That’s marketing I suppose. Boxing is a very tough sport in which fractions of a second can make the difference between a misery and elation. Boxers fitness trainers have to have the cardiovascular system of a race horse. Rarely can a fighter snatch a rest during a round. A guy phoned SugarraysVancouver last year and asked “Why are boxers not doing well cage fighting?” My answer was that it’s the same reason mma fighters don’t do so well boxing – the sports are different, don’t get me wrong both require bravery, skill, determination and massive amounts of training, however for self defense in the street boxing is excellent because you can’t afford to wrestle in a street fight on the ground as you could be kicked to death by the guys mates. Mixed Martial Arts is here to stay and that’s great, I love it – Boxing will have to polish up it’s act, professional fights can’t afford to be lack luster.
Top Boxers are paid an awefull lot more for fighting and too often don’t deliver, the advantage of the UFC is that it pays each fighter less and is able to put a large number of short fights providing variety and almost elimanating the chance of a boring event. I think I only ever saw one bad show. Perhaps in Boxing, Professional Title fights should be winner takes all, that would certainly help to remove the possibility of guys turning up for the money and not trying as hard as they should, this would pretty much eliminate manufactured fighters going for the one big losing pay day. Mr White is pretty shrewd, spending huge amounts on marketing strategically, sacrificing advertising to promote the next show mercilessly, each event is is hyped beyond the last with a frenzy of superlatives that you wonder if the commentators might one day spontaneously explode. Boxing isn’t dead, it was in a deap sleep wrapped in a comfortable blanket of complacency. It must wake up and raise it’s standards to retain the respect and position it has traditionally held. MMA has yet to produce True Legendary Fighters like Langford, Johnson, Fitzimmons, Tunney, Greb, Dempsey,Louis,Marciano,Robinson, Ali, Leonard, Hagler, Hearns,Duran,etc etc.
But Fedor is close and there are some in the UFC past and present that look outstanding. Boxing is far from dead especially in Vancouver and can coexist but it has to match the standards set by the UFC now and that can only be goodfor the fans, the bar has been raised.
- Bob McAdam.