There is ONE other major MMA draw, and probably the biggest in North America ever thus far. Kimbo Slice. Whether eveyone admits it or not, he is a marketing phenom. Far from the best fighter, but he does get attention. You can argue Ken Shamrock to an extent I guess. Maybe even Randy Couture.

With GSP defending his title against Fitch, and Huerta and Florian in a number one contender match, that seems unlikely, but UFC 88 isn’t out of the question.

Really? Who is the heavyweight champion? Randy Couture? Noguiera? Fedor?

No, I don’t, but I still think it’s better than moving on to boxing style of promoting that pretty much scorches the earth and leaves little for the future.

Ah yes, the future. what boxing needs to do is build guys up with lots of fights with increasing skill when it comes to opponents like MMA traditionally has. Oh wait, you mean that boxing has been doing that all along, and that MMA traditionally throws its prospects in deep water way too early?

Yes, the two Mayweather fights did big business, but what/who else is out there to follow up on that success?

Depends what you quantify as “success”. Do you mean shows doing 2 million buys? Well, there aren’t any others.

And outside of De La Hoya, who else out there has been a consistent, big time draw the last few years?

Outside of Chuck Liddell or Tito Ortiz, how many consistent big draws has MMA had in the US *ever*? If the argument is that they do a consistent 300,000 or so when there’s no blockbuster guy, well bud, I got news for ya.

Matt; Yes Ring Magazine does give out title belts. They look exactly the same as they always have from decades past. Oh, and the Rot Jones-Felix Trinidad ppv from January did over 500,000 buys, about the same as Hatton-Mayweather.

You and Tomer like going by strictly lineal claims? So you believe Sam Peter to be THE heavyweight champ then? Who do you consider to be THE lightweight champ? Nate Campbell or Joel Casamayor? Casamayor is the Ring champ, and personally I go with him. But he and Campbell are fighting in a few months, so we will see then.

Oh, and also Matt. We prefer if there were NO sanctioning bodies, let alone the WBA, WBC, and IBF. But I will take those three over all of the other ones if I really had to though.

I prefer the lineal claims too, not to mention an actual championship (The Ring hasn’t started handing out titles have they? I’ve effectively stopped watching boxing the last few years.)

Can you do the same in boxing? No.

Most Boxing writers actually tend to point to The Ring’s titles as being the ‘legit’ crowns (although I still personally prefer lineal claims).

Can you do the same in boxing? No. People long for the days when it was just the WBA, WBC and IBF to deal with.

Do I bury my head in the sand and think everything is perfect as it works now? No, I don’t, but I still think it’s better than moving on to boxing style of promoting that pretty much scorches the earth and leaves little for the future.

Yes, the two Mayweather fights did big business, but what/who else is out there to follow up on that success? And outside of De La Hoya, who else out there has been a consistent, big time draw the last few years?

If you want to tell me that you’d rather see MMA go down that route rather than continue on the track that the UFC and PRIDE put it on, then I say enjoy the taste of dirt you’ve got your head buried in.

So the better option is a morass of belts with fights you are fully aware will never happen, a complete lack of clarity, etc? Hell, the best fights in the UFC I’m not even sure will happen depending on the weight class. Will Noguiera ever fight Werdum, or will they simply release Werdum if he beats Vera in a boring fashion and have Vera/Noguiera anyhow? Or how about Okami/Silva? Okami’s obviously the best guy not named Silva or Franklin at 185 and pretty much earned his shot. Technically he even has a win over Silva. So, will they ever fight, or is Okami going to have to beat ex-TUF guys forever while they have Silva fight more ex-TUF guys because it “pops a buy” or whatever?

And even when the big fights DO come together, they’re often under promoted.

Do you actually follow boxing to be able to say that? Obviously there was a pretty competent job of promoting Mayweather/De La Hoya or Mayweather/Hatton recently.

Think of how popular boxing could be if there was a single organization that tried to sign all of the best fighters and then promote the fighters and give some build up to rivalries and big fights. It’s not hard if you try….just picture the way the UFC does things right now.

Oh, it would be nice if there was one title and everyone was gunning for it. The problem is that is not actually how MMA works.

IF you think MMA will be better off going the way of boxing – an alphabet soup of organizations, which are all meaningless, fighters picking and choosing opponents instead of match making, fights that are never put toghether, plummeting popularity – then more power to you.

If you believe there isn’t an alphabet soup of MMA titles already, that matchmaking by the promoters is always being done to create the best fights, that there aren’t questionable decisions that go the way of favored fighters by said promoters (even for Dana: remember Bonnar/Jardine and Mir/Christison?), and that Big Brother will always know best, there’s not really a whole lot to say given how much of a lost cause you become.

With the way boxing is set up, you never know if a fight can be put together or not. If my promoter doesn’t like your promoter, then it’s not going to happen.

And even when the big fights DO come together, they’re often under promoted.

Think of how popular boxing could be if there was a single organization that tried to sign all of the best fighters and then promote the fighters and give some build up to rivalries and big fights. It’s not hard if you try….just picture the way the UFC does things right now.

IF you think MMA will be better off going the way of boxing – an alphabet soup of organizations, which are all meaningless, fighters picking and choosing opponents instead of match making, fights that are never put toghether, plummeting popularity – then more power to you. Personally, I like it when things are a bit more organized.

Call me crazy, but that’s just me.

What problems are those? You mean the top fighters not fighting one another? Yeah, because the two best heavyweights in the world are clearly Noguiera and Mir.

And no, I’m not a newb or a fairweather fan, I just happen to prefer an MMAverse where figheters are in one company exclusively for their contracts.

What concievable benefit is that to you?