Saturday, September 22, 2012

Boxing Busts out of Coffin, Brushes Dirt off Shoulders


According to people who don't know what the fuck they are talking about,  the state of the sport of boxing was comparable to the state of Ricky Hatton, in this photo.


After years of being called "dead" by many mainstream media outlets, as well as new age UFC fans, boxing has pulled a Fat Joe - Busting out of the falsely created coffin, and brushing the dirt off it's mother fucking shoulders.

The common thought is that the popular combat sport is now the UFC. This means that there is no room for boxing, as the percentage of fans that combat sports receives from the sports fan pie; is a small one. I'm a fan of both MMA, and Boxing, and can tell you the former thought is a false one.

While the implied death most likely never really happened, (PPV's featuring Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao have continuously sold at higher rates than most comparative UFC cards, for example), it is nice to also finally brush away the eager MMA trainee or "UFC is fucking awesome, I watch it at the bar" crowd.

One of the counter points from these type of people, (Which doesn't make any fucking sense anyways) has been "Well, if it isn't Manny or Floyd boxing is dead". The reason I say this doesn't make any fucking sense, is because it doesn't. The very selling of 1,000,000 PPV's proves it is not dead. You can't qualify it by saying "OH IT IS MANNY/FLOYD", as if it is no longer boxing itself. It's also boxing and It's a fucking million PPV's, qualify that.

Sergio Martinez, being a Baus. Also, collecting a gigantic paycheck, and bursting boxing-gloves-first, from the depths of the underground.

Moving on to the real news, and that is the 475,000 PPV's sold for the Martinez VS Chavez Jr. fight, just this last weekend.

Credit to BloodyElbow.com, let's put that number into perspective:

This fight did better on PPV than UFC 149 and 150 combined and outdrew all but three 2012 UFC PPVs (145, 146, and 148). It's the best selling PPV for boxing this year not involving Manny Pacquiao or Floyd Mayweather Jr. The three major PPVs by HBO in 2012 (this card, Mayweather/Cotto, and Pacquiao/Bradley) have done a combined 2,875,000, which is a benchmark the UFC didn't even reach until it's 7th PPV of the year, UFC 148.

Hold on to your open finger MMA training gloves people - Those are some interesting numbers to sink your teeth into.

At the end of the day, the half a million PPVs really just proves that boxing was never "dead" to begin with. It also proves that just because the UFC is successful, that fact doesn't mean boxing can't also be successful at the same time. Granted, the days of Muhammad Ali are long gone, however the days of Manny Pacquiao came long after those days had ended. Boxing and MMA can co-exist, and any true combat sports fan is going to appreciate both.

Finally, the Martinez VS Chavez Jr. card shows that boxing has more than Floyd and Manny. Just like it had more than Ali, Tyson, and De La Hoya. Much like the UFC and MMA in general, boxing needs it's stars. But to say another star won't ever be born, is discrediting the two sports in general, and further more; it spits in the face of all up and coming fighters currently busting their ass in training as I write this.

Personally, I'm looking forward to more from both of the fighters (Martinez/Chavez Jr.), and I am glad that such an excellent fight card got so much attention. 

Next up, Jon Jones beating the ever-living-Mumm-Ra shit out of Vitor Belfort - Can't say I am expecting to be as impressed with this match up. 

5 comments:

Boogieman said...

Good article, I agree with most of what was said here. It is also nice to see those statistics after all the "boxing is dead" talk from Dane White and co.

LouisianaFireGorilla said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
PittyPatti said...

Yes thuggles, I also agree boxing is far from dead.

MT said...

Cotto VS Trout should be good as well.

Boogieman said...

Well, I was very unimpressed with Trout when I saw him fight, but it wasn't that he was a bad fighter, just boring and put me to sleep.

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