UFC Co-Promote Boxing?

Training
21

[quote]ZEB wrote:

[quote]goldengloves wrote:

[quote]ZEB wrote:

[quote]goldengloves wrote:

[quote]ZEB wrote:
White is too savvy to mix the up and coming sport of mma with the seemingly dying sport of boxing. It’s an image and marking thing.

I’m not trying to offend any boxing fans, I’m one myself, but we are not living during boxings golden age, while mma is a rising superstar.[/quote]

People have been saying boxing is dying as long as I’ve been alive. We see how that has worked out though.[/quote]

Actually it is working out, for mma. There’s only so much money available for each sport. The
primary combat sports fan is a male between the ages of 18 and 39. If mma were not around those fans would in fact be tuning into boxing more often. However, since the rise of mma most of the male 18-39 crowd is spending their ppv dollars on mma not boxing. Check the latest ppv buys over the past couple of years. You’ll find that with few exceptions mma outsells boxing every single time.

I really hope boxing is not on the way out, as I’m a fan and have been all my life. But, I wouldn’t bet that it has much of a future as long as mma continues to capture the core 18-39 year old male demographic.

One more point, at the turn of the century (1899-1900) the biggest sport in the US was actually westling. At the time it was real wrestling and people filled stadiums watching two grapplers try to pin each others shoulder to the mat again it was real. Then there was a young upstart sport that started to draw fans from the (real) sport of wrestling, it was called boxing. Boxing started to get sanctioned around the country after many politicians gave up calling it too brutal to watch. Does any of this sound familiar? The people said that wrestling (did I mention it was real then?) would always be there as it was so popular (a short time after this wrestling we started to see “worked” matches to make them more exciting in order to, you guess it, draw fans away from boxing). Fast forward about 100 years later and you just might be having the same scenario play out with Boxing playing the role of the old fashion wrestling and MMA playing out boxing’s former role.

As I stated I certainly hope that boxing will always have a place in combat sports, but as I also said there is only so much money that each individual in that hot combat sport demographic has to spend. If they continue to choose mma over boxing it won’t be long until boxing is no more. As the older fans age and eventually die and younger Americans continue to flock to mma, well, that’s that.

But, time will tell.

I really think you MMA guys are getting played by Dana white. Played isn’t the word, more like bamboozled. Bamboozled like his champions making $500,000 a fight.[/quote]

Dana White is taking care of the Ferrita brothers and the UFC, not the fighters. The fighters are grossly underpaid. Does he have people fooled? Some, but mostly people know what he’s all about. But, we still love to watch mma and right now he has control of most of the best fighters. End of story.

I give much credit to the remaining big names in boxing and there is none bigger than Mayweather. However, the Mayweather/Marquez fight was NOT the biggest ppv event in 2009. The biggest event was UFC 100. Keeping in line with what I’ve been saying UFC topped boxing for the first time in 2009 for the years biggest event:

“The year also marked the first in which UFC, not boxing, had the yearâ??s most purchased event, as UFC 100 (1.6 million) topped boxingâ??s biggest event, Manny Pacquiao vs. Miguel Cotto (1.25 million).”

The real prominence came in 2008 when the UFC topped boxing by placing 8 of their events in the top 10 ppv list.

http://urdirt.com/2009/12/28/ufc-100-is-the-top-pay-per-view-selling-event-of-2009-beats-out-boxing-for-the-first-time/

Also, keep in mind that that was boxing biggest draw and they were still not the biggest buy, that alone should tell you in what direction each combat sport is heading.

One more point to demonstrate that mma is the new combat sport for younger males. Bars where teh 21 to 29 age group frequent more than any other demographic want to see mma not boxing

“MMA has a larger crowd than boxing,â?? Third Baseâ??s director of operations Ben Petko said. 'I do like boxing, but from a business standpoint, UFC is definitely the biggest draw.”

http://www.dailytexanonline.com/no-love-for-boxing-as-ufc-takes-over-at-bars-1.1487657

I’m sure that they’ve taken from both wrestling and boxing. It’s not really a question of where mma is going, it’s obvious. The question is can boxing hold on. As a fan I hope they do, but it’s going to be a struggle.
[/quote]

A lot of people doubt the UFC’s “numbers”, I’ve read numerous people saying that they’d pay out of their own pocket to get the UFC audited to find out what the numbers were for UFC 100. You do realize that the UFC is a private company and doesn’t have to release its’ numbers, right?

What is MMA doing? Let’s just use the UFC since it’s the most dominant MMA organization; it’s finally competing with boxing. Boxing has been “dying” longer than the UFC has existed.

22

[quote]goldengloves wrote:

[quote]ZEB wrote:

[quote]goldengloves wrote:

[quote]ZEB wrote:

[quote]goldengloves wrote:

[quote]ZEB wrote:
White is too savvy to mix the up and coming sport of mma with the seemingly dying sport of boxing. It’s an image and marking thing.

I’m not trying to offend any boxing fans, I’m one myself, but we are not living during boxings golden age, while mma is a rising superstar.[/quote]

People have been saying boxing is dying as long as I’ve been alive. We see how that has worked out though.[/quote]

Actually it is working out, for mma. There’s only so much money available for each sport. The
primary combat sports fan is a male between the ages of 18 and 39. If mma were not around those fans would in fact be tuning into boxing more often. However, since the rise of mma most of the male 18-39 crowd is spending their ppv dollars on mma not boxing. Check the latest ppv buys over the past couple of years. You’ll find that with few exceptions mma outsells boxing every single time.

I really hope boxing is not on the way out, as I’m a fan and have been all my life. But, I wouldn’t bet that it has much of a future as long as mma continues to capture the core 18-39 year old male demographic.

One more point, at the turn of the century (1899-1900) the biggest sport in the US was actually westling. At the time it was real wrestling and people filled stadiums watching two grapplers try to pin each others shoulder to the mat again it was real. Then there was a young upstart sport that started to draw fans from the (real) sport of wrestling, it was called boxing. Boxing started to get sanctioned around the country after many politicians gave up calling it too brutal to watch. Does any of this sound familiar? The people said that wrestling (did I mention it was real then?) would always be there as it was so popular (a short time after this wrestling we started to see “worked” matches to make them more exciting in order to, you guess it, draw fans away from boxing). Fast forward about 100 years later and you just might be having the same scenario play out with Boxing playing the role of the old fashion wrestling and MMA playing out boxing’s former role.

As I stated I certainly hope that boxing will always have a place in combat sports, but as I also said there is only so much money that each individual in that hot combat sport demographic has to spend. If they continue to choose mma over boxing it won’t be long until boxing is no more. As the older fans age and eventually die and younger Americans continue to flock to mma, well, that’s that.

But, time will tell.

I really think you MMA guys are getting played by Dana white. Played isn’t the word, more like bamboozled. Bamboozled like his champions making $500,000 a fight.[/quote]

Dana White is taking care of the Ferrita brothers and the UFC, not the fighters. The fighters are grossly underpaid. Does he have people fooled? Some, but mostly people know what he’s all about. But, we still love to watch mma and right now he has control of most of the best fighters. End of story.

I give much credit to the remaining big names in boxing and there is none bigger than Mayweather. However, the Mayweather/Marquez fight was NOT the biggest ppv event in 2009. The biggest event was UFC 100. Keeping in line with what I’ve been saying UFC topped boxing for the first time in 2009 for the years biggest event:

“The year also marked the first in which UFC, not boxing, had the yearÃ?¢??s most purchased event, as UFC 100 (1.6 million) topped boxingÃ?¢??s biggest event, Manny Pacquiao vs. Miguel Cotto (1.25 million).”

The real prominence came in 2008 when the UFC topped boxing by placing 8 of their events in the top 10 ppv list.

http://urdirt.com/2009/12/28/ufc-100-is-the-top-pay-per-view-selling-event-of-2009-beats-out-boxing-for-the-first-time/

Also, keep in mind that that was boxing biggest draw and they were still not the biggest buy, that alone should tell you in what direction each combat sport is heading.

One more point to demonstrate that mma is the new combat sport for younger males. Bars where teh 21 to 29 age group frequent more than any other demographic want to see mma not boxing

“MMA has a larger crowd than boxing,Ã?¢?? Third BaseÃ?¢??s director of operations Ben Petko said. 'I do like boxing, but from a business standpoint, UFC is definitely the biggest draw.”

http://www.dailytexanonline.com/no-love-for-boxing-as-ufc-takes-over-at-bars-1.1487657

I’m sure that they’ve taken from both wrestling and boxing. It’s not really a question of where mma is going, it’s obvious. The question is can boxing hold on. As a fan I hope they do, but it’s going to be a struggle.
[/quote]

A lot of people doubt the UFC’s “numbers”, I’ve read numerous people saying that they’d pay out of their own pocket to get the UFC audited to find out what the numbers were for UFC 100. You do realize that the UFC is a private company and doesn’t have to release its’ numbers, right?[/quote]

Yes, I suppose that you can call them liars all day long. But, what about the huge fan base? Do they pay people to sit in the stands and scream for more? No really, you’re off course here. While the UFC is private I’m thinking that the ppv numbers could be checked with the ppv provider, I could be wrong. Anyway, are you doubting that mma is the premier combat sport right now? Really, what’s your problem? You might be taking this a bit too personally.

Flash back to my first answer to that question, I’m not going to rehash this stuff, that’s what they do on message boards (looks around)>

23

What leads you to the conclusion that it’s? It’s your opinion, just like my opinion that boxing is. The only thing the UFC has done was generate more revenue than boxing[at times], that’s primarily because it’s an organization. All you’re doing is making speculations based on the past six successful years the UFC has been operating.

What answer, that MMA will supposedly become more popular than boxing? They’ve been saying boxing is dying since probably the late 1960s, has it? The only thing that has changed is boxing has some competition now.

24

Roy Jones Jr.'s production company put on a MMA/Boxing show and it didn’t take off well. When the boxers where fighting the MMA fans got bored. When the MMA fighter fought, the boxing fans booed and got bored. As for as boxing dying I don’t think MMA is taking away the boxing competition. I think its basketball, football, and baseball. Teddy Atlas said that the future heavyweight is playing these other sports. They pay just as well and no need to get your head beat in.

25

[quote]goldengloves wrote:
What leads you to the conclusion that it’s? It’s your opinion, just like my opinion that boxing is. The only thing the UFC has done was generate more revenue than boxing[at times], that’s primarily because it’s an organization. All you’re doing is making speculations based on the past six successful years the UFC has been operating.[/quote]

Look, I think it’s great that you’re a huge boxing fan, I wish there were more like you then I wouldn’t be so concerned that boxing might not survive. But the facts (not opinion) line up in the direction of mma.

The following is not “opinion” it’s fact. Mma is now more popular than boxing:

  1. MMA had 8 of the 10 biggest ppv events.

  2. The UFC packs the house at every single event regardless of where it’s held.

  3. MMA has far, far more rising stars who are recognizable. Boxing is currently living on a handful of big names, and many by the way are on the other side of their careers.

  4. Most of the sports bars that used to show boxing events now show mma events. And that is to a demographic (21-29) that used to follow boxing exclusively as their combat sport.

  5. It is apparent to all who closely follow combat sports that there is only so much disposable income in any demographic group. The most important (to combat sports) 18-39 male demographic money is now mostly flowing to mma with the exception being the rare big name boxing event.

It IS right now as we speak more popular than boxing, that isn’t even an argument with anyone who is aware of what has happened to both sports over the past several years. That you fail to recognize that doesn’t really matter. The real debate is whether boxing will survive as a sport. And for the last time (I hope) I want to say that I hope it does.

And that, my misguided friend, is a totally illogical defense for why boxing may survive. You do realize this right?

26

[quote]ZEB wrote:The following is not “opinion” it’s fact. Mma is now more popular than boxing:

  1. MMA had 8 of the 10 biggest ppv events.

  2. The UFC packs the house at every single event regardless of where it’s held.

  3. MMA has far, far more rising stars who are recognizable. Boxing is currently living on a handful of big names, and many by the way are on the other side of their careers.

  4. Most of the sports bars that used to show boxing events now show mma events. And that is to a demographic (21-29) that used to follow boxing exclusively as their combat sport.

  5. It is apparent to all who closely follow combat sports that there is only so much disposable income in any demographic group. The most important (to combat sports) 18-39 male demographic money is now mostly flowing to mma with the exception being the rare big name boxing event.[/quote]

  6. Of all time? No. Of the past year? Probably, that’s because it’s an organization and puts on like 10 fights a year.

  7. Good for them, now let’s see if their popularity lasts.

  8. I wonder what has happened throughout boxing history when a star retires… Another comes along.

  9. Lol. Are you serious with this one? I’d like for you to link me to the site you get those statistics from, to be frank I’ve a feeling you called a few sports bars.

  10. That’s how boxing has been from the 1960s on, a few big names dominating the sport. It’s easy to see how money can flow to the UFC when they put on so many fights each year and boxing puts on a handful of big fights. PPV buys have shown that UFC PPV doesn’t pull from boxing PPV buys when there are conflicting events though.

[quote]
It IS right now as we speak more popular than boxing, that isn’t even an argument with anyone who is aware of what has happened to both sports over the past several years. That you fail to recognize that doesn’t really matter. The real debate is whether boxing will survive as a sport. And for the last time (I hope) I want to say that I hope it does.[/quote]

Trying to defy logic again? It’s been shown that UFC PPV doesn’t pull from boxing PPV buys, UFC pulls from wrestling PPV buys.

[quote]
And that, my misguided friend, is a totally illogical defense for why boxing may survive. You do realize this right?[/quote]

It’s about as logical of a statement as saying boxing wont survive because of competition with the UFC. Didn’t the UFC get popular in the 1990s then die out? Come to think of it you’re insinuating that there wont be any big names in boxing after the current ones retire, how logical is that? That defies boxing history.

27

On one point I think goldengloves is right for sure about… MMA doesn’t pull boxing PPV buys when they have conflicting shows. And ZEB aren’t you only taking America into account? Boxing has a huge world fan base…

I’m a fan of both, however I grew up on boxing and have always watch boxing when there are conflicting shows.

Edit: So maybe I’m bias

28

[quote]Amiright wrote:
On one point I think goldengloves is right for sure about… MMA doesn’t pull boxing PPV buys when they have conflicting shows. And ZEB aren’t you only taking America into account? Boxing has a huge world fan base…

I’m a fan of both, however I grew up on boxing and have always watch boxing when there are conflicting shows.

Edit: So maybe I’m bias [/quote]

Yes, I’m a fan of both too. Anyway, The reason that boxing still does well on ppv is because of the few big names that are still selling tickets. And yes I’m just talking about the US at this point.

29

[quote]goldengloves wrote:

[quote]ZEB wrote:The following is not “opinion” it’s fact. Mma is now more popular than boxing:

  1. MMA had 8 of the 10 biggest ppv events.

  2. The UFC packs the house at every single event regardless of where it’s held.

  3. MMA has far, far more rising stars who are recognizable. Boxing is currently living on a handful of big names, and many by the way are on the other side of their careers.

  4. Most of the sports bars that used to show boxing events now show mma events. And that is to a demographic (21-29) that used to follow boxing exclusively as their combat sport.

  5. It is apparent to all who closely follow combat sports that there is only so much disposable income in any demographic group. The most important (to combat sports) 18-39 male demographic money is now mostly flowing to mma with the exception being the rare big name boxing event.[/quote]

  6. Of all time? No. Of the past year? Probably, that’s because it’s an organization and puts on like 10 fights a year.[/quote]

That’s still money NOT going to boxing. And if boxing was popular as mma is then boxing would have more ppv fights wouldn’t they? Does that logic escape you too?

Naturally, only time will tell, but I don’t see any end in sight. All indications are that mma is here to stay.

Yes, historically speaking, but who is the boxing heavy weight champion right now? Ask that question to 20 males aged 18 to 39 and they won’t be able to answer you. That is an indication that boxing is running out of gas. They have literally a handful of recognizable stars left. Compare that to the dozens and dozens of mma stars identifiable by the 18-39 age group. Why is that important? It’s important because it portends the future.

Darn, you should have been paying attention a couple of posts back I posted that link. It spoke of the importance of the sports bars in dictating what was hot and what was not. MMA was the standard combat sport which was played, not boxing.

Thank you for proving my point. Why do you think that the UFC puts on so many shows per year? Could it be because it’s so popular? Yes, of course that’s it isn’t it? If people didn’t want to pay for the shows and they lost money, or didn’t make enough you would see less shows per year, but instead the UFC has only grown hasn’t it? And as I stated before because of boxings limited number of real draws they are also limited as to how many shows will actually make money. Do you think for a second that if boxing had many stars who could pull in one million ppv buys that they wouldn’t have more shows? Of course they would. Does that give you just a tiny little tip off about the direction that each sport is moving in? No? It should.

[quote]
It IS right now as we speak more popular than boxing, that isn’t even an argument with anyone who is aware of what has happened to both sports over the past several years. That you fail to recognize that doesn’t really matter. The real debate is whether boxing will survive as a sport. And for the last time (I hope) I want to say that I hope it does.[/quote]

Show me where you’ve read this. I am under the impression that mma pulls from both boxing and wrestling. But, if you have a good link regarding your point I’d love to see it.

I really don’t know how else to tell you this. I’ll try it once more: there’s a limited amount of money out there to watch combat sports, it comes from the male 18-39 age group. Right now mma has captured that market quite well. Not saying there are no boxing fans in that group, but the people in that group who watch combat sports are largely mma fans. Boxing demographics skew older. As those older fans die out boxing may go with them. It is a very logial argument as to why boxing might be in trouble.

Again, you actually have to pay attention to understand the evolution of mma. The sport was outlawed for brutality in the beginning. Once it was taken over by new ownership they instituted rules and became sanctioned in most states.

Since boxing has never gone under I guess everything that I’m saying could be looked at as defying boxing history. I am setting up the possibility that boxing, as we know it today, might not be around in 5 or 10 years time.

As to your assertion; 20 years ago you had a group of boxers in the HW division and most knew who they were. Who are the Heavy weights right now? Most cannot even name the champion. When did that ever happen in the history of boxing? In fact, before boxing was even legal most knew of the mighty John L. Sullivan. Why? It’s because boxing was hot and everyone wanted to read about it and attend a fight, even though they were illegal at the time.

Everyone was aware when Ali, Frazier, Foreman, Holmes, Tyson Spinks etc. were champions. Where are the big names now? There used to be big names at just about every weight class. Where are they now? Tell me. When in the history of boxing has there been such low identification of boxing champions by the general public? Tell me. How come no one outside of loyal die hard boxing fans can name anyone other than a few boxers? Tell me.

Again, I’m not saying boxing WILL die (hope it doesn’t) but it’s not looking good.

30

Dear ZEB,

Shut the fuck up.

Love,

Everyone on the forum.

31

LOL, your assertion that boxing is losing money when there’s not even a PPV conflicting with the UFC PPV is just ridiculous. Also, what does the UFC putting on so many shows per year prove? That’s not a reflection of anything have to do with boxing. I don’t know if you realized this but boxing is very much a business for the fighter, they don’t just join an organization. Boxing doesn’t put on countless PPVs each year because of the negotiations involved with setting up a match.

As time progressed in boxing it was dominated by a small group of fighters, probably due to the nature of boxing. What makes you think the whole world knows of champs from the UFC or any other MMA organization? They probably know of a couple people just as most people know of a couple boxers, it’s dominated by a few personalities too.

I got the information from an MMAweekly article: http://www.mmaweekly.com/absolutenm/templates/dailynews.asp?articleid=3922

OK, do this: ask 20 18-39 year old males who’ll be fighting in the middleweight bout at UFC 109.

32

[quote]FightinIrish26 wrote:
Dear ZEB,

Shut the fuck up.

Love,

Everyone on the forum.[/quote]

Hey, the UFC has done a great thing; it got trashy white people from wearing wrestling shirts and watching wrestling to buying Tap Out shirts and watching the UFC. I’ve a lot of respect for Dana White and the UFC for doing that, I don’t quite think boxing will be dead in the next decade because of this though.

33

[quote]goldengloves wrote:

[quote]FightinIrish26 wrote:
Dear ZEB,

Shut the fuck up.

Love,

Everyone on the forum.[/quote]

Hey, the UFC has done a great thing; it got trashy white people from wearing wrestling shirts and watching wrestling to buying Tap Out shirts and watching the UFC. I’ve a lot of respect for Dana White and the UFC for doing that, I don’t quite think boxing will be dead in the next decade because of this though.[/quote]

Yup. People underestimate the number of blacks and boricuas that still love the sport… but then 50 year old rednecks like ZEB stop hearing the white kids in the mountains talk about boxing when they’re cleaning their britches in the river and go on thinking that boxing’s dead.

Please.

34

I wouldn’t expect a boxing promoter to put on a sucessful MMA show (Gary Fuck-Up Shaw anyone?) and I wouldn’t expect a MMA promoter to put on a great boxing show. The sports aren’t mutually exclusive, people need to get over this idea. Boxing isn’t dying and MMA isn’t going anywhere.

35

[quote]FightinIrish26 wrote:
Dear ZEB,

Shut the fuck up.

Love,

Everyone on the forum.[/quote]

Dear Irish,

I see that you’ve still not climbed above your typical 3rd grade style post. It’s a pity you can’t do better but then you are who you are.

Keep trying, it’s the only way you’ll improve,

Zeb

36

[quote]FightinIrish26 wrote:

[quote]goldengloves wrote:

[quote]FightinIrish26 wrote:
Dear ZEB,

Shut the fuck up.

Love,

Everyone on the forum.[/quote]

Hey, the UFC has done a great thing; it got trashy white people from wearing wrestling shirts and watching wrestling to buying Tap Out shirts and watching the UFC. I’ve a lot of respect for Dana White and the UFC for doing that, I don’t quite think boxing will be dead in the next decade because of this though.[/quote]

Yup. People underestimate the number of blacks and boricuas that still love the sport… but then 50 year old rednecks like ZEB stop hearing the white kids in the mountains talk about boxing when they’re cleaning their britches in the river and go on thinking that boxing’s dead.

Please.[/quote]

And uneducated punks like you find it quite difficult to understand changing trends and national demographic shifts.

But there’s good reason for this, you’re dumb.

But, as I’ve already told you, keep trying,

Zeb

37

[quote]goldengloves wrote:
LOL, your assertion that boxing is losing money when there’s not even a PPV conflicting with the UFC PPV is just ridiculous.[/quote]

My assertion is that boxing does not have enough popular talent to put on more shows than they do. How do I know this? If they had the talent and the interest was there you’d see more shows. This really isn’t that hard to figure is it? It’s a matter of supply and demand. Do you understand this?

Firstly, it demonstrates that the UFC is wildly popular. This may not be enough on it’s own (however it could be). Secondly, boxing has less shows as I stated prior this proves that boxing does not have the talent to do more shows, or they would. This is the dynamic shift that I’ve talked about. When you have one combat sport surging and the other receding, well the writing is on the wall isn’t it? No, I guess it’s not to you because you are a great boxing fan and emotionally attatched to the topic. (and not to Irish because he doesn’t have a functioning brain stem), but to the rest of us it’s evident. Unless something significant happens for boxing it could be in trouble.

That’s still irrelevant, if there was plenty of rising talent, and a desire to see that talent, there would be more shows. How is it that you don’t understand this?

You completely dodged my point about asking people who the HW champ of boxing is. Why don’t you try it sometime. Years ago it was easy, people knew Ali, Frazier, Foreman, Holmes, Tyson etc. today, no one knows and no one really cares. Address this in your next post I’m eager to hear your response, it should be most entertaining.

[quote]
OK, do this: ask 20 18-39 year old males who’ll be fighting in the middleweight bout at UFC 109.[/quote]

Okay, let’s take this slowly, my assertion (one of them) is that boxing is fading because there is not enough talent to fill out the ranks (and of course that mma is taking dollars from boxing). That’s why I challenged you to ask people who the HW boxing champ is. While boxing has had a very colorful past with notables from almost every weight class everyone knew who the heavyweight champ was. Today you’d be lucky to find even one person out of 40 in the most important age group 18-39 year old males who knows who the HW boxing champ is. That says a lot to me regardless of who the middleweight UFC king is or even if there is a UFC.

Get it yet?

Boxing is and has been fading.

I’m not posting this because I don’t like boxing, I still like it, but they’re losing their audience my friend.

38

Just looked at some interesting statistics from wikipedia relative to ppv and boxing:

“1999 differed radically from 2006. 1999 saw De La Hoya-Trinidad (1,400,000 buys), Holyfield-Lewis I (1,200,000), Holyfield-Lewis II (850,000), and De La Hoya-Quartey (570,000). By contrast, only one pay-per-view mega-fight took place in 2006: De La Hoya-Mayorga (925,000 buys). Rahman-Maskaev bombed with under 50,000. The other eight PPV cards last year.”

Where are the big names to replace Holyfield, De La Hoya, Lewis and the rest (not listed)?

39

[quote]ZEB wrote:
Just looked at some interesting statistics from wikipedia relative to ppv and boxing:

“1999 differed radically from 2006. 1999 saw De La Hoya-Trinidad (1,400,000 buys), Holyfield-Lewis I (1,200,000), Holyfield-Lewis II (850,000), and De La Hoya-Quartey (570,000). By contrast, only one pay-per-view mega-fight took place in 2006: De La Hoya-Mayorga (925,000 buys). Rahman-Maskaev bombed with under 50,000. The other eight PPV cards last year.”

Where are the big names to replace Holyfield, De La Hoya, Lewis and the rest (not listed)?

[/quote]

Why are you so focused on the year 2006? It seems like you’re tryin to make a intellectually dishonest argument, one year of PPVs doesn’t reflect the popularity of boxing. I’d also like to point out that the following year; 2007, had nice PPV numbers. One year could have bad numbers only because no promoters could materialize a fight.

40

Over Dana White’s dead body.
Why turn the UFC into a sideshow…or more of such.