Is Mixed Martial Arts taking over Boxing?

[Dragon Fist]

With all the publicity surrounding Mixed Martial Arts these days, do you think in will soon take over boxing? When MMA first started in america, it was only allowed in very few states. Now it is a fast growing sport, thanks to the most part to the UFC and Pride. It will only be a matter of time before it becomes as popular if not even more popular than boxing. Think about it, MMA is now available on a major cable channel like Showtime and with HBO to follow. Lets just hope that the fighters will soon see an increase in the purse.
What are your thoughts?

 

[redfang]

I'd love to MMA grow in popularity. It's been several years since I have been excited about boxing; the sport seemed to grow stale starting in the early to mid nineties (for me anyhow.) MMA is vital and worthy of mainstream recognition. I don't think it will find mainstream recognotion until it does away with a lot of the pro-wrestling style theatrics and drama that has been prevalent lately.

 

[Skip Cooper]

I enjoy MMA as much as boxing. Boxing is in a very sad state at this time and I believe some of the attention is being drawn to MMA. The exposure for MMA is enormous, if it isn't Pride on Fox Sports or UFC on Spike TV, then you have Bodog and IFC on just about all the time. Let's not forget the pay-per-views for each organization as well.

Boxing on the other hand, is not being covered like it used to. I remember when the USA channel had boxing. You could watch it on ESPN and ESPN2, as well as Fox Sports. These would lead up to a big fight on HBO or pay-per-view. Now you can only find boxing every once in a while on ESPN and HBO and depending on where you live, boxing is alive and well on the Spanish channels.

I would love to see both mediums of combat sports prevail.

 

[MJS]

With all the publicity surrounding Mixed Martial Arts these days, do you think in will soon take over boxing? When MMA first started in america, it was only allowed in very few states. Now it is a fast growing sport, thanks to the most part to the UFC and Pride. It will only be a matter of time before it becomes as popular if not even more popular than boxing. Think about it, MMA is now available on a major cable channel like Showtime and with HBO to follow. Lets just hope that the fighters will soon see an increase in the purse.
What are your thoughts?

I remember a time when I used to see boxing on PPV all the time. Now its rare. The UFC is on PPV, they have the free shows on Spike, and I'm sure it'll be elsewhere as well. I know they've offered boxers a shot in the UFC, but I havent seen any yet. This is most likely because if they lost it would effect the sport of boxing. Well, if boxing is on a decline, they dont have much to lose then. Of course, always a good idea to go in with more than just punching.

 

[James Kovacich]

In every way except the pay but it's only a matter of time, it's still a young sport.

 

[pstarr]

I think boxing is pretty much ingrained in the American public's mind as an "accepted" sport - it even appears in the Olympics. I don't think there's any chance at all that MMA will surge ahead of boxing in popularity...

 

[Em MacIntosh]

I think MMA would make an excellent olyympic sport and as such would improve MMA and the way MMA contributes to MA as a whole. I would love to see the different competitors from different countries. I just hope they wouldn't soften it. I think boxing will always be what it is. There's only so much attention to go 'round and MMA is getting a bigger and bigger slice every year. Boxing will always be around and there will always be boxing fans. Entertainment is only one reason fans have for choosing a favorite sport . I do think that MMA is more popular than boxing now though and feel it is replacing it somewhat. The number of fans, fight purse etc. gets bigger every year too.

 

[Em MacIntosh]

I remember a time when I used to see boxing on PPV all the time. Now its rare. The UFC is on PPV, they have the free shows on Spike, and I'm sure it'll be elsewhere as well. I know they've offered boxers a shot in the UFC, but I havent seen any yet. This is most likely because if they lost it would effect the sport of boxing. Well, if boxing is on a decline, they dont have much to lose then. Of course, always a good idea to go in with more than just punching.

I would love to see a boxer go in and first thing he does is a standing limb destruction (arm hook) followed by a sneaky elbow to the face. I think a lot of boxers learn some "dirty" moves that could help them in the MMA. Different rules allow them to fight differently too. Not to mention boxers have tremendously strong legs.

 

[TheArtofDave]

I would like to see Bellator grow to maybe go to HBO for live events and ppvs.

 

[Gerry Seymour]

I would like to see Bellator grow to maybe go to HBO for live events and ppvs.

The last post on this thread was almost 11 years ago - you probably won't get much of a response from the folks involved.

 

[drop bear]

Yeah old thread. But then again we may see the McGregor Maywhether freak fight. That really could give boxing a vehicle into MMA.

 

[CB Jones]

I would like to see someone put together a Combat Sports Org with all of it.

Use a ring kinda like Karate Combat with 45 degree walls instead of ropes and chain link. PPV event would look something like...2 MMA fights, 2 kick boxing matches, Boxing match, Karate Combat match, and a wrestling match.

Would be a great event! Something for everyone.

 

[drop bear]

I would like to see someone put together a Combat Sports Org with all of it.

Use a ring kinda like Karate Combat with 45 degree walls instead of ropes and chain link. PPV event would look something like...2 MMA fights, 2 kick boxing matches, Boxing match, Karate Combat match, and a wrestling match.

Would be a great event! Something for everyone.

A cage is safer. You can't fall out of the ring.

 

[Headhunter]

A cage is safer. You can't fall out of the ring.

Yeah I remember when the sport first started all these stupid critics were saying mma would be better in a ring obviously didn't understand a thing.

But well you can't fall out a cage?

I also know Bobby southworth and James Irvin had the same issue and if I'm not mistaken Royce and kimo as well I know an early UFC had this

 

[Headhunter]

As for the question still relevant today I guess but why does it need to take over. There's a place for both. I prefer mma over boxing as a fan but boxing is still a great sport with great fighters in it. Why not just be fans of both. There's never any talk of basketball taking over from football and this is the same type of thing

 

[drop bear]

Yeah I remember when the sport first started all these stupid critics were saying mma would be better in a ring obviously didn't understand a thing.

But well you can't fall out a cage?

I also know Bobby southworth and James Irvin had the same issue and if I'm not mistaken Royce and kimo as well I know an early UFC had this

I always check the door.

 

[Tez3]

I always check the door.

Only amateurs don't. We did MMA in a ring when we started, but it's an enormous faff to put up, a cage is easier and much easier to keep clean and hygienic which is important. The canvas on the ring couldn't be cleaned properly, the covering in the cage can be easily disinfected, there's no ropes or covers, no hard poles in the corners which were heavy and hard to put up. A cage can be put up by a couple of people in short time, the ring a good dozen and ages.

2 MMA fights, 2 kick boxing matches, Boxing match, Karate Combat match, and a wrestling match.

Here in the UK we often have 'cage' kick boxing in an MMA card. Boxing is harder to organise because most boxers don't want to lose their accreditation with their boxing board of control ( amateur or pro) so won't fight on unsanctioned cards, so you'd end up with unlicensed fighters who may not be up to standard. We don't have a lot of wrestling here other than the 'pretend' stuff not much of that either so getting wrestlers on a card would be difficult. If you put the fake ones on it would call into question in a lot of people's minds whether the MMA and kick boxing was actually real.

 

[Headhunter]

Only amateurs don't. We did MMA in a ring when we started, but it's an enormous faff to put up, a cage is easier and much easier to keep clean and hygienic which is important. The canvas on the ring couldn't be cleaned properly, the covering in the cage can be easily disinfected, there's no ropes or covers, no hard poles in the corners which were heavy and hard to put up. A cage can be put up by a couple of people in short time, the ring a good dozen and ages.



Here in the UK we often have 'cage' kick boxing in an MMA card. Boxing is harder to organise because most boxers don't want to lose their accreditation with their boxing board of control ( amateur or pro) so won't fight on unsanctioned cards, so you'd end up with unlicensed fighters who may not be up to standard. We don't have a lot of wrestling here other than the 'pretend' stuff not much of that either so getting wrestlers on a card would be difficult. If you put the fake ones on it would call into question in a lot of people's minds whether the MMA and kick boxing was actually real.

yeah that happened in japan a lot the lines between pro wrestling and mma were very blurred

 

[punisher73]

I do find it interesting even after 11 years. Boxing is still in the same place it was back then and MMA is still pretty much in the same place. Outside of martial arts fans, MMA's biggest demographic is the WWE crowd. It is not growing as a big general population sport due to how it markets itself to the WWE crowd.

I should add that this is based on MMA in the US. In the US, mma=ufc which is NOT the case outside of here where there much more diverse organizations and promotions.

 

[Buka]

MMA's popularity keeps spreading world wide.

But think about how much money Mayweather/McGregor made. Amazing.