Well yeah I wasn’t saying it was better now. I was saying there are more fans now than ever before, and a lot of them are casually interested. It has pushed us hardcores away.
The fan base has changed but I think it’s more popular than ever.
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Wow how times have changed.
I remember making a similar thread on the UG over a decade a go and was met with a torrent of abuse and insults!
I’m a tiny bit disappointed that there wasn’t at least one person calling me a dumb faggot who can’t accept that Boxing is being swallowed by MMA and that there won’t be anymore new stars after Hopkins and De la Hoya retire!
Said this lots of times and the past and I still feel the same way but I believe if Pride had become the dominant company in MMA instead the UFC the sport could potentially have become the second biggest in the world after Football (soccer).
However in my opinion the unified rules ruin the sport and have severely hampered it’s growth worldwide.
For MMA to be the undisputed king of combat sports it needs to be much more popular than Boxing in the majority of the world’s 195 countries. Which clearly isn’t the case and is not even close to happening any time soon.
Football (soccer) not being that popular in the U.S doesn’t stop it from being by far the world’s most popular sport.
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Shut your fucking face, you stupid son of a bitch!
Nobody asked you!
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Ah that’s more like it!
Thanks!
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You’re welcome, bud.
It’s what friends are for.
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There was perhaps a degree of truth of it until the Fertita’s raped the shit out the UFC and cashed out.
Now MMA is just like boxing but their Don King beats his wife instead of other gangsters.
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I don’t think it was ever possible because Boxing is such a popular and deep rooted sport that has a different type of audience.
No-one really goes to a Boxing event topless with the words ‘‘Just bleed’’ painted on their chest.
So the idea of swallowing it or killing it off was always going to be a completely delusional stance to take. Even without the benefit of hindsight.
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I know everyone thinks that but I met Dana once and he couldn’t have been a nicer guy
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I don’t think this event necessarily speaks to the health of boxing. I think boxing is as healthy as the Saudis want it to be. But everything sells out at Wembley. AEW wresting has half empty arenas every week in the US but can get 75k people in Wembley.
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Dying sports don’t do 1 million+ PPV buys in a country less than a quarter of the size of America (UK) in the period of 2004 - 2010.
Not to mention the Klitsckho brothers were extremely popular in Eastern europe at that time too. Obviously Boxing is absolutely huge in Mexico as well second only to football (soccer) in popularity.
The whole Joe Rogan made up thing about Boxing dying and being swallowed by MMA (if it were true) only applied in America at the time he said it anyway in 2008.
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Boxing is dead to me personally. MMA is way more entertaining. I think it is a much better sport.
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Well how do you define health in this context?
Even before the Saudis became involved Boxing was way more popular than MMA in all but a tiny handful of the world’s 195 countries.
I think you can make the argument that MMA is a better sport if Pride rules were the universal standard.
However with the pussified unified rules the sport is almost ruined for me. Not being able to kick, knee or stomp the head of a grounded opponent is like not being able to use an uppercut or shot to the body in Boxing.
Just ruins it for me.
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So you prefer boxing?
Right now yes but I did prefer MMA for a time when Pride was around. Loved the rules and the linear and active champions in the organisation.
Gradually fallen out of love with MMA since probably the UFC Fox deal in 2013 and fell back in love with Boxing again in that time.
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I don’t rank one over the other. If I had a gun to my head I’d likely choose MMA because it’s my first true passion outside of basketball.
However when I watch boxing I feel like I’m watching a completely different thing. Same with kickboxing, I’m seeing specialists with a higher level of skill, where there are more nuances. As a student of martial arts I like all kinds of fighting.
As James said MMA and boxing are two completely different combatives. But if somebody asked me which is “better”, my answer would be neither, they are just different. No need to rank them.
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Exactly there is room for all of them. It was so stupid back in the day how important it was for some people that MMA must somehow destroy Boxing at all costs and I was constantly thinking back then why?
They are all great in their way and variety is the spice of life.
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If there were only a handful of decent fight cards in MMA per year, and only one, MAYBE two, stars on each of them, then a major headliner fighting his once yearly fight could fill an American football stadium.
We get a shit load of good MMA cards every year, and some fantastic ones.
Then come to find out the once yearly fighter gets beat. He’ll never have this big of a draw again.
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Highest UFC attendance record was 56,000 for a card headlined by two girls
Very very shamefull and humiliating for the company IMHO.
Debatible…
Joshua had lost 3 times before the 98,000 attendance (Numbers according to Turki) so that is not quite true in Boxing. At least for British fighters.
Hatton drew a huge stadium crowd as well straight after losing his undefeated record to Mayweather too.
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So 56,000 in the midst of a shit load of cards per year from one promotion, vs 98,000 for the sport’s biggest draw in the midst of a handful of cards total by all the promotions combined. Wrestling drew almost 90,000 in the same stadium.
If Conor kept fighting and wasn’t a flake, there’s no doubt in my mind he could have pulled those numbers.
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