"Fighting Words" – What Boxing Can Learn from the UFC

[nathan_nall]

Diehard boxing fans/UFC haters will use the excuse that UFC doesnt pay its fighters accordingly, therefore they can afford to put on better quality fights. Ok, and how is this a bad thing for its fans? If the fighters are willing to get in there, and put on an entertaining show for less money than in boxing, why should i give a ****? They make it seem as if paying them less is a bad thing for the fans. I dont get it.

Professional athletes, in most major sports, are entirely overpaid. I think UFC is starting to get on track, but in the beginning, it wasn't so much that they weren't paying their fighters enough... its that they weren't paying them period. I was watching a documentary on Couture last night on A&E.... Dana White screwed him over so many times. After he won his first title, Dana came up to him afterwards and said, "We don't have the money to pay you what your contract states, but we'll pay you what we can"... Which Couture said was 1/3 the original amount.

[youngswish23]

great article i hate paying 5 dollars for a night of mismatches.

[Mr. David]

Diehard boxing fans/UFC haters will use the excuse that UFC doesnt pay its fighters accordingly, therefore they can afford to put on better quality fights. Ok, and how is this a bad thing for its fans? If the fighters are willing to get in there, and put on an entertaining show for less money than in boxing, why should i give a ****? They make it seem as if paying them less is a bad thing for the fans. I dont get it.

An acquaintance of mine with ties to both boxing and MMA points out that the undercard fighters in MMA get paid more than their boxer counterparts.

Money is doing a good thing for boxers. But not for boxing.

[trainhard_187]

No, I'm definately not downing MMA. In my first post I was actually going to say the card was ****ty. Truth is, the card was a really great card. I was FLOORED when, at nights end, the actual fights were so bad, despite the fantastic card. Obviously I'm a boxing fan first, and MMA fan... like fifth, but I try not to hate.

The Card = 8 out of 10
The Actual Fights = 5 out of 10
The Headliner (St. Pierre-Penn) = 3 out of 10

Honestly, there was no excuse for that fight. After the first round, I said Penn has no business fighting at that weight. After the stoppage, I said Penn has no business fighting... ever again.

Agreed. But I would of given the headliner a 2.
That main event was over after the 1st round IMO, I said to myself, were people really hyping up this rematch. Penn looked DRAINED and had everything taken out of him.

[2501]

And the card, matchmaking wise, was far better than anything boxing's put on in a long, long time.

Really? better than Pacquiao/Marquez, Vazquez/Marquez, Hopkins/Pavlik, Diaz/Campbell etc etc?

[2501]

Professional athletes, in most major sports, are entirely overpaid.

How can they be overpaid when its THEM who generate the revenue? Is Lebron James worth a 95 Million dollar Nike contract? Of course he is because he will generate much more for the brand. There's a reason why a bench player will earn only 200K a year and a franchise player will earn 10 Milli. You want the organizations to pocket most of the revenue generated by the athletes or what? Give it to charity? The needy?

[Robenson]

I love boxing and mma. I must admit boxing is far behind ufc in terms of marketing due to ff reasons:

1. ufc has a lot of drama and focuses more on the fighter so people have emotional attachment over them when they fight. the ultimate fighter series and pre-fight video really helps.

2. good match making because they belong only to one organization. no ducking, fight picking, or issue over the purse. good thing they dont protect any fighter and so rarely youll see an over rated ufc fighter, (except for brock, only time will tell).

3. ufc knows its fan base and builds over them. the use of loud music and kick ass production caters to young people making ufc the "new generation" combat sport.

Though I think ufc's egocentric approach through dana white will cause dilemma in mma, especially fedor is rated as the top p4p who is not in ufc. not unless brock (or whoever ufc HW champ) gets out of ufc, he will not fight fedor and the mma fans will get frustrated over this. all ufc is doing right now is killing the competition to get the best fighters.

[Mr. David]

Really? better than Pacquiao/Marquez, Vazquez/Marquez, Hopkins/Pavlik, Diaz/Campbell etc etc?

I'm talking cards, top to bottom, main event to, in this case, televised undercard matches.

I reiterate: Boxing pay-per-views are marketed solely off the main event. While the main event plays a big role in MMA pay-per-views, fans pay $45 a month because they know they're going to get stacked shows.

[Dirt E Gomez]

I'd father Greisman's children if it were genetically possible.

[baCCaT]

the only good thing about ufc is lyoto machida