By Mark Vester
In a recent conference with the media, former super middleweight champion Jeff Lacy (22-1, 17KOs) gave his thoughts on Mixed Martial Arts, primarily the UFC, and whether or not the sport of boxing has stepped up to compete with the UFC as a sport.
"I don't think that we really paid much attention to them. I see that as a fad, to tell you the truth. To me it's not a sport. I used to see that in my old neighborhood in the Bronx. The fact of the matter is if you look at it with all their hype and all the rest of the stuff, Oscar de la Hoya verses Mayweather itself in the aggregate grossed as much as almost all of their MMA fights of the year, one fight," Lacy said. "Now you're going to add this card that's coming up now, between the two cards, they out-grossed the entire MMA fights for the year."
Lacy says that MMA is not as popular as the sport of boxing and there is a not a single mixed martial arts competitor on the level of a De La Hoya, Sugar Ray Leonard or even himself. While I won't go as far as stating that Lacy is a more popular athlete than a Chuck Liddell or a Tito Ortiz, two of the most well known stars in MMA, I will say that I wouldn't be surprised if Lacy made just as much money as them in his career.
"So, it's still not as popular as boxing. Boxing is the second most popular sport in the world, next to soccer, and MMA is just something that's come along. They've done a great job of marketing it. For people that remember it, there's nobody on the level of Oscar de la Hoya, Ray Leonard, Ali, or Jeff Lacy or any of these guys," Lacy said. "There's nobody at MMA that right off the top of your head is going to go to a Hall of Fame. They're going to either remember them or they're going to have other lives afterwards. I can't remember one guy."
Lacy returns to the ring on the Dec. 8, facing Peter Manfredo Jr. on the undercard to Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Ricky Hatton in Las Vegas.
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