BOXING vs. MMA

For all the recent talk about MMA's ascension and boxing's death rattle, I was surprised to read today that the big Chuck Lidell fight (can't remember the other guy) is expected to get only like 1,000,000 PPV buys, and at only $35 a pop. For comparison, Mayweather-DLH did 2,000,000 at $55--so basically three times as much money. And the live gate numbers for previous big MMA fights were a fraction of what the Mayweather fight did, like $5,000,000 vs. $20,000,000.

I mean, I'm not saying that MMA isn't kicking ass or that boxing doesn't have serious problems--its fan base is almost as old as MLB's--but MMA apparently still has a long ways to go before it can match the draw of a big time boxing match.

And some of the problems with boxing could eventually be resolved. Once Don King dies--hopefully by being beaten to death by some ex-fighter he dicked over--and Bob Arum, who's also like 80, maybe it'll get easier to get big fights together. And maybe MMA's success will finally drive boxing to centralize its governing bodies and make a "championship" worth something. Like the NFL, NBA and MLB show, everyone gets complacent when everyone's making a ton of cash. But if MMA keeps taking a cut of the "guys whaling on each other" pie, that could bring about some quick and desperate action.

A big time heavyweight champ kicking ass and taking names wouldn't hurt either.

I do think MMA is here to stay and will keep getting bigger and bigger, probably eclipsing boxing at some point. The sweet science doesn't seem like it can hold up to the heavy action and true beatdowns in MMA with the hyperbrutal video game and slasher movie crowd.

But there's no reason boxing can't hang on, there's room enough for the both of them. The Mayweather numbers show there are still a ton of people who will pony up to see two great fighters go at it, and there are things boxing can do to try to amp up the action. Like Larry Merchant said before the Taylor-Spinks snoozefest, they need to reduce the size of the gloves and the size of the rings (some of 'em are like fucking polo fields), and stop rewarding fighters with decisions when they've spent the entire "fight" running away like Frenchmen.

Another possibility--and I can't understand why the market hasn't already dictated this--is to simply stop putting these ultradefensive fighters in big time fights. OK, Winky Wright, you're a technically great fighter, but tough shit--your fights are boring, so why is anyone giving you any money to do it? Completely healthy sports like the NFL can still maintain the delusion that they're not in a pure entertainment business, with their athletes no different than Tom Cruise or Kelly Clarkson. But boxing needs to face facts--your fighters are here to entertain, period, so if they don't do it, if they don't put on a good show, get rid of 'em and find someone who can. If I were a boxing promoter, I'd never put Wright in the ring again. Let him sit in a 400-square-foot apartment content with the fact that he was a great technical fighter, I'm giving the millions of dollars to guys who *entertain*.

You have to incent fighters to be aggressive, to force a brawl to happen. This can happen with the judges' scorecards, for sure--any round where one guy is constantly coming forward and forcing the action and the other guy is constantly on retreat and only throwing counterpunches should go to the aggressor, period. This is where boxing's lack of centralization hurts, if it had just one or a few organizations, they could put pressure on the judges to interpret the rules in a way where they favor that kind of boxing which is most pleasing to the fans.

But the promoters and broadcasters deserve more of the blame. Give money to entertaining fighters, don't give money to Winky Wright, Bernard Hopkins, Floyd Mayweather and other pussies who turn a goddamn fight into Dancing With The Stars. And when they bitch about it, tell 'em to either sac up and brawl or find another profession. I mean, this Wright-Hopkins fight that's coming up, what a fucking mess. Even the HBO commentators were not-so-subtly implying the fight would be godawful, with backhanded compliments like "this is a fight for *true* boxing fans to appreciate". Well if I'm the president of UFC, I say, "You keep the "true boxing fans", give me the guys who just want to see two men kick the shit out of each other."

So (awkwardly) turning this full circle, I applaud the MMA's success and I hope they keep on kicking butt. Competition is always good, and especially for something, like boxing, that's been a mess for years and desperately needs a wake-up call.