5-years ago UFC groupies predicted that by now boxing would be totally dead, and UFC would be crushing it. Today, the shit still isn't even legal in the media capital of the world (NY). When you gonna kill boxing, Dana White?
Mma has a legit market as a legit sport but that's pretty small compared to the social media sustaining it as a "thing". People aren't consistently paying to see Ronda Rousey break some anonymous woman's arm because they're huge fans of the sport and she's such a technical pleasure to behold anymore than people bought Floyds ppv's. Boxing has a much more solid foundation to sit on when there's no mainstream appeal. Mma is always in danger of falling off until some roided up chick or pro wrestler captures the publics imagination again.
salient point, but now that the UFC's fighters can legally marry in all states it may cause a boom in the sport.
The great haydays of Chuck Liddell beating on that Mejican Tito Ortiz.....are over... Their biggest PPV to date was main evented by a Pro Wrestler....yeah yeah..okay he was a college Wrestler..so he's double gay... I think they have another wrestler line up hopefully to bring 'em to the light again.... Their biggest STAR is a CHICK....a GIRL...sorta... Though MMA schools are popping up everywhere even today....and with college wrestling...MMA/UFC has a future...they will have athletes in the future.....Boxing needs to implement some shit like that...some sorta farm system....get those homeless kids from nicaragua, puerto rico, usa, mejico...train 'em to be grand....like the TITANS of years past..... but yeah...MMA is SHIT...and for Fuckboys with their gay tough fag shirts.
UFC's fan base is mainly comprised of young, white males. Boxing will always appeal to a wider demographic. Whites, blacks, latinos, asians, young, old, all can get into following boxing. Especially because Latinos will ALWAYS be bigger combat sport fans than whites and blacks, and Latinos will NEVER prefer MMA to Boxing - boxing is too rich in their tradition.
UFC cannot capture the imagination the way boxing can simple because of the nature of its fights. Anyone can lose a UFC fight at any moment due to the ground and pound, the locks and the chokes. It's more for people that crave violence but it doesn't have the theater that boxing has. Boxing is more controlled violence, violence that is allowed within observable constraints...which makes it more poetic....and makes the skill sets more understandable and appreciated. UFC is just barbaric chaos. Chaos appeals to a smaller market than measurable fluidity does.
MMA on a grand scale cannot attract the same fans that boxing does. As Sly pointed out, boxing has a certain aesthetic beauty to it, whereas MMA has the appearance of a caged street brawl. That will always win out in the end.
i havent watched it in ages. i was put off by the all the 'FUCK YEAH WOOOOOO!'-ing and faggy Nu-metal.
Ohhh yeah I forgot....commentators... UHHHH MY GODDDD!!!!!!!!.....UNBELIEVABLE!!!!!!......THAT IS THE MOST BRUTAL KO EVER!!!!!!!!.....INSANE!!!!!!!......BLAH BLAH FIGHTER IS AWESOME!!!!!!.....in every fucking FIGHT!!!!!!.....
I don't feel that's true at all. Just look at the average number of defenses a champ makes (not some paper titlist, a real champ), GSP, Fedor, Silva, Jon Jones, Jose Aldo all had (or have) a long win streak.
True to some extent, and imo, Rousey and wmma is more a gimmick than anything else. Weidman and Jones don't seem to catch the imagination of the casual fans like a Chuck Liddell or GSP could. But if McGregor wins vs Aldo, he will be a huge star.
MMA is a legitimate sport that includes many styles of fighting. Boxing is a strictly focused form of fighting, like karate or judo or jiu jitsu. MMA unifies all the fighting styles. It is a more pure form of sport, a more pure form of hand to hand combat with less rules and restrictions. Plenty of people love MMA and boxing. Boxing isn't going anywhere. I love both sports. My favorite fighters in MMA tend to be the guys who utilize boxing most effectively.
The UFC just doesnt have the professionalism and legitimacy that professional boxing does. It has too much of a pro-wrasslin'/circus feel to it. Thanks to the douchebag fanboys/condom depot advertisements/lack of amateur pedigree/Douchebag Dana White/....and the list goes on. Boxing is much more refined and will never go out of style. The UFC appeals to the drunken redneck male who listens to death metal, drives a lifted truck, is covered in tattoos and wears xsmall Tapout shirts while puffing out their chests all night.
Yep, that's a myth that always get repeated god knows why. In fact, if there was as few weight class in boxing that there is in MMA, and champs were always fighting the top contenders, their probably would be a lot less stability in boxing than their is in MMA. Back on topic, I agree with the premise that MMA has pretty much reached a plateau a few years ago, and has been steadily decreasing since then. It will remain fairly popular, but the boom is over imo.
