Rant: UFC will slowly take fans away from boxing

[pacmanis1]

This last year it has been hard to defend boxing. The funny part is the fans that say "go ahead and leave, we won't miss you." Yeah we'll maybe you guys won't, but I'm sure the people putting on the fights will. Guess what happens to PBC when fewer and fewer people tune in to see some mismatch. What happens to HBO's boxing budget when fewer and fewer people are tuning in?

If hardcore fans are throwing up there hands and starting to say enough is enough, what do you think the casual who's just looking to watch a fight every once in a while is thinking?

[-2 Scrappy-]

All of these UFC fans so quick to tell you how boxing is dying and UFC is taking over. That's how I can tell they aren't real boxing fans. Because one thing I've noticed about real boxing fans as it relates to UFC and its impact...they don't care.

People cant be fans of both? Nobody even said anything about boxing dying. Now your just being insecure.

[Tony Trick-Pony]

I used to hate UFC but in the last year i started getting into it because a few of my friends love it. Obviously i dont like it anywhere close to boxing but after hearing that GGG is off Dec 10th card, Klit vs Joshua isnt happening, Danny Garcia gets another cherry pick.. I am getting quite fed up with boxing. I buy most of the big ppv's but enough is enough already. As fans of boxing we don't deserve this **** anymore. meanwhile in the UFC the top guys are constantly fighting top guys and you never quite know who will win.

Thank god for Kovalev and Ward, and Lomochenko Walters otherwise this year will go down as crap. We should be getting fights like Canelo GGG, GGG jacobs, Pacquiao Crawford, Pacquiao vs Vargas etc instead we get Canelo vs Khan, smith GGG vs Brook and other crap mismatches. Like step the **** up already because boxing is becoming an embarrassing circus that I am getting frustrated being a part of already. Seems liek 9 out of 10 top fighters are constantly cherry picking and ducking. The next big UFC even is in my hometown NY and the card is stacked from top to bottom with ridiculous fights. Whens the last time boxing had a stacked card? Boxing hardly gives us a top dog vs top dog main event let alone a stacked card with top fighters.

Sorry I just had to vent as I read about GGG not fighting on Dec 10 and Jacobs trainer saying Jacobs needs 12 weeks to train for GGG. GROW SOME ****ING BALLS already this is the fight game not table tennis.

[IMDAZED]

People cant be fans of both? Nobody even said anything about boxing dying. Now your just being insecure.

Who said you can't? And you calling someone insecure?

Plenty of people who tout the UFC also claim that boxing is dying. Even the TS says boxing is now an embarrassing circus. Guess what? Many boxing fans are mad. Many are disgusted. Most don't relate it or connect it with UFC or MMA or whateverit's call. They just don't.

[Tony Trick-Pony]

This last year it has been hard to defend boxing. The funny part is the fans that say "go ahead and leave, we won't miss you." Yeah we'll maybe you guys won't, but I'm sure the people putting on the fights will. Guess what happens to PBC when fewer and fewer people tune in to see some mismatch. What happens to HBO's boxing budget when fewer and fewer people are tuning in?

If hardcore fans are throwing up there hands and starting to say enough is enough, what do you think the casual who's just looking to watch a fight every once in a while is thinking?

[Tony Trick-Pony]

For me the biggest detriment to boxing is the fact that many of your hardcore fans on here justify boxing when it gives us bullshyt. The TS is right. The UFC is running like a well-oiled machine and boxing has given us garbage this year. So many proposed year fights are being cancelled, one by one. Why should a hardcore or especially casual fan give a damn?

I know we have Kovalev-Ward and Lomachenko-Walters(both of which I must add, won't be big money makers), but other than those two, it's looking bleak. Boxing fans deserve better than this crap and anyone who says we don't must be satisfied with BS. Maybe boxing isn't dying, but it sure as hell isn't thriving.

[ИATAS]

This last year it has been hard to defend boxing. The funny part is the fans that say "go ahead and leave, we won't miss you." Yeah we'll maybe you guys won't, but I'm sure the people putting on the fights will. Guess what happens to PBC when fewer and fewer people tune in to see some mismatch. What happens to HBO's boxing budget when fewer and fewer people are tuning in?

If hardcore fans are throwing up there hands and starting to say enough is enough, what do you think the casual who's just looking to watch a fight every once in a while is thinking?

No one even has to defend boxing right now, just call it how it is - a down year in a transitional period (Mayweather/Pacquiao era recently came to a close).

If HBOs boxing ratings go down they will eventually end boxing on HBO. Not sure why people think that is a massive blow to boxing when in reality all it means is that it opens new doors for other networks.

One could argue that boxing on paid premium networks is a relic - it's an old 1990s formula that doesn't work very well in today's modern age. Instead of HBO network deals, the same type of fighters will get contracts elsewhere, or contracts without anyone specific network like PBC, or whoever else comes along. This very well could be great for boxing - instead of being isolated to the same ~1.5 million boxing fans with HBO that tune in, these same type of fighters could then have much larger audiences. We've already seen a glimpse of that with Errol Spence getting 6 million viewers on NBC against Leonard Bundu due to clever scheduling by PBC.

We haven't even seen the potential of the most recent Olympic fighters, guys like Michael Conlan, Shakur Stevenson, Robeisy Ramírez, Tishchenko, Carlos Balderas, and others, and out of all the Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan fighters, who knows, maybe there is a new "Golovkin" or two that can emerge as worldwide stars especially after Golovkin has paved the way so to speak with his success, we don't know, but by the time these guys reach the top of their professional careers (and yes I'm including Cuba because change is coming), if HBO boxing is dead and gone, that could very well benefit a lot of these guys much more than if it was still around. The future of boxing really isn't that dim, in fact I'm quite excited about what lies ahead. Boxing has needed a change for a long time and it's blatantly obvious in 2016. Change is coming because money always motivates change and if the well dries out at HBO, new ground will be tapped.

[285Kid]

This thread should be from 2009 , UFC already did

[Jsmooth9876]

Who said you can't? And you calling someone insecure?

Plenty of people who tout the UFC also claim that boxing is dying. Even the TS says boxing is now an embarrassing circus. Guess what? Many boxing fans are mad. Many are disgusted. Most don't relate it or connect it with UFC or MMA or whateverit's call. They just don't.

It's called a comparison. 2 combat sports, one doing multiple million plus PPV per year, matching top contender against champion on a almost consistent basis and one where the so called face of the sport draws 250,000-300,000 PPV and the other gets anywhere from 97-150k and instead of seeing the top guys fight we get these ducks running away from big fights and then complaining why theyre not more well known.


For every Ward-Kovalev we get the UFC puts on 5 shows just like it or better.
I'll never give up on boxing but I'm a 40 year old guy and have been following before the UFC existed in the mainstream, guys I work with that are 20 couldn't care less about boxing and it's all about the UFC. So good luck bringing new fans in when we get older and fade away putting on garbage fights all the time that nobody gives a fk about while your competition is destroying you with quality fights.

[Fetta]

For me the biggest detriment to boxing is the fact that many of your hardcore fans on here justify boxing when it gives us bullshyt. The TS is right. The UFC is running like a well-oiled machine and boxing has given us garbage this year. So many proposed year fights are being cancelled, one by one. Why should a hardcore or especially casual fan give a damn?

I know we have Kovalev-Ward and Lomachenko-Walters(both of which I must add, won't be big money makers), but other than those two, it's looking bleak. Boxing fans deserve better than this crap and anyone who says we don't must be satisfied with BS. Maybe boxing isn't dying, but it sure as hell isn't thriving.

Mentioned at start of 2016, and Natas mentioned earlier, that with the retirement of Floyd and Pac (yes he's back but...) cotto, Wlad, JMM, and others at the end that boxing was going to go through a "build" period and thats what this was IMO.
-WW seems to be getting hot with Porter, Brook if he's stays, Broner if he can stay "healthy", Garcia, Thurman, Spence and others. Bradley has Arum working with Haymon, possible Crawford....
-154 Charlos, Lara, Hurd, Jrock, etc...
-160 is much more difficult but can have a jacobs, saunders, GGG, canelo round robin if they figure out how to play together
-175 having a fight to determine P4P 1 IMO going into 2017
-HW joshua, wilder, winner of sterv/pov or both depending on show and wlad still a player.

A majority of those mentioned werent as big last year. Fights or boxers. Exposure this year helped some

2017 we will see a resurgence......

Rage, rage against the dying of the light.