Another MMA/Boxing thread, yeah yeah, hear me out though

250118y ago

http://www.sherdog.net/forums/showthread.php?t=698224&page=22 I ran across this thread earlier today and read alot of ignorant posts by MMA diehards who seem completely oblivious to what has happened in Boxing for 2007 outside of both Mayweather fights. I want to provide some insight why Boxing had a great year. Here is my posts. Please tell me if any info is wrong or anything should be re-worded. I got the numbers using good ol google.com. Here is the post I am going to make. Of course, when posing such a question, as the thread title does, on an MMA forum, you will scarcely find an objective reply. After all, it IS an MMA forum and why should diehard MMA fans submit to a notion such as 2007 being a year for Boxing. The diehard MMA fan isnt going to be versed in the quality and financial #'s of Boxing fights in 2007. So replies such as.. Boxing only had like what? 2 big fights with Mayweather and they were boring. will saturate a thread such as this. Of course there a few posters who are fans of BOTH sports who will offer unbiased opinions and occasional facts that will go ignored and unnoticed. I happen to be a fan of both sports. For example, I normally watch UFC, K-1, Bodog, IFL, etc, etc. I was more than ecstatic at Cung Le's venture into the world of MMA and watched with anxious eyes as he attained a 5-0 record with Strikeforce. Anderson Silva. What more can be said. He is currently my favorite MMA fighter. A great striker with excellent ground skills. How about the horrible welcoming of Mirko Crocop to the UFC who I was %100 confident that he would dominate. Like I said, I'm a fight fan. I watching both. Now, this is not to say that I am not an unbiased poster. I grew up watching Boxing and am a Boxing fan at heart. But what I want to do is offer some insight for those diehard MMA fans who are making posts in this thread with little or no knowledge regarding what has happened in the world of Boxing for 2007 and are making posts claiming that it is dead, boring and uneventful. Whoever had the quality fights this year of course is going to be subjective. I happen to believe that Boxing took that honor. The drama and excitement I've experienced this year in boxing has not been matched by any MMA fight. The Guida/Huerta, Gomi/Diaz, Coutur/Silva/Gonzaga, fights didnt captivate me as much as say, Vazquez/Marquez II or Pavlik Taylor. But again, this is my subjective opinion and I'm sure that a die hard MMA fan could debate with good reason why MMA had the best quality year. But one thing that is for certain, Boxing had the best financial year for sponsors, promoters, networks and fighters. If I had to invest in one of the 2 in 2007, Boxing would have been it. Top earning fights of 2007 De La Hoya/Mayweather-2.4 Million Hatton/Mayweather - 2.2 million (currently over 1.8 Million between the US and UK and is expected to top off @ 2.2 Million in January. An Estimated 50 Million people watched the fight in China) Pacquiao/Barrera 350,000 Cotto/Mosley - 300,000 Mayorga/Vargas -300,000 Cotto/Judah - 300,000 Marquez/Barrera 250,000 Hbo experienced a record-breaking year for HBO PPV. Its eight boxing events sold 4.8 million units and generated $255 million. There are many other fights on lesser known networks averaging 150-200K a fight.Now just because these were the top earning fights do not constitute quality, though some of those fights did provide exciting entertainment. But there were some incredible fights on other networks that were not on PPV. I suggest that any MMA fan with an opinion about which sport did its best research and watch these fights to make an educated assertion. Here is what has been voted by Ring Magazine 2007 Fight of The Year and 2007 Round of the Year, 3rd Round. Israel Vazquez vs. Rafael Vazquez II http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZihnpaSJHKU Other notable fights in 2007 Pavlik/Taylor Pavlik/Miranda Kessler/Calzaghe Juan Diaz/Julio Diaz Marquez/Juarez Marquez(rafa)/Vazquez 1 Katsidis/Amonsot Katsidis/Earl Cordington/Bika Donaire/Darchinian Nwodo/Wilson Kirkland/Conyers Bute/Berrio Arce/Mjiares Arce/Rojas Here are a couple of links to footage of some of the fights I listed. Only listed the footage that was the shortest because I'm sure the average diehard MMA fan and boxing detractor wont give it much attention. Cordington/Bika The Contender Finale which was in the running for FOY AND Round Of The Year http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qCuOqjboPxU Donaire/Darchinian Won KO of the Year, great story too, Darchi fought Donaire's brother the year before breaking his jaw and Donaire was able to avenge that incident. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=48IDY61whtY Nwodo/Wilson Should have won KO of the year imo. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OS77moBJnTM&feature=related Kirkland/Conyers Was a contender for round of the year. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YsQfiGXv_-s Now, quick summary of 2007. Boxing isn’t just alive and well, it’s prospering, both at the box office and in its overall vibrancy. The biggest-selling fight of all time happened this May when De La Hoya and Mayweather squared off. It didn’t just beat the records. It shattered them. 2.4 million people bought De La Hoya-Mayweather. The previous record was about 2 million. A really good pay-per-view card does 400,000, so De La Hoya-Mayweather was as popular as the previous record, plus another really profitable fight. As good as that was, nearly another million bought Mayweather-Hatton. Fights involving Mayweather weren’t the only big hits. Fellow welterweight Miguel Cotto sold out Madison Square Garden. Twice. They even had to open up the mezzanine level to accommodate the 20,000-plus fans each time. And if you think that sounds good, consider that more than 50,000 — you read that right — attended the super middleweight (168 lbs.) showdown between Joe Calzaghe and Mikkel Kessler overseas. The reason for all this success is multi-faceted, but the main reason is thatthe best are finally fighting the best. Some of the 2007 highlights involved numerous fights between the top 10 “pound for pound” fighters, the consensus best in the sport. Mayweather and Hatton were both ranked in the top 10 by most experts when they fought. Same for Bernard Hopkins and Winky Wright, when they fought at 170 lbs. in July. And likewise for junior lightweights (130 lbs.) Marco Antonio Barrera and Juan Manuel Marquez in March. Then Barrera and Pacquiao, in October. Not to mention Cotto and Shane Mosley in November. And some of the other pound-for-pounders were busy too; Calzaghe, the super middleweight division champ, took on his division’s #1 contender, Mikkel Kessler, in November. Jermain Taylor, then the middleweight (160 lbs.) champ, tackled his #1 contender, Kelly Pavlik, in September. Almost all of those fights were excellent, and they were just the most glamorous tip of the iceberg. There will be always room for both sports to co-exist. Boxing will have their fans and MMA will have their fans. It is no point to argue which sport is better. I personally believe that Boxing provides more quality competition. You may believe MMA provides more quality competition. But if one will discuss these issues, please educate yourself in both areas.

Comments (14)

weepaul

Great fucking Post!!!! Great stats, but I doubt alot of the ignorant fans will even read that much.. Regardless excellent post. Could not agree more!! Very well thought out and well written post. I am a big fan of both sports and hate when one side puts down the other. Boxing was and always will be my first love. GREAT POST!!

18y ago

SkillspayBills

WHAT A POST!!! Man 2051 you say some weird shit on this board, but I can give you nothing but positive response and admiration for a well thought out, informative, FACTUAL post. NO fan, MMA or Boxing, can refute a post as factual as that. Great job indeed my friend.

18y ago

Liaison

Wow, somebody from sherdog making sense *looks at the replies in the thread* That’s more like the sherdog alumni

18y ago

mrpain81

Outside of hard core boxing fans nobody knows who 90 percent of those fighters are. The other 10 percent include names that have been around the sport for a long time (mosely, Vargas, Oscar, Pac etc..). MMA fans represent the part of the public that really don't know much about boxing. So when they say there was only 2 big fights, they might be wrong but it shows you that boxing is just promoting the same names it always does. In America, boxing is falling off a bit. Nobody is saying MMA is surpassing it, but nobody can deny it is. The big fights normally include fighters from other countries and when Floyd and Oscar retire, the big draws in American boxing are gone with no new ones in sight. I live Williams to death, but he will never be a big draw. With more and more foreign fighters doing well in boxing, and less American fighters drawing the big crowds, many divisions may end up being in the state the HW one is now. Oscar and Floyd saved boxing this year. MMA forced boxing to step it up and they did. However, the trouble for boxing is not over yet. There challenge is to create the next big American draw or boxing could go the way of Kickboxing in the next decade. Huge in europe/overseas - not so much in America. That argument can go both ways..Who are the new crop of MMA fighters who will be selling out events? Tito Liddell Couture Are the big names in MMA, those guys aint spring chickens. Boxing is a machine in producing new fighters because of all the international amature boxing. MMA has smaller shows that produce fighters and TUF. MMA had a bad year considering Pride is no longer a working org,IFL hemorrhages money with every show. Zuffa's credit was downgraded in 2 straight quarters for,weaker-than-expected corporate performance. Boxing has been dying for 100 years now, and it Just had its best year ever revenue wise. Boxing needs to step it up online, thats one of the reasons MMA has grown so much in the past few years.

18y ago

Trax416

and thats why Boxing had an all around better year? How many UFC events were there this year? usually in a UFC event they put a lot of big names, since there isn't too many PPV.. Not like boxing. Yet Boxing PPV usually have one big name fight or two and the rest are ok or shit but thousands of people still pay to see them. Miguel Cotto vs Shane Mosley did pretty well and I doubt that if you just put one big name fight in a UFC card it wouldn't get as much views as a boxing match. Isn't to many PPV? There is 14 PPV's a year, and 12 fight nights. Thats the UFC alone. Not including many other Mixed Martial Arts organizations. Also, the biggest UFC PPV is coming up on the 29th. Yes boxing has a better year. They had some good cards. Just like MMA had a better year last year. They are different sports, and MMA is still young. If Anything there is to much MMA on TV and PPV. If they had half the PPV's they normally do and actually had decent time to promote them, they would sell better. However they are still selling well. Averaging around 400k buys this year.

18y ago

Trax416

i agree, but the thread is just discussion 2007. "who had the best year?" some of the mma fans believed boxing wasnt even a factor in 07's financially and quality wise. The MMA fans that think boxing sucked in 07 are MMA fans who don't know shit about MMA. Probably the just the trash that go to bars and act like Tito is a good fighter. Trust me when I say that the educated MMA fans, know how well boxing did.

18y ago

Sin_City

Outside of hard core boxing fans nobody knows who 90 percent of those fighters are. The other 10 percent include names that have been around the sport for a long time (mosely, Vargas, Oscar, Pac etc..). MMA fans represent the part of the public that really don't know much about boxing. So when they say there was only 2 big fights, they might be wrong but it shows you that boxing is just promoting the same names it always does. In America, boxing is falling off a bit. Nobody is saying MMA is surpassing it, but nobody can deny it is. The big fights normally include fighters from other countries and when Floyd and Oscar retire, the big draws in American boxing are gone with no new ones in sight. I live Williams to death, but he will never be a big draw. With more and more foreign fighters doing well in boxing, and less American fighters drawing the big crowds, many divisions may end up being in the state the HW one is now. Oscar and Floyd saved boxing this year. MMA forced boxing to step it up and they did. However, the trouble for boxing is not over yet. There challenge is to create the next big American draw or boxing could go the way of Kickboxing in the next decade. Huge in europe/overseas - not so much in America. and thats why Boxing had an all around better year? How many UFC events were there this year? usually in a UFC event they put a lot of big names, since there isn't too many PPV.. Not like boxing. Yet Boxing PPV usually have one big name fight or two and the rest are ok or shit but thousands of people still pay to see them. Miguel Cotto vs Shane Mosley did pretty well and I doubt that if you just put one big name fight in a UFC card it wouldn't get as much views as a boxing match.

18y ago

2501

i agree, but the thread is just discussion 2007. "who had the best year?" some of the mma fans believed boxing wasnt even a factor in 07's financially and quality wise.

18y ago

Trax416

18y ago

2501

18y ago

KESSLER

Seen with a boxing fans eyes, that post is fucking excellent bro. seen with a diehard MMA fans eyes, that post makes probaly no sense.

18y ago

The_Troll

I hear ya............. but the arguments back and forth arent worth it......... both can coincide........... diffrent sports.............. thats like arguing football and hockey both your hitting people but not exactly the same......... just like boxing and mma both your hitting people but not exactly the same...... i hope they both have success and i dont watch any mma stuff... at all.... dont like it .... but its not worth bashing it... much success to both sports.... yes good post and also I know you probably didn't want to start a discussion about this but you cant hit anybody in hockey in anymore, you literally cant even touch another guy without risk of getting a penalty, actually even if you or nobody on your team is touching even with a pinky finger somebody on the other team you can get a penalty because the whole thing is rigged so that no team no matter how bad or mediocre can be eliminated from the playoff race. Or because your leading in a game because they want lead changes. The commisioner of hockey or one of his associates would freely admit the last part to you.

18y ago

mrpain81

Great fucking Post!!!! Great stats, but I doubt alot of the ignorant fans will even read that much.. Regardless excellent post.

18y ago

FISTIC_ART

.................. http://www.sherdog.net/forums/showthread.php?t=698224&page=22 I ran across this thread earlier today and read alot of ignorant posts by MMA diehards who seem completely oblivious to what has happened in Boxing for 2007 outside of both Mayweather fights. I want to provide some insight why Boxing had a great year. Here is my posts. Please tell me if any info is wrong or anything should be re-worded. I got the numbers using good ol google.com. Here is the post I am going to make. I hear ya............. but the arguments back and forth arent worth it......... both can coincide........... diffrent sports.............. thats like arguing football and hockey both your hitting people but not exactly the same......... just like boxing and mma both your hitting people but not exactly the same...... i hope they both have success and i dont watch any mma stuff... at all.... dont like it .... but its not worth bashing it... much success to both sports....

18y ago