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

[Pullcounter]

boxing can never do the stuff mma does because mma is controlled by one company

[nathan_nall]

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?

Ok, let me rephrase... everyone surrounding the careers of most professional athletes are overpaid. Our own Boldin is planning on leaving the Cardinals (and most likely will now that the lost the Superbowl) because he said $9,000,000 a year is insulting for a man of his caliber. No one is denying that these guys put their hearts and bodies on the lines in contact sports. But until soldiers in the military make $9,000,000 a year for putting their life on the line, I'm going to say athletes are overpaid. When someone is willing to jump from team to team for the best money, there is little or no devotion to the actual jersey being worn.... When fighters are willing to accept whatever fight, good or bad, will give them the biggest payday for the least amount of work.... MONEY PLAYS TOO BIG A PART OF THE EQUATION.

[tomtsatas]

You people who bash MMA and think boxing is fine are abosolutely DILUSIONAL!!!! MMA is taking over the world right in front of your eyes. WAKE UP!!!

[MindBat]

If mma events can continue to be as good as the Golden Boy promoted Affliction card that headlined Emelianenko vs Arlovski, there would be much more cross over appeal. Even the undercards were worth watching.

But like the majority of major boxing events, not very many exciting undercards seem to be taking place, in my view.

It seems difficult for both sports to get over the hump of showcasing excellent undercards that lead up to a truly exciting main event.

If the main event on its own turns out to be super intriguing and exciting all the same, a crappy undercard would be forgiven by many fans.

[Check]

You people who bash MMA and think boxing is fine are abosolutely DILUSIONAL!!!! MMA is taking over the world right in front of your eyes. WAKE UP!!!

They are? How so?

[MindBat]

Ok, let me rephrase... everyone surrounding the careers of most professional athletes are overpaid. Our own Boldin is planning on leaving the Cardinals (and most likely will now that the lost the Superbowl) because he said $9,000,000 a year is insulting for a man of his caliber. No one is denying that these guys put their hearts and bodies on the lines in contact sports. But until soldiers in the military make $9,000,000 a year for putting their life on the line, I'm going to say athletes are overpaid. When someone is willing to jump from team to team for the best money, there is little or no devotion to the actual jersey being worn.... When fighters are willing to accept whatever fight, good or bad, will give them the biggest payday for the least amount of work.... MONEY PLAYS TOO BIG A PART OF THE EQUATION.

Money is always the grease that turns the wheel. And like the 'olden' days, most fighters were motivated to put it all on the line in 'winner take all' events. They gave the fans their all for the pot.

Nowadays, it's unfair to stage a 'winner take all' event with all of the expenses a fighter incurs leading up to the match and the subsequent expenses after.

In my opinion, a more fair and highly motivating incentive for performance would be to offer the largest percentage of the purse to the winner of the event.

This would minimize or completely eliminate the politics involved in negotiations for the bigger part of the purse.

It may not apply to all sports, but for mma and boxing it could work to boost the performance of the athletes and in turn draw a larger amount of viewers.

Then again, it could just be wishful thinking.

[Pullcounter]

You people who bash MMA and think boxing is fine are abosolutely DILUSIONAL!!!! MMA is taking over the world right in front of your eyes. WAKE UP!!!

i guess that's why mma promoters have to use boxing references like hagler-hearns to sell their events.

u fail.

also, that fight was no where and in no way comparable to hagler-hearns.

[IMustBreakU]

You people who bash MMA and think boxing is fine are abosolutely DILUSIONAL!!!! MMA is taking over the world right in front of your eyes. WAKE UP!!!

Tom, you are too correct here. Right on man!

[KILLA RIGHT]

1 12 round great main event>>>>5 3 minute fights

[RL_GMA]

UFC is an actual federation if you'd like to call it that. Dana White contracts these guys so he can play matchmaker without letting a fighter's manager or agent get in the way of a fight being made, and you NEVER hear about a fighter making excuses of why he wont fight someone, something that truly haunts Boxing sometimes when dealing with its integrity.

UFC in 2008 delivered fights I truly thought I'd never see, while with Boxing we all continue to argue about what fights should be made or could've been made. Now that's not to say Boxing didn't have a great 2008, because it definitely had memorable fights, but when you take into consideration that:

A. When you buy a UFC PPV for $44.95, you're going to get about 4 exciting fights, while with Boxing PPVs you may get...1? (i.e. Pac vs Oscar, Jones vs Calzaghe, etc).

B. Where's the promotion???? UFC has commercials for their PPVs on almost all the main cable networks (i.e. ESPN, ****e, TNT, MTV, etc). I can count on one hand how many commercials I saw for Cotto vs Margarito.

I love Boxing to death, but if they expect to increase its popularity with presenting the public with the future stars and to keep it relevant to the general public, I don't think they should necessarily bite what Dana is doing as far as promotion, but take some notes.