Joe
09-04-2006, 09:13 PM
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.
Credit UFC.com
For me i feel that when i watch boxing which i rarely do but i have recently that i cant watch it for too long. I find myself thinking about submissions and take downs etc and just get bored with boxing.UFC fanbase is growing rapidly and i feel is taking over from Boxing and has more appeal.I just wanted some views from UFC and Boxing fans on what u feel about this transition that seems to be taking place.For me MMA is the evoltuion of Boxing but thats just my opinion and yeah maybe if Boxing was Mainstream it would have a bigger fanbase but i just see UFC taking it over
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.
Credit UFC.com
For me i feel that when i watch boxing which i rarely do but i have recently that i cant watch it for too long. I find myself thinking about submissions and take downs etc and just get bored with boxing.UFC fanbase is growing rapidly and i feel is taking over from Boxing and has more appeal.I just wanted some views from UFC and Boxing fans on what u feel about this transition that seems to be taking place.For me MMA is the evoltuion of Boxing but thats just my opinion and yeah maybe if Boxing was Mainstream it would have a bigger fanbase but i just see UFC taking it over