Boxing Is Losing Out To UFC No Matter What The Promoters Claim

Madison Square Garden is sold out for Miguel Cotto's world title fight with Joshua Clottey tomorrow night. And how heart-warming is it to write that? Well, as ever, all is not what it seems. With notable high-profile exceptions, boxing's pay-per-view numbers and gate receipts have been falling like the Dow Jones Index for years, in the United States at least (where it matters), as Dana White and his friends in mixed martial arts have grabbed a growing slice of a fickle market. Until White's Ultimate Fighting Championship circus began to stir after he bought UFC in 2001, boxing had been doing a fine job of murdering its own babies. Neglect, arrogance, corruption ... you name it, the people who ran the sport, from promoters to administrators to TV executives, all were variously culpable. They took boxing on to cable, subscription and pay-per-view to make as much as they could for as long as they could for as few as they could. Loudest and richest of the grinning millionaires were Don King and Bob Arum, whose influence with the weak ruling bodies enabled them to deliver all the big fights TV could handle. The cynicism was universal and boundless. Nothing we wrote, nothing the fans said, could stop them. UFC, which began to take off in the UK in 2004, has been beating boxing and wrestling in all the numbers for two years now. The time to do some serious worrying had arrived –again. And still, they do not listen. "I keep hearing boxing is dead, boxing is dying," said Arum, whose promotion it is, as he gloried in the prospect of a full house at the Garden. "I've always been incredulous, because I don't know what anybody is talking about." What anybody is talking about (apart from the mental picture of an incredulous Bob Arum) is not just a one-off big show on Puerto Rican Weekend in NY, their second home, between their favourite fighter, Cotto, and Clottey, a Ghanaian who lives in the Bronx, a couple of miles away. What anybody is talking about is not just the world welterweight title they are contesting, an audition, effectively, for a payday against the game's biggest draw, Manny Pacquiao. Nor is anybody just talking about the other glittering attractions that occasionally light up an otherwise bleak boxing landscape, such as Hatton-Pacquiao, Pacquiao-De La Hoya and Hatton-Mayweather. Anybody is also talking about the recent St Patrick's Day show at the Garden that had to be cancelled because nobody gave a damn about the card. Anybody is talking about echoing, untelevised halls at scores of other shows, in the US and here, shows that men such as Arum and King know or care little about. Anybody is talking about the lack of a charismatic heavyweight champion, someone to shut Floyd Mayweather Jnr's mouth and when, in the name of John L Sullivan, will boxing ever get its act together? And if you want to know why boxing should not be as complacent as Arum about UFC and the faith of boxing's fans, get the Observer Sports Monthly in July. COTTO THE KING OF OLD MECCA So, who will win (apart from Arum and HBO)? Cotto. This is his house, these are his fans. He has fought in the old mecca five times, most recently in February, when he turned back the committed but doomed challenge of Chorley's Michael Jennings in five rounds to keep his 10-stone title. His only defeat in 34 fights was away, at the new mecca, the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, nearly a year ago, against Antonio Margarito, who was subsequently disgraced and banned for trying to take loaded gloves into the ring against the amazing Shane Mosley. If Cotto was disadvantaged by the cheating Margarito, we do not know. Antonio denies it. But that performance, in which the Puerto Rican faded, is Clottey's hope. He too lost to Margarito, on points in 2006, but has accounted for all others bar a disqualification loss to Carlos Manuel Baldomir at Wembley Arena nearly 10 years ago, when he was campaigning in the UK. He is a natural welterweight and will lean hard on the smaller Cotto. Arum would love his man Cotto to win, as he has promotional clout with boxing's banker, Pacquiao. No wonder he can't understand why people are worried about the future of boxing.