Boxing has always done this, MMA fans are former post Tyson prison fans, Do you remember those people? The guys who would never miss a Tyson fight, didn't watch the under cards and couldn't tell you anything about any other fighter? Remember them guys? Well Tyson was the thing, he was mainstream and he was exciting, those are the fans boxing lost when MMA became prime time tv. True boxing fans will always be boxing fans. Boxing Mega fights still make more then MMA Mega Fights, there is more money in boxing and the top boxers make shitloads more then the top MMA guys.
What MMA is doing that boxing cant is that it loads its cards with personalities they have built up on free TV, boxing used to do it with CBS and NBC but dirty greedy promoters couldnt suck as much money out of the event if it was on TV. Promoters like Arum and King dont care about boxing or building a fighter, they are pirates and they are raping fighters and pillaging the sport, they will take whatever they can until the well is dry.
Personally I find MMA to be fairly boring most of the time, you get the odd exciting stand up match, but the ground game come on, Yea I know its skill and all that, but thats the same thing boxing fans say about Winky Wright vs Benrard Hopkins, appreciate the skill, yea I do, but in MMA out of 50 fights you might get 3 or 4 that actually stand up and put on a show, most UFC shows have been huge disappointments lately.
Boxing will rebound, but this time I think it needs a revamp, a national body and one title, lose the super and jr divisions, the average fan has a hard time getting into boxing because its so confusing, we know it because we have been watching it forever. But when a new fan comes in and theres 3 champions in one division......I mean...what do you expect.
UFC on the other hand has 7 or 8 divisions, one title in each, hardly any bad decisions and tv shows to build its fighters, unlike the contender boxing tv show where these guys just cannot compete on a championship level, the Ultimate fighter on the other hand can grab guys who have only been training a year or two and these guys can can go onto be superstars and grab titles quickly, which I think also shows the skill level needed to participate between the two sports.
As for History it continuously repeats itself in and out of the boxing ring.
Good Topic
