show that was great when I was a kid.”
Therefore, I agree with Dana White’s (President of the UFC) comments when he says that it does not directly compete with Wrestling, it is merely a segway into the real sport of MMA.
If anything, it will give wresting a more targeted demographic, and Vince McMahon can plan his WWE shows around a more skewed audience (and therefore attract a more targeted advertiser base).
I believe it is a different story when it comes to boxing.
Now, I have never been a huge fan of boxing, and I believe this is because I just missed a crucial era in the sports history. Being an 90s child, I never got to witness the hype and tension leading up to a Cassius Clay spectacle or a Mike Tyson slugfest.
When I was a teen, all I heard from my dad was that boxing is not the same. It didn’t have the superstar fighters or the global coverage like it did back in his day.
I believe this statement.
I heard that Floyd Mayweather and Shane Mosley, two of the best fighters in the world, were fighting two days after the event had taken place?
On the same note, I heard that the UFC reality show, The Ultimate Fighter 11, is having an encore presentation on Fuel TV the same night. My point here is that, you would think a big production, fight for the ages type of event, would suggest a bigger advertising campaign?
Are they paying the fighters and sports promoters too much? Is anyone actually thinking about the future of the sport?
The UFC/WWE are running proper businesses whilst boxing is running one-card productions. The UFC/WWE only have accepted offers from companies that have offered to help grow the company and declined juicy offers that would see the sport run into the ground.
Like boxing.
Cookie
Roar Rookie
To a point I agree with everyone, I agree that boxers are still paid more than MMA fighters. One of the most outspoken fighters Tito Ortiz really brought this topic to the surface about 2 years ago when he attacked the President of the UFC about payments. Since then Tito went to a number of different fighting organisations before wiggling his way back into the UFC. He is either come back due to the fact that every other organisation is the same or that the UFC is paying him extraordinary match payments (highly unlikely). The UFC is a real brand and to build a brand and an organisation you need to have a strong business plan, structured roster and a heap of investment into the future. If UFC went the other way and paid fighters more than they had to they would not have been in Sydney, Vancouver or Abu Dhabi this year, I think most fighters understand it is a growing sport, heck when most of them started fighting it was in the schoolyard or at a pub (certainly not getting paid for it). Regarding the number of organisations starting: Yep there are plenty, I think this is healthy for the sport as it keeps the likes of Dana White (UFC) and Scott Coker (Strikeforce) honest when keeping the best talent, selling merchandise, selling tickets. Let's have the payments discussion in 3 years when the UFC has grown 2000% from where they currently are.
MarkR
Guest
Pike, I mentioned them as it's always a fun time watching the my sport is better than yours brigade & you clearly in the boxing is rubbish MMA is the bees knees camp. Yes, I don't know you & was trying to inject some humour, my apologies as I appear to have missed teh mark As for "many of the organisation whose licence comes out of a corn flakes pack." You are kidding right ? there's multitudes of MMA organisations all setup to make a quick buck A quick wiki search will give you 78 different MMA organisations each with their own champions. Watch the Ultimate Fighter (I'm sure you have already), one of the common fighter comments is about providing for the family, or making a career. These guys are no more or less money focused than professional boxers. You could argue they're more money focused as boxers have a pinnacle called the Olympics only open to amateurs. As for boxer vs MMA, like league & union they both appeal to different people & some people enjoy both.
pike64
Guest
who mentioned league or union????? that's an argument for others to have. as for you , who don't even know me, talking about my 'lack of knowledge' - getting personal is usually an indication that you have no credible response to my points. The bottom line is that the Gracies, the developers of Brazilian Ju Jitsu in their heyday put a challenge out to all comers that they would be able to beat any practitioner of any other martial art including boxing in a bare knuckle fight. no 'champion' including muhammed ali was prepared to take up the challenge. enough said!!!!!!!
MarkR
Guest
Oh boy, are you sure you don't want to start a 'Why league is better than union' thread ? It'll get more bites & your lack of knowledge won't hinder you.
pike64
Guest
any competent boxer that gets into a fight with a competent mma fighter in or outside a ring or octagon will end up being toasted and that includes any of the many 'champions' you have in many of the organisation whose licence comes out of a corn flakes pack. on that there is no argument. how much money boxers make is irrelevant as to whether boxing is better than mma. it supports my point that pro boxers fight for the money not for gladiatorial glory. professional boxing has had a huge head start on mma- don't be silly enough to mistake that for superiority.
John
Guest
The last heavyweight champion controlled by the mob was Ernie Terrell, recognised by the WBA when Muhammad ali was the real champion. The mob is not interested in boxers now. They make too much money from drugs . Floyd Mayweather made $US40,000,000 from his fight with Mosley. What is the biggest purse any of the MMA or UFC clowns make? I saw something recently with former World's Strongest Man Mariusz Pudzanowski clowning with some elephantine MMA character. Rubbish.
pike64
Guest
please...i've seen many boxing matches. that is how i formed my opinion. i'ts people like mundine who personify modern boxing. that's why the sport is in trouble from mma where you have to back your mouth against worthy opponents not fight useless hack journeymen and then claim you're the greatest!!!!!
pike64
Guest
boxing has been shown to be a one dimensional fight sport that can never rightly or wrongly get rid of the stench of organised crime and match fixing. the egotistical champions of today do nothing for the image of the sport fighting for pay packets and not for glory. the big padded gloves lead to brain damage in the same way that a constant drip of water will erode away a rock. the sooner this sport and inadequate fight system disappears the better. mma on the other hand, may feature more blood but there is a real skill in outwitting and submitting an opponent and even when there are knockouts they are achieved swiftly with minimal battering unlike boxing. last but not least what about the ugly spectacle, particularly in the heavyweight division where the boxing match becomes a cling fest as lumbering fat people throw slow, lumberous punches and then hug. great sport-NOT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
MarkR
Guest
John, MMA is a new sport with a limited audience as it gets a lot of push back due it's perception of being human dog-fighting complete with blood drenched cages. It won't rival boxing in our lifetime, for a start there's no real amateur competition e.g. Golden Gloves, Olympics, etc. The major comp is the UFC & that's as transparent as a Don King contract ! MMA gets talked about a lot more than boxing outside boxing circles as it's new & interesting, but all the guys I know who watch it enjoy boxing as well & will have been to a lot more boxing fights. Boxing has it's issues (it has for the last 30-40 yrs since we got all these alphabet soup belts), but it still has the ability to show a great boxers career progress over 10-15 years. There's very few UFC guys who'll last that long due to the massive punishment they can get in a losing bout (OK Lidell lasted almost 12 yrs but he's well past it now). Ultimate Fighter is a great show & a great promo as well as being hilarious sometimes, but on Fox there's 5 times as much boxing to watch. The money's in boxing & it'll stay there.
John
Guest
If MMA is so popular, why are the participants so poorly paid compared to boxers? Sam Soliman was a world champion in kickboxing. He switched to boxing to make a living.
Nate
Guest
You don't have to go any further to see boxing's mismanagement than the Mayweather v Pacquiao debacle. It's the fight that everyone wanted to see that resulted in a stalemate over a petty blood testing proceedure. The egos in boxing have unfortunately taken hold of it and I can't really see it going back to it's glory days.
Cookie
Roar Rookie
Yep they are the names I remember as well 'True Tah'. You also raise a good point on Rivalries- something that Joe Silva (Fight Planner for UFC) strives to create with his current roster. George Sotiropolos is definitely a true LW contender and my prediction is that when he takes care of Kurt Pellegrino in his next fight we will see in Sydney for a title shot early 2011.
Cookie
Roar Rookie
I agree 'Gibbo' Joe Rogan and Mike Goldberg have a fantastic following themselves. For instance when UFC110 was out here Joe Rogan sold out 2 comedy side-shows. If you want to speak about talent in the fighting rosters you have world class boxers 'Anderson Silva', 'Alessio Sakara' and of course Lights Out 'James Toney' in the UFC
Gibbo
Guest
true, and if you want personalities today, the UFC boasts some of the best - Lesnar, Mir, Randy Jackson... not to mention Mike Goldberg and Joe Ragan who do an excellent job spruiking and hyping each and every match. i know pay-per-view cards are becoming must see event TV in my social circle.
True Tah
Guest
Heavyweight Boxing suffers from a lack of real characters these days, whereas in the past you had Ali, Foreman, Frazier (although a bit before my time), and in my teens, Tyson, Lennox Lewis, Evander Holyfield. All of these guys were either very charismatic or the archetype villain, like Tyson. Look at the documentary When We Were Kings, probably the best sports documentary ever made. Nowadays, heavyweight boxing seems to be increasingly dominated by monolithic east europeans, with little to no charisma. And the other thing is there are no great rivalries. Might be a differant story with the lighter divisions, Mundine certainly can sell a show and so can Danny Green, again these guys have got some charisma and appeal in Australia at least. George Soritopoulos (sp?) is an Aussie UFC fighter who is getting some coverage now, and it gave the recent tournament at Homebush a big sell with an Aussie competing.
Gopal
Guest
I believe you are correct in suggesting that the business model for UFC is much more akin to WWE than to boxing. UFC's fanbase does indeed appear to have more in common with WWE's than with boxing's.