Boxing vs. MMA

[SevenStar]

In the words of Joe Rogan, these are the last boxing superstars you will ever see. No one except boxing enthusiasts care about boxing anymore, and UFC surpasses it in pay-per-view subscriptions.

so explain the mayweather - de la hoya purse of 45 million... that was the biggest purse in boxing history. 2.15 million people bought that fight.

[sanjuro_ronin]

I think that, worldwide, boxing surpasses MMA in terms of popularity and purses.

Though I think that MMA purses are much nicer, what with all the glitter and sequence.

[MasterKiller]

so explain the mayweather - de la hoya purse of 45 million... that was the biggest purse in boxing history. 2.15 million people bought that fight.

The purses are bigger because A) it's the only decent fight on the card and B) UFC doesn't pay it's fighters that well. UFC 71 earned 4.4 million off the gate alone! They can afford to pay more, but don't.

The last UFC still scored more pay-per-views than the highest-scoring boxing pay-per-view in hisory.

With the addition of UFC Europe and Pride, UFC will be launching world-wide pay-per-views soon.

Plus, HBO and SHowtime are going to start showing fights.

Boxing is dead.

[sanjuro_ronin]

The purses are bigger because A) it's the only decent fight on the card and B) UFC doesn't pay it's fighters that well. UFC 71 earned 4.4 million off the gate alone! They can afford to pay more, but don't.

The last UFC still scored more pay-per-views than the highest-scoring boxing match in hisory.

Worldwide?

And what about Pro wrestling?

[MasterKiller]

Worldwide?

And what about Pro wrestling?

UFC, a privately held company owned by Zuffa LLC, does not release financial results and White would not discuss them. But an industry executive familiar with the results said the company's 10 pay-per-view events generated more than $200 million (€151.4 million) in customer retail revenue.

WWE said it had 16 events that generated approximately $200 million (€151.4 million) in revenue and HBO had 11 events, reporting revenue of $177 million (€134 million).....

One big difference between WWE and UFC is their audience. Thirty-nine percent of WWE's buys came from international viewers. UFC does not have a slice of the international arena but intends to grab market share from WWE when it holds its first pay-per-view fight in Manchester, England on April 21. White noted UFC has initiatives in Canada, Mexico and England, where it recently opened an office in London.

http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/...tle.php?page=1

[SevenStar]

The purses are bigger because A) it's the only decent fight on the card and B) UFC doesn't pay it's fighters that well. UFC 71 earned 4.4 million off the gate alone! They can afford to pay more, but don't.

The last UFC still scored more pay-per-views than the highest-scoring boxing pay-per-view in hisory.

With the addition of UFC Europe and Pride, UFC will be launching world-wide pay-per-views soon.

Plus, HBO and SHowtime are going to start showing fights.

Boxing is dead.

dude, even zab judah got 1 million for his last fight. And with the money UFC makes, they will not raise purses... that is why I doubt you will see a boxer fighting there, unless he's already retired, like mercer.

[MasterKiller]

Wait 5 years.

[sanjuro_ronin]

In 5 years I hope we have better than what we are seeing right now and in shows like "the ultimate fighter".

I am sure we will, I mean, quality only gets better with time, right?

[MasterKiller]

Still better than the best season of The Contender. At least you get to see the entire fight without editing and sound effects.

[sanjuro_ronin]

Still better than the best season of The Contender.

Lies !!

*puts fingers in ears *

LLALALALALALALA, I love boxing, LALLALALAL !!!

[Ultimatewingchun]

The day will come sooner or later when mma events start to get more popular and almost as lucrative as boxing. At which point a number or quality boxers will start to jump ship and do some crosstraining.

Stay tuned for a lot of knockouts!

[Vajramusti]

"so, good boxer would definitely have an advantage in punching range, but he'd be at a disadvantage in the others:"
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Possibly. Apples and oranges. However good boxers with a little training can adjust . Ranges are not static. Fluidity and timing -key to the dynamics.The Klitchko(sp?) brothers did kick boxing as well. Plus people like Duran and Hopkins have other real fighting backgrounds as well. Also at the top levels boxing pays much more than mma matches upto now.
It takes a while to develop a good boxer-golden gloves, PAL, Armed Forces teams, Olympics etc.
Americans are not going into boxing much any more. The big guys can make more money in the NFL and NBA,. The hungry boxers and their demography is changing- Eastern Europe for the heavies, UK at middle weight and some in welter, Hispanics including Puerto Rican and Mexicans
at the lower weights and some Fillipinos and Thais.

Americans right now still have the edge in wielding the remote control.<g>And chit chatting about the boob tube on the net.

joy chaudhuri

[Knifefighter]

However good boxers with a little training can adjust .

LOL @ thinking "a little training" is all it takes. No matter who you are, or how good you are at boxing, wrestling, BJJ, judo, sambo, etc, it takes a whole lot of training to start to get good at MMA these days. A boxer can no more jump into MMA with just a little training than Michael Jordan could jump from basketball to baseball.

[sanjuro_ronin]

Having done both boxing and MMA and competed in both, though the MMA was still at its "infancy" at the time ( quality is much better know), I can tell you that boxing skills are not transferable to MMA without some serious tinkering.
The good part is that the base power is still there, you bring it with you and in many ways you are ahead of the curve when it comes to hand striking, BUT, you need to learn how to apply it in a whole new context.
You can't stand the same way, your opponent doesn't stand the same way, you can't move the same way, your opponent doesn't move the same way, the rope work is differen, the cutting off the ring is different, don't evne get into the clinch.

Its like taking a world class sprinter and through him into the decathalon, he will win the 100 meter, but what about the 9 other events ?

[GeneChing]

We've heard this position before and it stands to reason, given that the objective in boxing is more about the knock-out whereas in MMA, there are more ways to win. But presenting at the UFC Gym is like saying bacon is healthy at a pig slaughterhouse.

Study by Sather Clinic's Dr. Shelby Karpman shows boxing causes more serious injuries than MMA
By Con Griwkowsky, Edmonton Sun

First posted: Thursday, November 05, 2015 05:28 PM MST | Updated: Thursday, November 05, 2015 07:54 PM MST


Dr. Shelby Karpman of the U of A's Sather Clinic spoke on his study's findings at the UFC Gym in Sherwood Park on Thursday. (Perry Mah, Edmonton Sun)

Mama, don’t let your babies grow up to be boxers.

If they’ve still got some fight left in them, MMA would be a much safer game.

A study by lead author Dr. Shelby Karpman by the U of A’s Glen Sather Sports Medicine Clinic may have turned perceptions upside down about the relative brutality of the sports.

Karpman and his group went through post-fight medical examinations from 1,181 MMA fights and 550-boxing bouts held in Edmonton between 2000-2013.

The study showed that even though MMA fighters have a slightly higher risk of injury (59.8% MMA vs. 49.8% boxing), the type of injury boxers face, including concussions and other head traumas, tend to be more serious.

“The general finding was, if you look at injury rates overall, there wasn’t a big difference,” said Karpman. “But there were more severe injuries in boxing than there are in mixed martial arts.”

The difference is the fact that boxing focuses more on blows to the head, where MMA has different physical risks in its ground game.

“We took all the data which was presented initially in a North American fight doctors conference in Orlando about four or five years ago,” said Karpman. “We decided to put it together on paper and publish it. It’s the largest study of its kind in mixed martial arts vs. boxing injuries.”

MMA has a perception that it’s a much more brutal activity.

“The problem is, and this is my perception, is the glorified and the real ugly stuff gets shown on TV,” said Karpman. “The guys who break their legs, the guys who get their faces split open. That’s the kind of stuff you see on the replays.

“What you don’t see in the replay is the 99% of the other fights where the guy is choked out and they both get up, walk off the mat and there’s no scratches on either of them. So, you have a lot of misinformed people who see all those highlights and go, ‘Oh, you’ve got to ban this sport because it’s just too rough.’ ”

While it’s true that both are forms of consensual violence, it’s not the only sports form in which injuries occur.

“Look at hockey, look at football,” Karpman said. “The number of ridiculous hits. When New England Patriots receiver Darryl Stingley was laid out by Jack Tatum of the Oakland Raiders (in a 1978 pre-season game) and left him completely paralyzed, you didn’t hear anybody calling for the ban of football.

“Yet, you see that stuff on TV. Yes, there have been deaths, but the percentage of deaths has been so small … there’s more deaths from common causes than there are from MMA.”

Karpman said the perception is strong enough that some people were surprised by the results of the study.

“There were people who were,” he said. “They expected to see a lot more injuries because they see the elbows flying, the choke holds and the rest of it. To see that and the difference in what we see is scrapes, cuts and bruises, I think that surprised a lot of people.”

Edmonton Combative Sports Commission chair Pat Reid has noticed there’s plenty of recent pushback to both fighting forms from medical associations across Canada, led by the B.C. Association.

“It’s fair to say the medical community does not like the existence of boxing and they’re no more enamoured with the MMA,” said Reid. “Although it’s consensual violence, medical doctors are there to protect people from themselves. They don’t like to see that — particularly now that young girls are getting into the sport. Being kicked in the head and so on is not something that people willingly accept.”

Due to the nature of its kicks and blows, MMA was finally accepted by amendment to the Canadian Criminal Code of Canada in 2013.

VETERAN EXPERIENCE

Victor Valimaki had a brief 3-0 boxing career.

With 14 years experience in the MMA game, he’s able to see things from a fighters’ perspective.

Valimaki, manager of the UFC Gym in Sherwood Park, believes the U of A study that shows MMA to be safer than boxing is pretty accurate.

“In my own career, it’s unfair to compare,” said Valimaki. “I’ve had some pretty bad injuries but because of my own experience, it’s unfair to compare them.”

Valimaki had knee ligament damage in his most recent fight but it’s something that can be fixed.

“I think the repeated shots to the head in boxing is the downfall,” said Valimaki. “In MMA, there’s a lot more ways to finish a fight. You can submit a guy and not even take one punch in the fight.”

Boxing uses eight-once gloves while MMA’s gloves weight four ounces.

“You would think that would lead to more damage being done,” said Valimaki. “You can’t keep taking the repeated shots that you can in boxing, so you take less head trauma.

“Even certain friends of mine who are elite national boxers, I hear some of them slurring their words and heading down the punch-drunk kind of avenue.”

Valimaki said he’s not surprised to hear MMA is safer than boxing.

“I definitely think it is,” he said. “MMA gets a bad name because it looks brutal. I think the MMA athletes are the best athletes in the world. It just looks bad. You get a cut on the elbow and there’s blood spraying out everywhere and it looks bad, but it’s all superficial and it’s not major damage as opposed to a 250-pound linebacker jumping at your knees. I think MMA is one of the safer sports out there.”

con.griwkowsky@sunmedia.ca