SO.. Is the talent in boxing today any worse since UFC took off?

Its the other way round. The myth mma fighters are more talented because they are mediocre at a number of arts is laughable. Def total BS. People "play" grappling and MMA all the time. Never heard anything so ridiculous

Boxing will always be more popular because it involves less talent, so more people can get involved do it. You can play boxing, you don't play MMA. That is where the hardcore real fighting fans watch. Its the other way round. The myth mma fighters are more talented because they are mediocre at a number of arts is laughable.

Speaking from personal experience, MMA is good for boxing. I started out as a typical "Boxing is dying, MMA is the future" douche. When I started to train Jits I started to get into striking and realized my real passion was for boxing and kickboxing. MMA is a grapplers sport. I now love boxing a lot more than MMA. What really matters is the personalities in each sport. MMA grew rapidly because boxing had only 1-2 marketable stars and UFC had Lesnar, GSP, Anderson, Chuck, Tito, Wandy, Rampage, etc. I think boxing has actually learned a lot about marketing from UFC. People just want to see good fights and great personalities and I think boxing is trying to move in that direction. UFC is also terrible $ for fighters and not doing near the business they did in 2006-2011

I feel that it actually has hurt, since there are much more MMA gyms available than their boxing gyms. Also there are many more local small.cards for fighters than there is for boxing cards. Kids don't have patience anymore. Seems the MMA circuit is quicker than boxing for obvious reasons. I don't enjoy MMA at all but this is what I've noticed. I still think the Olympics are still viewed as a big deal to adults the kids they are signing up to compete. if MMA were an Olympic sport I think we'd see an even bigger boom in youth signing up and gyms popping up everywhere. Having a chance to represent you country in the games and a shot at Gold is a huge deal. Some kids are going to lean more towards amateur boxing for that reason .... but MMA does have more of a "coolness" factor to it though so who knows really.

I follow MMA, and TV ratings, PPV, CCTV (bars) etc are all going down. They have some serious issues with their stars not being around. This isn't 2010 anymore. The UFC is also playing with fire for the first time by taking money away from their fighters by controlling sponsorship. 2014 was rough for them, and while 2015 started good they already had some terrible developments. He knows, he just doesn't like to let the truth get in the way of his trolling. The surge in mma was going to happen no matter who was running the show because my generation, who grew up on ninjas, karate, and action movies wanted this type of thing. The ufc couldn't sustain it because their, "Fk you we run shyt" attitude and poor business practices couldn't survive without the fad factor. Some people claim global dominance now that international markets are opening up but we've already seen the biggest non-north American market (Brazil) sputter out with recent numbers plummeting. I like mma and have followed for many years but it's not a mainstream sport and isn't hurting boxing whatsoever.

Boxing is a cluster**** & everyone is out for their own thing which doesn't help promote boxing to the masses consistently. It only makes sense a group with a centralized power structure would be capable of mass success, more consistently than a group of a half dozen to a dozen major players mostly trying to get theres. This is a very important point, but I just happen to disagree with 100%. The reason why MMA has stagnated is because they have killed all their rivals and now it's up to them to create all the new stars and it's not working. More promoters = more promotion for the sport. Not to mention that they sucked out all the money from the sport while the fighters got peanuts.

The trend is clearly moving towards MMA becoming the premier fighting sport. I don't see that as fearmongering or debatable. Its just the truth, like it or not, believe it or not. That sorta stuff that don't seem all that important to you & maybe others now will have an impact on boxing in the future. I follow MMA, and TV ratings, PPV, CCTV (bars) etc are all going down. They have some serious issues with their stars not being around. This isn't 2010 anymore. The UFC is also playing with fire for the first time by taking money away from their fighters by controlling sponsorship. 2014 was rough for them, and while 2015 started good they already had some terrible developments.

Boxing will always be more popular because it involves less talent, so more people can get involved do it. You can play boxing, you don't play MMA. That is where the hardcore real fighting fans watch.

MMA is taking off in places with minimal boxing presence aka India, indochina and China.... Boxing has peaked while MMA as a sport is in its "infancy" stages internationally. Keep feeling butt hurt thou. Boxing has spread more in China and India than MMA. Mary Kom and Zou Shiming are very famous in their countries. Rex Tso is getting big in Hong Kong while Dong is making a splash too. MMA has no well known Indians or Chinese.

The UFC is more popular and has more talent because there is no hiding place for fighters. There is no "if the money is right"......no, the top challengers face the belt holders and there is no hiding place or avoiding each other for 5 years, none of them games and that is one of the reasons I prefer UFC as I get to see the fights happen. In boxing, my favourite era was Benn, Eubank, back then the fights (us fans wanted to witness) happened, rematches took place, none of this running away from each other and if Boxing wants to improve the talent we need to see a shake up of the industry and learn from the UFC.

Boxing is doing fine! In the UK we have Bisping in MMA only MMA bods would know him. In boxing we have AJ, Brook, Khan, Degale, Groves, Froch, Smith Bros, Fury family then you have the Kevin Mitchells of the sport who have big fan bases. Also Luke Campell. Boxing is on the up in the UK. MMA is easier to get into like others have said. I could be decent at MMA in my local area after 1 year would take me 3 years or more in Boxing.

I think the turn from boxing being the most popular fighting sport to MMA being the most popular fighting sport is still a move thats in transition so I wouldn't expect much noticeable at this point among possible participants. I do know that it appears younger cats are more likely to be MMA fans/participants over boxing fans/participants & I think thats a trend that will continue & will be felt further down the line. For how long its been in the mainstream MMA has made tremendous progression & while its not always been a straight up trajectory or will it be a trajectory with constant upward movement in the future I think its nearly a forgone conclusion that MMA will be the premier "fighting" sport in the eyes of the public at some point in the future. I think its already debatable MMA has surpassed boxing, but sooner or later, 5 years, 10 years, 20 years down the line it won't be a debatable topic any longer. I'll always love boxing first, but I think this is whats currently happening & will continue happening unless boxing makes some major changes to bring in younger fans & correct the corruption in the sport. That's just a lot of paranoid fearmongering. The UFC's recent ratings = PBC. They aren't growing anymore and I wouldn't be shocked if their owners sell it off in a few years.

I think it's better now. MMA has raised interest in combat sports and that has brought more kids into boxing. At my old boxing gym, membership jumped 4 fold when MMA took off in 2008-2010. Many guys that get serious into mma wrestled in college. Kids that study boxing can be boxers. There is no where for a talented wrestler to go but coaching.

The boxing talent pool has always been much larger. MMA is going through a transition phase and the crap money will hold it back. Zuffa make Arum seem generous.

If Manny Pacquaio and Floyd mayweather are todays top welters yes it's a bad ERA take a look at the 80's 90's Tommy Hearns, Roberto Duran, Sugar Ray Terry Norris, Gerald Mcleam Julian Jackson Julio Ceasr Chavez, Tito Trinidad Yes all these guys here would beat Mayweather and Pacquaio with ease I named a few Jr middles cause Floyd hold the 152 pound title. Mclean was a Jr Middle at first when he knocked out Julian Jackson or If Im wrong let me know HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!! If their was a Manny Pacman in those era's it would be downright shocking to fighters of that caliber lol. He would destroy most the names on that list and Floyd would humiliate them all PERIOD. Their is no era in boxing that has fighters THIS sharp. Back in those era's the competition could compete with eachother. In this era, Floyd and Pac are levels above the competition!

The UFC doesnt have as any talented fighters, in boxing there are lots of great fighters. In the UFC there are ony a couple great fighters like Jon Jones. The rest are not that good Lmao,.., The exact same can be said about boxing.., there is a great fighter like floyd (jon jones) and then their is everyone else... The word great gets used way too much on these forums... And a lot of boxers appear great but it's due to soft matchmaking... Dudes get thrown to the wolves in UFC, no easy fights and nearly impossible to have super long win streaks, and great fighters like gsp, silva, jones, Cain, rise to the top, and you can call them great because they have dominated in nothing but hard fights

The talent is not getting developed properly in boxing, has nothing to do with mma.. Amateur boxing is so watered down, and young pros are overprotected climbing thru the ranks, which stunts their development.. Boxing needs more SHObox type cards matching young prospects against each other's as opposed to fighting some guy that is 10-5-2.. Young fighters need to stay active and have an occasional test every few fights.. That is how you hone your craft and skills

I think there's some MMA fighters that would have been very good boxers. Chris Weidman, for example. Cain Velasquez too.

UFC is sh*t. It was never going to overtake boxing, and the people who said that were delusional. MMA is taking off in places with minimal boxing presence aka India, indochina and China.... Boxing has peaked while MMA as a sport is in its "infancy" stages internationally. Keep feeling butt hurt thou.

This true, imo. Even elite UFC fighters earn peanuts compared to top boxers, and talent always follows the money. The only talented combat athletes who would opt for MMA over boxing are those who know that their body build or punch resistance would prevent them reaching the top in the ring. people don't originally take up sports because of money. a 13 year old who likes brock lesnar is not going to switch from mma to boxing just for the potential purses. and once you are an adult and money becomes your primary motivation, it's generally too late to switch disciplines and become world-class in a new one