Boxing For the Under Privileged Masses, MMA for Socio-Economic Elite Minority

[Fulcrum29]

I know Boxing vs. MMA is a tired topic, but there's one angle of it that few people have yet to point out that I think is a cogent argument.

MMA will never match boxing for many reasons, but one of biggest is due to the fact that MMA can never tap that underprivileged demographic (which is sadly the majority in some senses - because let's be honest there's more underprivileged people than there are socio-economic "elites"). The reason being is that there are NO STORIES in MMA, there are no rags to riches heroes, no Kasim the Dream Ouma's, no Bernard Hopkins. If you look at every major MMA "superstar" they are all well to do caucasians with college degrees and good homely upbringings. Randy Couture was a wrestler during his studies at Oklahoma State, Chuck the "iceman" Liddell was a division 1 wrestler while attending Cal. Polytech University. Even the black fighters, let's take current super-star Rashad Evans as an example - he attended Michigan State University and wrestled for them.
Now I'm not saying that an educated fighter is a bad thing, and I for one believe the Klitschkos with their PHD's and all are a good thing for boxing. But when you have a sport that consists of nothing but well to do, good upbringing, socio-economically superior fighters, it will never tug at the heart strings of the strong urban demographic that follows true sports like boxing.
There is no grit nor street ferocity in an MMA match. When you pit two bachelor/master degree having "gentlemen" against each other it pales in comparison to the unbridled STREET FEROCITY and "nothing to lose" attitude of a socio-economically gimped boxer who came from the hood and probably never even garduated highschool. Take Zab Judah for example, for all his theatrics and immaturity at least they are REAL and GENUINE because he is from the gritty hood, whereas in MMA to achieve that same level of suspense they needed to hire a professional wrestler from the WWE (Brock Lesnar) who was the first MMA star to 'incense fans' with his faux-obnoxious stage personality.
In fact Dana White has actually hurt the long term chances of MMA by cashing in on short term profits by hiring the likes of Brock Lesnar and Bobby Lashley straight from the WWE. While the short term profits soar when Lesnar fights, White is actually debasing the credibility of his fighters - the same which he spent years trying to build up as 'legitimate warriors.' But when you have a WWE star take over your best division in under 3 fights, then you know your actual 'fighters' never had much credibility to begin with.
So in conclusion, MMA "fighters" will never have much credibility for toughness, grit, or 'street cred' amongst the vast demographic of underprivileged and non socio-economically "elite" fans. When the going gets tough, no one will expect a middle to upper class bachelor degree'd MMA "star" to ever become a true warrior like Arturo Gatti and leave his heart in the ring because he knows that boxing is all that he has and if he loses he will go back to poverty and squalor. In MMA, when a fighter loses he knows he can just go back to a 50-60k a year desk job with his upper class upbringing and college degree. So MMA fighters will always lack the basic carnal ferocity and no retreat, all out mentality of a true boxer.

[KILLA RIGHT]

Long read but the title alone is the truth

[S.G.]

True in the case of ********** and countries outside of the USA but as far as I can tell MMA seems to have a large working class white following stateside

Anyone actually from America confirm/deny for me please?

[Swoosh]

You are trying to label a sport which is still evolving. The reason these "superstars" in MMA happen to be big wrestling stars is because the sport happened to evolve into what they did best. What you see from MMA today is not what it's going to be like in 5 years. Fighters backgrounds will be different. Kids will be training MMA from the moment they will be able to walk. MMA will eventually make it's way to where guys have big boxing backgrounds just like they have wrestling backgrounds now. When that happens, MMA will find itself going back to the ground because nobody will want to stand and trade with guys skillful at boxing wearing 4oz gloves. It's all part of the evolution of the sport and what you see now, isn't what you'll see in the future.

One thing that may be a detractor from under priveliged kids going into MMA is that to join a gym seem to be running about 2 to 3 times as much per month over boxing.

[Fulcrum29]

You are trying to label a sport which is still evolving. The reason these "superstars" in MMA happen to be big wrestling stars is because the sport happened to evolve into what they did best. What you see from MMA today is not what it's going to be like in 5 years. Fighters backgrounds will be different. Kids will be training MMA from the moment they will be able to walk. MMA will eventually make it's way to where guys have big boxing backgrounds just like they have wrestling backgrounds now. When that happens, MMA will find itself going back to the ground because nobody will want to stand and trade with guys skillful at boxing wearing 4oz gloves. It's all part of the evolution of the sport and what you see now, isn't what you'll see in the future.

One thing that may be a detractor from under priveliged kids going into MMA is that to join a gym seem to be running about 2 to 3 times as much per month over boxing.

"Evolution" is no excuse nor valid refutation to any of my arguments because nothing in life is in a static sort of stasis, in fact EVERYTHING is evolving INCLUDING boxing. Boxing isn't the same as it was in the 80's so really that applies to everything.

However your last statement is accurate and only adds a point to codify what I was saying so let me embellish on it briefly:

The boxing "infrastructure" will always support the underprivileged demographic while the MMA infrastructure similar to the expensive golf (that's why there's not that many minority golfers because it's an expensive sport to play) will never allow the underprivileged gritty socio-economically inferior people to access that world because on average MMA's entire infrastructure as you mentioned is accessible only to upper middle class demographics. There are several reasons for this:
1. MMA gyms as you mentioned are generally more expensive because they cater to that upper middle class demographic
2. MMA trainers are generally younger more expensive industry "professionals," you'll never find a haggard old ex-champ charging 5$ for lessons or even giving lessons FREE to young hopefuls like you would in a boxing gym. In fact I remember in some small dusty boxing gym in Bedstuy in Brooklyn there were some old black trainers that would teach young kids for free and basically lived out of the gym. Since MMA fighters' AND trainers' backgrounds are more socio-economically elevated, an MMA trainer would never stoop to such a level as he is quintessentially a mid 30's to 40's industry professional requiring a high standard of salary from a socio-economically endowed clientele that he knows is willing to pay that high fee.
So, the point is that MMA in its current state will never be ACCESSIBLE to under privileged people because of its socio-economically exclusive infrastructure, whereas boxing always will be because any old town has some back alley gym that has cheap trainers willing to work for bread crumbs or even for FREE to teach a capable young underprivileged youth how to box.
And so this is why the vast under privileged majority will never respect the heart or 'grit' of an MMA fighter nor give as much timeless and epic relevance to any MMA match because they know that no MMA fighter will ever leave his heart and soul in the ring and risk life and death like so many boxers do.

[ColtraneChanges]

This thread smells of insecurity.

No need to turn this into a big **** competition. Boxing will be just fine.

[Drunken Cat]

For one thing, the sport is still evolving. In the US, more often than not people have had to pay for training up front, without immediate rewards. This is more so the case with martial arts gyms in general, though this should be expected to change with regards to MMA.

If you go to Brazil, everything you said probably does not apply. I've heard stories of gyms which are so packed that when they go to roll around a trainer will walk through, and as long as each pair is a foot-width apart they are good to go.

I didn't read the whole post, but your post includes a major oversight in regards to your comment about college degrees. A tremendous number of MMA fighters come from wrestling backgrounds. If you are an elite wrestler in the US, it is basically a given that you wrestled in college. Needless to say, as with other college athletes, these guys attend school on sports scholarships.

I basically find your post reactionary, and not grounded in fact.

[Fulcrum29]

This thread smells of insecurity.

No need to turn this into a big **** competition. Boxing will be just fine.

It's funny how usually the first person to bring up insecurity is the secretly insecure one himself.

[street bully]

State of the art boxing facilites are not cheap at all. Compare the training camp costs of top boxers and top MMA fighters, and you will see which is more expensive. Also expensive golf my ass. There are a bunch of these martial arts places which are pretty cheap for beginers, and the guys in college you talked about were there since they probably had wrestling scholarships. There are no boxing scholarships. Also wasn't GSP on welfare and broke running around in Montreal?

[Fulcrum29]

I didn't read the whole post

I basically find your post reactionary, and not grounded in fact.

How can you "find" anything in my post if you failed to even read it? Pretty obtuse and lazy on your part with a reactionary answer based on ignorance (not reading my post).