Quote:
Originally Posted by Strange Famous
MMA certainly hasnt surpassed boxing in terms of popularity. It maybe be popular amongst college aged men, but boxing has a much wider fanbase.
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But that fanbase is shrinking and going to the UFC. The UFC had seven out of the top ten PPV Buyrates in 2008, boxing had two (wrestling had one).
1. Boxing: Oscar De La Hoya vs. Manny Pacquiao, Dec. 6, 1,250,000
2. UFC: Brock Lesnar vs. Randy Couture, Nov. 15, 1,010,000
3. Wrestling: WrestleMania, Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Paul "Big Show" Wight, March 30, 670,000
4. UFC: Georges St. Pierre vs. Jon Fitch/Lesnar vs. Heath Herring, Aug. 9, 625,000
5. UFC: Lesnar vs. Frank Mir, Feb. 2, 600,000
6. UFC: Quinton Jackson vs. Forrest Griffin, July 5, 540,000
7. UFC: St. Pierre vs. Matt Serra, April 19, 530,000
8. Boxing: Felix Trinidad vs. Roy Jones Jr., Jan. 19, 500,000
9. UFC: Chuck Liddell vs. Rashad Evans, Sept. 6, 480,000
10. UFC: B.J. Penn vs. Sean Sherk/Tito Ortiz vs. Lyoto Machida, May 24, 475,000
It's true that boxing had the biggest with the De La Hoya/Pacquiao event but the UFC wasn't far behind with the Lesnar/Couture event. Don't be surprised if the UFC tops the 2009 list with UFC 100 as early estimates put it at around 1.5 million buys.
EDIT: Now that I think about it, this is probably why this topic has come back up. SF sees the writing on the wall with the PPV buys and mainstream attention that UFC 100 got and this may be the last kick at the can for the old boxing fan to claim that boxing has more fans.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Strange Famous
Boxing is the ultimate test of strength, bravery, skill and manliness. Two men pit themselves against each other in an honourable and scientific contest of toughness, strength and agility.
Compare this great spectacle to what we see in the average MMA fight.
Two men attempting to throttle each other or else trip a man up and then punch and kick him while he is defenseless STILL WRONG on the floor. MMA requires little real skill. I see people actually talking about a guy having a black belt as if it was some kind of great achievment! there are 15 year old girls who have blackbelts in karate!
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Clearly boxing has never involved spectacle. It's not like Tyson bit someone's ear or anything. Boxing is just as guilty of selling spectacle as the UFC.
If you think there is little skill you are so blinded by your love of boxing that it's rediculous. As far as your 15 year old girl comment, the only ones who are getting black belts are the ones who have committed themselves for years to mastering their martial art. The girls getting blackbelts aren't the one's doing it for fun at the local McDojo.
But while we are on the topic of achievements. Exactly what achievement do most boxers have? Other than paying for training and someone spotting potential?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Strange Famous
Look at the men who are being quoted as the heroes of MMA. George St Pierre, a man who has to cover himself in baby oil and grease before each fight so that the opponent cant get hold of him...because MMA doesnt have a propper governing body, but is governed by the promotor himself the "big stars" are allowed to get away with this kind of thing to help bulk up their records.
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Again you are wrong.
The UFC is governed by the ruling body of the state or province it holds it's events in. In the case above GSP wasn't "covered in baby oil and grease before each fight". There was a small amount of vaseline transfered from his face (for cuts) to his shoulders between rounds. It was spotted and wiped off. The Nevada State Athletic Commission reviewed the case and ruled it was accidental. This has happened with different fighters but never in as high profile a fight as Penn/St. Pierre 2. While unfortunate it has caused a rules change in that now only the state body's officials, who are not affiliated with either camp, may apply vaseline to cuts between rounds.
The only person who still believes in the "GSP Greases" theory is BJ Penn who is well known for making any excuse he can when he loses as to why that loss shouldn't count.
As far as feeding GSP cans to pad his record. That's just stupid.
Lets look at St. Pierre's UFC fighs shall we?
1st UFC Fight - Karo Parisian - Parisian was highly touted but never quite lived up to the hype.
2nd UFC Fight - Jay Hieron - Went on to have a decent career in the IFL.
3rd UFC Fight - Matt Hughes - Widely considered to be the best Welterweight (WW) of all time. (loss for St. Pierre)
4th UFC Fight - Jason Miller - Was a highly touted prospect that never really panned out.
5th UFC Fight - Frank Trigg - Constant WW contender who just couldn't win "the big one"
6th UFC Fight - Sean Sherk - More competitive at Lightweight. Not exactly a can though.
Up until this point GSP had been fighting up-and-comers or also rans (save Hughes) for the most part because lets face it GSP was an up-and-comer.
7th UFC Fight - BJ Penn - Former WW champion. Number One contenders match
8th UFC Fight - Matt Hughes - See above. GSP wins title.
9th UFC Fight - Matt Serra - Widely considered to be the biggest upset in UFC history (loss for GSP)
10th UFC Fight - Josh Koscheck - Constant top ten WW.
11th UFC Fight - Matt Hughes - See above. Rubber match win for GSP.
12th UFC Fight - Matt Serra - WW Champion
13th UFC Fight - Jon Fitch - Ranked (at the time) as the #2 WW in the world (now #3)
14th UFC Fight - BJ Penn - Lightweight champion. Former WW champion. BJ asked for the fight since their first fight was a very close win for GSP.
15th UFC Fight - Thiago Alves - Ranked as the #2 WW in the world.
I'm not exactly seeing any cans on this list. In fact of the 15 fights GSP has had in the UFC 10 of them have either been championship fights, fights against former champions or fights against future champions.
Yeah he faced a few cans in TKO (a minor org in Quebec) early in his carreer but since joining the UFC he has constantly faced up-an-comers (when he was one) and recently number one contenders.
As silent_jay stated, MMA isn't like boxing where they feed you 30 or so cans so you can get a good record. You get maybe a couple of cans in your first fight or two and thats it. From then on it is expected that you will face at minimum competition at your level (be that another up and comer or an established contender).