I remember being younger and remembering two things when it came to fighting: You either did it or you watched. Now most kids my age did some form of martial arts, as it was a way to allow your child to learn something that involved learning patience, discipline and other things without having to play basketball or football. I also remember watching boxing with my dad, granddad or uncle when a big fight came on. I remember sitting down and watching Tyson, Holyfield, Lennox Lewis, De La Hoya, etc. But now it seems as though boxing is dying while the UFC( Ultimate Fighting Championship) is shoveling the dirt in. Why is this?
First, let me be clear: I haven't watched boxing in the last 8 years. I keep up with the fights, I watch highlights but that's about it. I also will admit myself to being someone who watches MMA(specifically the UFC,which will the basis of this post). Now what could make a person who grew up watching boxing change over to watching a sport that is a radical shift compared to boxing? There are 4 reasons in my opinion as to why boxing is falling and the UFC continues to rise.
1.) Fights we want to see, when we want to see them: I'm going to start with the elephant in the room of this argument: Floyd vs Manny Pacquiao. The big reason boxing is dying is because of this fight and this fight alone. This fight was "supposed" to happen in 2009 and 5 years later the fight fans have absolutely nothing to show for it. This fight was supposed to be the game-changer, the one that revitalized interest in the sport, now its the deathblow. Lets say this fight does happen, and seeing how majority opinion is that Floyd would win, lets say that doesn't happen. Boxing would take a major blow. So knowing this, they will keep floating this proposed fight along thinking it will keep interest and for the most part it will. But that is why the UFC is different and better that boxing because as fans, we get the fights we want in a timely fashion. With the UFC, you don't have 15 different promotions, you have one, meaning every fighter has a agent but one supervising manager in Dana White. Do you think if a fight like Cain Velasquez vs Junior Dos Santos was dragged out to the point of the Floyd/Manny that anyone would watch it? Heck no! The UFC should create the tagline for their company "for the people, by the people" because we as fans clamor about who we want to see fight, and the president of the company, Dana White makes it happen. As he said a while back during a interview with ESPN, "the best get to fight best", which makes sense and keeps things fresh and competitive.
2.) Martial Arts at it's core: Something lost in the mix of both Boxing and the UFC is that both are Martial Arts. Most people reading this can attest to this: remember taking karate when you were a kid? Wanna know why? because back in those days, as a kid it didn't cost your parents much to get you into a class and have you learn it over the summer or year. Boxing was somewhat the same, but different in the fact that not everyone wanted to do boxing, it wasn't as fun as karate, or wrestling or even jiujitsu. Most young adults such as myself grew up taking martial arts not just to learn how to fight but as a way to learn a style from a different country or culture or to be more disciplined.
3.) Socially Open: Let me ask you, the reader, 3 questions:
1. Short of watching a video with Floyd showing you his cars, bags of money, and clubbing, do you know anything about him?
2. Name a current fighter or champion other than these guys: Floyd, Pacquiao, Bradley, Canelo, Marquez, the Klitscheko brothers.
3. Name 4 current UFC fighters.
Now if you were able to answer the last question faster than the first two, it shows the problem. Boxers aren't as open or socially open to the public at least to my knowledge as other sports, specifically MMA and UFC fighters. I can pull up playlists of documentary just from the past 4 months where the fighters of the UFC share there story and talk to the fans. Hell last time I checked during a boxing event, which is always in Vegas( that's a issue that always confused me) the boxing promotion doesn't do what the UFC does which is have a live Q&A with fighters not scheduled to fight. That in turn lets you ask questions and learn from the fighter about who they are, their journey, everything.
4. Better Fight Cards: When Boxing has a big fight its normally once or twice a year, right? Not with the UFC. The events themselves are all 2 parters, one being a 2-3 hour free event and the main card being on PPV. But thats not why the fight cards are better. Lets look at the last year in UFC.
Jon Jones vs. Alexander Gustafsson
Rhonda Rousey vs Alex Davis
Rousey vs Tate
Chris Weidman vs Anderson Silva (the 1st fight and the rematch)
Carlos Condit vs Johnny Hendricks
Hendricks vs Robbie Lawler
Benson Henderson vs Anthony Pettis
These fights and the cards they were on were all big draws and if you look at the numbers for the last year and the first half of this year, no fight had an attendance under 5,000 people. And to make my argument even better, remember that most of these fight happen all throughout each month every month of the year, while Boxing might have 1 to 2 good fights a year.
In closing, boxing was originally the pugilistic sport of the world but now the UFC, and more specifically mixed martial arts, has taken over. And a lot of people wonder why hasn't boxing been taken behind the barn and put out of its mystery. Maybe because people are waiting for boxing to have that one group of superstars. And hopefully they do, because the UFC has knocked down the sport of boxing onto the proverbial canvas. And the ref just reached the count of nine.
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