Quote: "I don't think MMA has stolen many true boxing fans, what it has taken are 13-17 year old boys who might later become boxing fans. If anything I think it has stolen more wrestling fans."
That's true, serious boxing fans will always be loyal, but the less hardcore fans switching to MMA has definitely hurt the sport's financial institutions. I remember hearing something along the lines of HBO dropping boxing alltogether in a few years as a result. Even the major title fights simply aren't drawing in the same numbers that they used to
.
Quote: "I mean c'mon, Manchester United, Liverpool, Barcelona, Real Madrid, AC Milan, Inter Milan, Ajax, (I could go on for a long time), and... LA Galaxy? Who now? Nah."
That's why I think MLS teams should be allowed to play in UEFA games. But we're not European so of course it'd never happen, hehe.
Quote: "Coincidently, the top one is. Oops."
George Foreman hasn't been a boxer in ten years! Floyd Mayweather Jr. is the undefeated pound-for-pound boxer in the world... I think that makes HIM the top boxer, doesn't it? George Foreman hasn't been a world champion since, oh, 1994 I think? Maybe 1995... well over ten years ago regardless. He hasn't even been directly associated with boxing since 2003 or 2004 when he left HBO... as a commentator!
Quote: "Why would it? I'd still continue hitting the gym 3 days a week working on my muay thai and grappling, so why would I give a crap? No one from MMA is going over to boxing, even many ARE boxing fans and boxers."
That's beside the point. If boxing did somehow surpass MMA in ratings, and a number of MMA fans, serious or not, stopped caring about MMA and flocked to boxing, wouldn't you be equally mad?
Quote: "You claim MMA contains more violence...but isn't that why people watch boxing in the first place? They used to call it a combat sport...and now that a new combat sport has come up, it has been made obvious to the world what people really want to see."
See, that proves my bias statement from before. No serious boxing fan watches fights because it's violent. They watch it because boxers are artists. They aren't just standing in the middle of the ring punching the crap out of each other (well, unless we're talking about the Gatti/ Ward trilogy, lol). My entire point is that MMA is stealing the Johnny-come-lately fans who don't really respect it as a sport, and while I may not respect those fans, losing them does financially and reputationally injure the institution of boxing.
Quote: "If anything, boxing is more violent in terms of long-term effects on competitors."
We don't really know that. MMA hasn't been around long enough for us to know what long term effects it has on fighters. And a number of boxers have retired without any mental problems, like the afforementioned George Foreman. We see retired boxers like Riddick Bowe and Joe Frazier and how they've been traumatized by their injuries over the long term, but not all fighters succumb to that.
Quote: "Boxing fell as a sport long before MMA became popular."
I might not be able to see that because of how into boxing I am, but there have been a lot of really fantastic fights in the past decade. Roy Jones (before his fall from grace), Oscar De La Hoya, Floyd Mayweather, Manny Pacquiao, Ricky Hatton, Marco Antonio Barrera, the Marquez brothers, Shane Mosley, Vitali and Wladimir Klitschko, Hassim Rahman, and Lennox Lewis were all producing really awesome fights in the past 10 years, and the ratings weren't slipping until MMA came along, that I know of anyway.
Quote: "Don't get me wrong I loved watching Foreman fight (except that debacle of a fight with Briggs), he was just never much of a technical fighter, just a big guy who could take alot of punches"
hehe like his classic Ali fight... he proved his lack of technical prowess during that bout. Yeah, Foreman is a great example of a hitter with no boxing skills. Not that he's bad or anything, but boxers usually were able to dismantle him after Ali opened him up.
Quote: "I hate to say this, but quite true, white guys do well in MMA and it can be seen in the demographic of who is watching here in the US"
My uncle (who is black) had a pretty funny comment about how white guys are afraid to hit black guys or they might appear rascist, and that's why white boxers never make it
lol. But on a serious note, there's been a few white champions in the past decade, some of whom I named earlier. But I think the ratio of white and black boxers is about the same or maybe even better today than it was back in the 1960's and 1970's. Who was the last
really great white boxing legend anyway? Dempsey? Braddock? It's been a while
.
