Hanging 'em up
The once-popular boxing is now losing much of its fanbase to new forms of physical competition
By: Mike Withers
The Ultimate Fighting Championship is the fastest growing sport in the country. It continues to set pay-per view records and dominates the 18-35 age bracket, according to Dana White, the president of the UFC. Thus, leaving the sport of boxing in the dust.
The owner of the UFC is Lorenzo Fertita, a successful businessman who also owns the Palace, Sunset and Santa Fe Station casinos in Las Vegas.
"Everything the Fertita family touches turns to gold,"said Jimmy Jackson, a former employee of the Fertita family.
Jimmy Jackson is now the manager of the Westminster Boxing Club in Westminster, and is a boxing purist. Yet he finds himself out buying mixed martial arts gloves for one of his female fighters on Tuesday morning.
"MMA is a new fad that's here to stay," Jackson said. "I'm looking into getting a wrestling mat and an octagon. We have to accept this sport if we want to survive."
Jackson is one of the many people that understand how the fighting world is changing.
"Most people are MMA fans, and come here to train in MMA," said TJ Lancaster, general manager of LA Boxing in Fullerton. "It's a much more explosive sport."
Bobby Nader, a Cal State Fullerton student and MMA fan enjoys MMA over the more-traditional boxing.
"I like it because it combines all aspects of fighting," Nader said. "We all learn how to box first, but MMA combines boxing with wrestling, Ju-Jitsu, and Muay Tai. It's more of a real fight."
Nader, without question, is in the majority. MMA has grown so quickly that it is even receiving coverage on ESPN's SportsCenter, something that boxing rarely gets. Even the Oscar De La Hoya-Floyd Mayweather fight, which was touted as a fight of the decade, saw little coverage on the show.
But when Chuck Liddel and Quinton Jackson fought in the UFC, it was all over SportsCenter.
"MMA is grabbing the WWE fan base," Jackson said.
Jackson said what MMA is doing right, is it allows anyone a chance at fighting, and will then give that person a fair shot at winning. A fair shot is something that does not always happen in boxing.
"It's still the same old people in [boxing fights.] Marco Antonio Barrera has been around forever, somebody else should get those title shots," Jackson said.
Jackson added that even when boxers do get those title shots, it's not always a fair change. Jackson used the example of Steve Forbes and Demetrius Hopkins, who is the nephew of Bernard Hopkins. Jackson said anybody who saw that fight would say that Forbes won it easily, yet Hopkins got the decision.
A lot of people do not know the fight was headed by Golden Boy Promotion, a promotional team owned by Oscar De La Hoya. One of De Le Hoya's main partners is Bernard Hopkins, uncle of Demetrius. Many people in boxing circles feel that the fight was fixed.
"That is the [stuff] that has to stop," Jackson said.
He said it was good that fighters like De La Hoya and Hopkins are moving into the promotional side of things, thereby forcing people like Don King and Bob Arum out of the picture. But, Jackson said they still need to give fighters a fair chance.
"If you are fighting someone in their home town, you almost have to knock the guy out because it would be so hard to get the decision," Jackson said.
Something similar to that would never happen in MMA. Granted, most fights end in a knockout, but the fact that a fighter is fighting in his hometown, or is the favorite coming into the bout, is rarely a factor in MMA fights.
Therefore, corruption that is perceived to run rampant in boxing is minimal in MMA.
It is clear that boxing needs to change its ways. Almost every other sport in America has made changes to make that sport more fan friendly. In baseball, the fields have gotten smaller to induce more home runs. In football, you can't hit the quarterback, and in basketball, the contact you can make as a defensive player has been minimized.
Many boxing purists feel that such changes need to be made in the sport they love. Possible options are rewarding points to the boxer who is pressing the fight, or withholding a portion of the purse from the boxer if they are not fighting, which is done in Pride Fighting (a version of MMA). HBO's Larry Merchant even suggested shrinking the ring.
Jimmy Jackson doesn't think it is that complicated.
"People just need to be more honest, and get more fighters exposure rather than the same guys," Jackson said.
"Boxing isn't going to die. It has been around forever and it will always be around. It's a great sport."
