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MMA a threat to boxing?

By Stephan | July 26, 2006

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By Stephan Marceau

The Boxing press must really feel threatened these days, I keep coming across these types of articles from the boxing world.

Check this article out, in it Dan Morgan is trying to rationalize that boxing is not threatened by the growth of the UFC. He should be a little more open and use MMA instead of strickly UFC.

Some of my favorite quotes:

It’s clear as day: the UFC is brand new, and boxing has been around as far back as records date; the UFC is pure violence, while boxing remains a thinking man’s sport; and, the UFC has copious pre-fight drama while boxing has unscripted storylines.

The UFC may be brand new, but you could argue that MMA has existed since the romans! 🙂 At the minimum, Vale Tudo has been around for a long time. Again with the pure violence, that just for a lack of knowledge of the disciplines involved. Even the casual fan learns quickly what “rear naked chokes” are, etc. I must say, most commentators do a good job at educating the viewers while presenting the shows. Of course, you don’t get that live. And what about the death incidents we hear about in boxing? The prefight drama is less exagerated than in entertainment wrestling, but many of them are real (Shamrock and Ortiz), most are borderline made drama, but not over the top. He doesnt go over the fact that most MMA fighters display real sportsmanship even after a fight, that is really impressive.

Part of what makes boxing so great is that it has its roots planted in countries all over the world. Mexico, Cuba, Argentina, and so many other countries all have strong amateur programs that produce some of today’s top professionals, and these roots are planted so deep, that the sport will be forever kept alive. The same certainly cannot be said of the UFC.

Again if Dan was was to use MMA instead of UFC….Hmm lets see for MMA: England, Holland, Brazil, USA, Canada, Japan, Thailand, Australia, Russia, others? Actually MMA internationally, although only really big in USA, Japan and Brazil, is also definitely growing internationally as well.

…starting a boxing gym is a pretty safe bet to make money. In addition to having people who actually want to box, you have people coming just to get in shape

I dont see too many successful boxing gyms around Toronto, but the Brazillian Jiu-Jitsu/Muai Thai have been growing steadily exactly for the reasons he mentions.

Time will tell where boxing and MMA will be in a couple years, there is probably a place for both, but dont count MMA out.

Topics: Media, MMA, Stephan Marceau, UFC | 4 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |

4 Responses to “MMA a threat to boxing?”

  1. Jason says:

    It’s clear he knows nothing about MMA, and based on this article I question his knowledge of boxing as well. MMA poses no threat to boxing because fight fans will simply watch both.

  2. I’m in both worlds. They each gain pretty different fans, although there is some crossover. But there is also crossover with football, baseball, etc., too. Boxing is killing itself for a million and one reasons, although it is far from dead. Boxing’s marginalization occurred largely independently of the ups and downs of mma. I wrote about this on a former boxing web site I was with, and will probably restate that theme again soon.

  3. JJ says:

    MMA is not a threat to boxing (or NASCAR, Football, etc., etc.), boxing is a threat to boxing. I still love a good boxing match but I’m not paying $55 for a fight that’s probably fixed.

  4. FredEttish says:

    I read this a few days ago and couldn’t give any credence to it. There is no way someone can journalitically produce that kind of unresearched, unsubstantiated drivel and expect to be taken seriously. There are so many errors and misstatements in the story that is should just be ignored. I can’t help but think that it’s a work by the author to get a few more hits to his site. Now that it’s been sent to all the MMA boards, he’s getting that. Unfortunately his uneducated ramblings are going to hurt the sport he’s trying to defend. No one wants an idiot defending their position.

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