- Joined
- Jan 3, 2015
- Messages
- 448
- Reaction score
- 364
Every year, I hope that the boxing scene will pull itself together and start 'moving' the same way that the UFC does, but it never happens. There's just too much ingrained dysfunction in boxing thanks to the alphabet mafias.
I'm no fan of Dana's business practices, and I think we're going to read an enormous amount of heartbreaking stories about former fighters in the next 5-10 years. Someone's going to do a proper documentary about the UFC's penchant for chewing these guys up and spitting them out with no money to show for it.
But that said, I still have to concede that we're well fed compared to other combat sports. The amount of can-crushing that happens in boxing thanks to idiotic systems like 'mandatory challengers' is just breath-taking. Let's take Sean O'Malley as an example. If he were a boxer, even coming off his latest win, he'd end up spending the next 3 fights (and possibly 2 years) fighting nobodies and padding his record. His momentum would grind to a halt, and we'd have to wait a painful amount of time to see him in the ring again against a legitimate opponent with any sort of dimension.
As an example, 3 years ago, Canelo Alvarez headlined a $49.99 PPV against a mandatory challenger named Avni Yildirim (Don't worry if you've never heard of the guy).
Yildirim was a -5000 underdog. Yes, -5000! And the bloody card STILL had a 50 dollar pricetag.
By and large, this rarely happens in the UFC, and to whatever degree we can be thankful, we probably should be. If MMA ends up going the same route as boxing, we might end up looking at the current era as a golden age.
I'm no fan of Dana's business practices, and I think we're going to read an enormous amount of heartbreaking stories about former fighters in the next 5-10 years. Someone's going to do a proper documentary about the UFC's penchant for chewing these guys up and spitting them out with no money to show for it.
But that said, I still have to concede that we're well fed compared to other combat sports. The amount of can-crushing that happens in boxing thanks to idiotic systems like 'mandatory challengers' is just breath-taking. Let's take Sean O'Malley as an example. If he were a boxer, even coming off his latest win, he'd end up spending the next 3 fights (and possibly 2 years) fighting nobodies and padding his record. His momentum would grind to a halt, and we'd have to wait a painful amount of time to see him in the ring again against a legitimate opponent with any sort of dimension.
As an example, 3 years ago, Canelo Alvarez headlined a $49.99 PPV against a mandatory challenger named Avni Yildirim (Don't worry if you've never heard of the guy).
Yildirim was a -5000 underdog. Yes, -5000! And the bloody card STILL had a 50 dollar pricetag.
By and large, this rarely happens in the UFC, and to whatever degree we can be thankful, we probably should be. If MMA ends up going the same route as boxing, we might end up looking at the current era as a golden age.