Tweet
These are the three main reasons that come to my head regarding the boxing/MMA controversy:
1. Boxing has done a very poor job regarding DVD/VHS sales. You can buy any UFC event on DVD straight from the company, but in order to buy boxing fights, you'll probably have to deal not with a company/corporation, but with a grey market individual. So a great boxing match has a less lasting effect than a MMA great match, since one is shown in TV a couple of times, and the other sits on a Blockbuster Video shelf waiting to be watched over and over and over. (AS IT IS, if someone has Santos v.s Margarito I and II please send me a message)
2. Each generation has it's icons and movments, and MMA has turned into a generation X and generation Y movement/Icon. Generational icons are religious in nature. An average baby boomer will love Ali, the Beatles, Hendrix, and will consider them above all the competition, past and present. A lot of Gen X and Y people love MMA with such fervor as it [B]identifies[B] a movement or a change their generation has incorporated into the world.
3. To some people boxing is ******. They consider it a sport where criminals and ex-convicts abound. It has an aura of mob involvement. A lot of cases have had bad publicity (Tyson, Hopkins, Morel, Berbick's murder, Ibeabuchi,Mosley and steroids, Morrison's AIDS, for example). So mom's are not in a position to encourage their kid's interested in boxing. And, up to certain age, the money you spend is your parent's money. Since MMA doesn't have that aura with the general public (yet?), mom is more akin to spend money on the kid's MMA DVDs and PPV than boxing PPV (since, we have already touched the subject, YOU CAN'T FIND BOXING DVDs as easily).
1. Boxing has done a very poor job regarding DVD/VHS sales. You can buy any UFC event on DVD straight from the company, but in order to buy boxing fights, you'll probably have to deal not with a company/corporation, but with a grey market individual. So a great boxing match has a less lasting effect than a MMA great match, since one is shown in TV a couple of times, and the other sits on a Blockbuster Video shelf waiting to be watched over and over and over. (AS IT IS, if someone has Santos v.s Margarito I and II please send me a message)
2. Each generation has it's icons and movments, and MMA has turned into a generation X and generation Y movement/Icon. Generational icons are religious in nature. An average baby boomer will love Ali, the Beatles, Hendrix, and will consider them above all the competition, past and present. A lot of Gen X and Y people love MMA with such fervor as it [B]identifies[B] a movement or a change their generation has incorporated into the world.
3. To some people boxing is ******. They consider it a sport where criminals and ex-convicts abound. It has an aura of mob involvement. A lot of cases have had bad publicity (Tyson, Hopkins, Morel, Berbick's murder, Ibeabuchi,Mosley and steroids, Morrison's AIDS, for example). So mom's are not in a position to encourage their kid's interested in boxing. And, up to certain age, the money you spend is your parent's money. Since MMA doesn't have that aura with the general public (yet?), mom is more akin to spend money on the kid's MMA DVDs and PPV than boxing PPV (since, we have already touched the subject, YOU CAN'T FIND BOXING DVDs as easily).