Why do so many boxing fans like to spit on MMA every chance they get?

Question

Is it bitterness because the popularity of NHB is constantly growing, while the popularity of boxing is at a decline? Please understand that I’m not trashing the Sweet Science, I’m a lifelong fan of boxing and one of my earliest memories was watching Tyson defeat Smith when he unified the WBC and WBA titles, it’s just that I have been a fan of MMA since 1995 and have trained in BJJ on and off for a couple years. I must add that I’m not insinuating that all boxing fans are MMA naysayers, but I have observed quite a number of fans trashing the sport on the internet on television.

Answer 1

That couldn' t be farther from the truth. It's actually the MMA fans that like to "spit" on boxing every chance they get. Most boxing fans only speak in defense of boxing if anything, because it is the sport they love.

Answer 2

Elmer, I'm a regular in the martial arts section, and there are tons of MMA bashing threads started by boxing fans. It probably happens a lot over here too.

And Rudigger, that was a big load of wtf.

Early UFC days was a freakshow and a joke. How is that interesting?

Though, I'd hope that both can coexist, MMA is definitely muscling in on boxing's territory. In 2006, they outstriped boxing in PPV sales.

To say that MMA isn't a sport is just silly. I don't even know how to respond to that. It's like somebody saying that gravity doesn't exist. "uhhh, alright... Sure?" And it's definitely not in its decline. The CBS show (which was admittedly crappy) got millions of views. And that's just the start.

And while everybody is entitled to their own opinion, it is indicative of severe ignorance when people question the validity of groundfighting. It may not be your cup of tea (Elmer), but to dismiss the skill and technique is just silly. That's like those who think that boxing is just punching hard, those who don't understand the intricacies of footwork, head movement, timing, etc.

Answer 3

I have been watching MMA since the dawn of the UFC, when the Gracie family first started the UFC as a infomercial so to speak to promote their Gracie style Ju Jit Su. I became a boxing fans a couple years prior to that.

I have also trained in both Boxing and JuJitSu,NinJitsu and wrestling. So I can give a pretty accurate picture on both sports.

From what I have seen It is usually UFC fans always comparing UFC to Boxing and boxing fans defending the sport.

Any true boxing fans has no worries about the UFC or MMA taking over, its just not reality. Boxing is not losing popularity, Boxers still make much much more then MMA fighters.

Boxing still brings in huge mega million PPV's. AND! boxing, and Ive made this point before is a Martial Art, boxing is a sport,It has a ranking system. Boxing has been around 100 years or longer then UFC or Pride or anyone of those television shows.

Here is my biggest problem with taking the UFC,Pride ext ext seriously.

The UFC is a television show that host's mixed martial arts fighting, they have a roster much like WWF wrestling not a ranking system like legit fighting sports. Everything is controlled by the guys who run these companies; they hire their fighters as employee's, that's just not legit.

And as a fan of both I have no idea where people say 3 rounds of a little punching and then allot of holding and wrestling on the ground is more exciting then the toe to toe battles of Arturo Gatti-Micky Ward, Castillo-Corrales,Barrera-Morals,Pacquia... vs anybody really, Pavlik-Taylor 1, Corrales-Casamayor,Cotto-Mosley,Cotto-Ju... and they are just recent fights.

I have never seen in the history of MMA a fight that compares to any of those, the best fight Ive seen was Stephan Bonner vs Forrest Griffin and that don't come close to being as exciting as any of the fights Ive listed.

MMA is popular due to clever marketing strategy, they did what boxing needs to do and that is have fights, and build fighters on free TV like they used to do. UFC has done a great job with their reality TV show. Also UFC is very mainstream and allot of their PPV buys and ratings come from the part time fan who watches it because it’s the thing to do.

MMA has been popular for 10 years? give or take and is already starting to down slide.

MMA or UFC was much much better when it was JuJitsu vs Punching, or Greco wrestling vs Jujitsu, there were no weight limits, guys like Don Fry would run across the ring fists a blazing, that’s was awesome and very entertaining. Today all the guys are too well rounded which makes for boring fights, "Oh I can’t punch with the guy? Well Ill tackle him" UFC reminds me more of a circus then a sport, taking their show on the road with their roster of actor/fighters. (Bad actors at that)

It wont be very many more years before they start fixing fights because they can no longer afford to have their main fan draw getting knocked out in 30 seconds, once they get a few awesome fighters with boring or S****y personalities people will stop watching, so they will fix it so the champ loses..or they will have contract problems and fire him or force him to leave. Thats the reality of UFC.

The heavyweight division in boxing has carried the torch, when the division is down so is the popularity, but once another Mike Tyson or Muhammad Ali comes along the sport will be back on top.

Lets clear something up, UFC is not a sport, its a television show that hosts mixed martial arts, MMA is also not a sport, it is a collection of many sports.

Boxing will be around long after MMA is gone. There is more popularity in MMA right now, but Boxing still brings in more money on a constant basis's.

Another fighting sport that is really awesome is K1fighting, I will take that over the bland UFC anyday of the week. It is everything the UFC is except there are no weight classes, and there is no grappling.

Once K1 takes off and becomes popular, Dana White will start packing his begs and closing the doors.

I might sound biased, but its just the reality of it all. I enjoy MMA,KI Fighting but truth be told you cant compare eaither of them to boxing when they have only been popular for an eye blink compared to boxing.

Answer 4

Sorry, not into human cockfighting. Both boxing and MMA have turned into sideshows, full of gimmicks.

And boxing has been just as boring for years. No drama, like the 70s and 80s. I've been watching boxing since Cassius Clay defeated Sonny Liston when I was 8. Then, the next day he was Muhammed Ali.

These days, I don't care which is more popular.

I've studied all of the greats, back to John L. Sullivan, Henry Armstrong and Sandy Sadler.

Answer 5

Yah, there's nothing like a couple of guys in a cage, mostly naked, lots of tattoos, dry humping each other in the hopes of attaining a postion called "Full Mount" or "Rear Mount" or "Rear Naked Mount".

Or when MMA had its biggest fight ever, a man named Chuck Liddel, the biggest, baddest, bestest, toughest man on the planet TOOK A NAP in 30 seconds, succumbing to the first punch he took.  

Basically, us boxing fans are sick of the obnoxious MMA fans going on and on.  Guys like you, coming on to this board, bringing nothing but badmouthing.  You don't see boxing fans going over to MMA boards, do you?

Answer 6

Well it seems to me that MMA fans are equally as bad, always insinuating that MMA is going to replace boxing and comparing boxing unfavourably to their sport.

I guess though that boxing fans do feel threatened by MMA because it is muscling in on boxing's fanbase/ media exposure at a time when boxing is going through a bad phase, and many feel that MMA is highly inferior in terms of skill level and entertainment.