Four time world heavyweight champion Evander Holyfield, who this past weekend was indicted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame, disagrees with the constant opinion that the rise in popularity of Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) has overtaken the sport of boxing.
Holyfield attributes that to the sport not being publicized as much.
“I don’t think [MMA] is taking over [boxing], I think we’re not being publicized as much as [MMA]. So people believe what they see on TV, we’re not on TV as much as we used to be,” Holyfield said during an interview on FOX Business. “People don’t talk about boxing as much in America.”
Ironically, at the moment there are ongoing negotiations to match the biggest name in boxing against the biggest name in MMA - with discussions taking place to finalize a deal where five division champion Floyd Mayweather Jr. would face UFC champion Conor McGregor in a boxing match.
IN OTHER NEWS: It was a highly anticipated event for professional boxing in Switzerland as local favourite Patrick Kinigamazi took on Juan Jose Farias from Argentina for the vacant World Boxing Federation (WBF) World Super Featherweight title on Friday, June 9, in Geneva.
And while things started out slow in the first three rounds, the fight as a whole didn’t disappoint. The action picked up considerably in round four, and in the fifth Rwanda-born Kinigamazi landed a solid body-shot to floor Farias. The Argentinian beat the count of referee Ignacio Conejero, and survived the round.
But he would be in more trouble in round six, as Kinigamazi now knew he could hurt his foe and stepped up his aggressiveness. Coming forward and landing to both body and head, it was a left hook that send Farias down a second time.
Kinigamazi was deducted a point for hitting Farias just after he took a knee, and again Farias beat the count and came back strong to finish the stanza. It was a very eventful affair indeed, and both fighters showed how much they wanted to win.
In round seven everything turned around, as Farias managed to land several hard punches. He shook Kinigamazi to his core, and went all out to seize the moment and force the stoppage. Kinigamazi looked very close to going down, but somehow stayed upright long enough to be saved by the bell.
After a more even and uneventful round eight, the home-man was back on top again from round nine. He knocked Farias down in the ninth, tenth and eleventh, but every time the extremely game Argentinian got up and continued to fight his chance.
In fact, Farias finished the fight very strongly as he threw caution to the wind in an attempt to secure what would have been an amazing come-back victory. But it was not to be, as Kinigamazi knew he was well ahead on points and did his best to stay out of trouble.
Judges Beat Hausammann and Jean-Marcel Nartz both scored the fight 116-107, and judge Thomas Zimmermann had it 117-106. Kinigamazi improves his record to 27-2 (3), Farias falls to 18-10-1 (13). The fight was promoted by Tundra Promotions.
