“Fighting Words” – Four Crucial Weeks for Boxing, Mixed Martial Arts
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by David P. Greisman (photo by Derek Hamilton)
It seems as if whenever the mainstream media turns its attention to the combat sports, two themes emerge with maddening regularity: boxing is on the decline and is desperately in need of saving; and mixed martial arts is experiencing a meteoric rise that may lead to the sunset of the Sweet Science.
It’s unnecessary.
Yes, mixed martial arts, or MMA, is here to stay – it’s hit the covers of ESPN The Magazine and Sports Illustrated, the weigh-in for this past Saturday’s Chuck Liddell-Quinton “Rampage” Jackson rematch was televised on ESPNEWS and Liddell made a cameo on a recent appearance of HBO’s hit series “Entourage.”
In America, it is a sport where the most well known promoter – Ultimate Fighting Championship, or UFC – went from the brink of extinction to a business that now rakes in hundreds of millions of dollars in annual pay-per-view revenue. The sport is indeed growing at a healthy rate, allowing numerous other smaller promotions to gain a foothold and signifying that this phenomenon will not be a mere flash in the pan.
Some in boxing feel threatened by this.
The backlash comes from message board contributors who tear down the sport and its fighters at any opportunity. It comes from boxing promoters such as Lou DiBella, who while appearing on ESPN broke out Sen. John McCain’s line about MMA being human cockfighting.
It’s unnecessary.
Boxing and MMA need not collide in a sort of commercial rivalry, not when they can coexist in a market that caters to both the old and new definitions of “hardcore fight fan.” Instead of going head-to-head, they can be hand in hand.
Showtime has already partnered with multiple groups, having broadcast their premiere episode of Elite Xtreme Combat in February and having scheduled a pay-per-view for this Saturday and another for June 22. As for HBO, the talk has been that UFC will not replace boxing on their airwaves, but rather join it as another element of the network’s programming.
Joe Rogan, the color commentator for UFC, noted his love of the Sweet Science while debating with the aforementioned DiBella. Over the weekend, this scribe watched the Liddell-Jackson pay-per-view with a fellow boxing columnist. It was his first time dropping hard-earned cash for an MMA card. It won’t be his last.
But if boxing and MMA are to coexist, then the sports must succeed, in their own ways, over a crucial 28-day period – the four weeks that began with the Liddell-Jackson rematch and end on June 23.
On that day, HBO will broadcast a main event featuring junior welterweights Ricky Hatton and Jose Luis Castillo, UFC will air the live finale to its “The Ultimate Fighter” reality show/tournament on Spike TV, and former heavyweight titlist Ray Mercer will take on cult street fighter Kimbo Slice in what is being billed as an MMA pay-per-view. But between then and now, certain things must happen for the benefit of both sports.
The Liddell-Jackson rematch brought good and bad. Liddell lost via first-round stoppage, a result that some may think would squander all the hype and publicity directed toward the now-former light heavyweight champion. But UFC is constantly ready for the upset, ready to market the surprise victors and to move on either toward eventual rematches or with rising superstars. Add in their ability to fit many exciting fights onto one telecast, and fans tend to be quite willing to dish out money for monthly pay-per-views. On Saturday, their aired seven fights, plenty of bang for the buck even though the main event ended quickly.
This coming Saturday, the minor Shannon Briggs-Sultan Ibragimov boxing pay-per-view needs to do well, even if it means that far too many people paid for a bout that should have been seen on HBO or Showtime. Because although the card making a profit could encourage promoters to continue taking fans’ money, it may potentially show the networks that fans want to see boxing and are worth investing in.
On the same night, Brock Lesnar needs to make a good accounting of himself in his MMA debut. His name brings in outside interest to a burgeoning sport, attention that could bolster Showtime’s recent commercial venture as they partner with some of the smaller promoters.
A week later, Miguel Cotto defends his welterweight title against Zab Judah in a boxing match that should be on HBO’s World Championship Boxing instead of on pay-per-view. Nevertheless, a good fight and an exciting undercard will do for the Sweet Science what Oscar De La Hoya-Floyd Mayweather, for all intents and purposes, failed to accomplish.
The UFC is like football, marketing its sport much like the NFL markets its uniforms, guaranteeing that people may tune in for the star value but will continue coming back for the overall product. Boxing, however, is like basketball, for it relies on individual superstars to bring in consumer interest, a strategy that can be fruitful in some markets but may not resonate with others.
The De La Hoya-Mayweather pay-per-view seemingly refused to market its sport or its future, as BoxingScene’s Cliff Rold wisely pointed out in his May 10 column. But if any casual or new fans choose to buy Cotto-Judah, it would benefit them and the sport if stars emerge who will lead boxing into the future.
Cotto-Judah is being counter-programmed by Showtime’s monthly Showtime Championship Boxing series, scheduled a week later than usual due to the network’s June 2 MMA pay-per-view. Yet the decision makers have gotten away from their usual providing of great fights on paper, opting for two bouts that focus on light heavyweight names Antonio Tarver and Chad Dawson. This is clearly not the same philosophy that brought us slugfests like Diego Corrales-Jose Luis Castillo and Israel Vazquez-Rafael Marquez.
UFC returns on June 16 with a pay-per-view aired live from Northern Ireland. And whereas UFC 70 aired on tape delay from Manchester, this show will begin in the afternoon. Although the card is headlined by Rich Franklin’s fight against Yushin Okami, the other bouts are certain to draw interest from all who bought tickets or the telecast.
Showtime’s June 22 pay-per-view is negligible in importance – only the most hardcore of the hardcore fight fans will tune in. It’s the next day that may mean the most out of these crucial four weeks.
On HBO, Ricky Hatton and Jose Luis Castillo will fight on a card that may, in years past, have cost fans an additional $50. With MMA being offered for free on a basic cable channel, the boxing must stand out as worthy of attention.
As for that series finale of “The Ultimate Fighter,” it will show why that series has succeeded where “The Contender” and “The Next Great Champ” could not. The focus has been on the sport and its competitors – on their training, on their personalities and on the fights themselves. There are no longer any challenges, nor did the producers choose to add sound effects or to edit what should be the main attraction. And while Sergio Mora and Grady Brewer sit on the fringes, guys like Forrest Griffin and Michael Bisping have futures and fan-followings.
And if Griffin and Bisping are what MMA is about, then the opposite is true for Ray Mercer and Kimbo Slice. A bout that has drawn so much buzz must, quite simply, either entertain beyond the wildest expectations or go completely ignored. Pitting an aged boxer against a street fighter brings the sort of carnival value that Mia St. John and Butterbean used to carry on boxing pay-per-view undercards. That beauty and beast tandem didn’t necessarily represent their sport – Mercer and Slice shouldn’t be seen as being what MMA is.
And what MMA is, well, is a sport that is truly experiencing a meteoric rise. The cards and fighters entertain, and the marketing has been toward the future. As such, the decision makers in boxing shouldn’t write MMA off as a flash in the pan or human cockfighting, not when the MMA audiences are growing and not when the fighters have less chance of dying in the ring.
The Sweet Science isn’t anywhere close to being at its sunset, but its promoters and networks have a lot of watching, learning and improving to do to make sure that boxing never does approach the day when MMA has it completely eclipsed.
David P. Greisman may be reached at
fightingwords1@gmail.com