Ultimate Fighting Displacing Boxing
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A friend sent me this article on NPR today. It’s an interesting take on the Ultimate Fighting phenomenon. Frank Deford, the author of the article, describes boxing as a barbaric sport, and he says that the decline of boxing is taking place because the UFC is more violent. According to Deford, violence is something that is highly desired in our video game culture, and so we naturally gravitate towards Mixed Martial Arts rather than the more controlled and non-violent sport of boxing.
Deford is slightly wrong on one count–the top stars do make millions but only through endorsements rather than from the fight league itself–but the overall thesis is correct. We do like seeing violence, and we do like the fact that the UFC matches are quick. I think it has something to do with the fact that we live in the Youtube generation. I used to love boxing, and I think boxers are phenomenal athletes, but gosh, these days I can’t sit through six rounds, let alone ten. But this situation has always been the case; people are always going for bigger, badder, faster, more violent, and now we have a new sport that fulfills this need. Why did people love Tyson? It was because he finished his work really quickly. Why do people love Sumo? Because it starts and ends quickly. In the Youtube generation where quickness is even more valued than before, we now have the UFC.
I think Deford is overreacting. Sure, a new sport which values the fast and efficient is now in vogue. But basketball, baseball, football, and all the other sports with longer durations will always be around. We just now have different sports that cater to different moods.
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CJF
8:51 pm | Apr 16, 2008I love Mixed Martial Arts. Many ways to win, and the most violent fighters are indeed the most popular, but submission fighters like BJ Penn are just as popular with their mastery of bodily mechanics. So its not all that violent.
kimtae
9:41 pm | Apr 16, 2008Obviously this Deford has no clue what he’s talking about. He’s simply against all forms of combat sports as his stance against boxing shows.
The reason why boxing is declining is because people are becoming more and more jaded with the way fights have been promoted and the way fighters have become more and more reluctant to take on the fights that people want to see. For example, look at how Riddick Bowe ducked Lennox Lewis and Mike Tyson through all of the time he was champion. There are also far fewer really talented boxers in an ever more crowded arena of titles. Think back to the old days when you had a large number of great fighters fighting for one of only three “world” titles versus today when even hacks like John Ruiz could claim to have been a heavyweight champion. Boxing has become disorganized and more crooked than ever with fewer talented fighters and the really good ones rarely fighting and even more rarely fighting each other.
MMA has come along at a time when there was a void left by boxing (and I also suspect due in part to pro wrestling no longer even trying to cling to its old claims of being “real”) but it hasn’t succeeded by becoming more brutal or violent. It’s far less brutal and there has only been one death attributed to MMA all this time versus over 10 per year for boxing. What could be more brutal than standing for 12 rounds with an opponent taking repeated head shots? The gloves in boxing allow for far more damage to the brain over the long rounds because there are so few quick knockouts. The constant barrage of punches accumulate over the long term to create the kind of injuries that shorter MMA matches with the harder hitting (irnoically) smaller gloves. Just as importantly, MMA also allows for wins that don’t traumatize opponents as well as for tapouts. Opponents are just as likely if not more to give up as they are to be KO’d. Further, if violence were MMA’s main selling point then one would have to ask why the sport became more popular only after Dana White famously insisted on gloves and rules regarding disallowing certain types of strikes.
MMA also attracts today’s fans for the reason that it is more action-oriented than boxing. It allows for greater strategies and more different styles. It requires a more complete figter with greater training and a far more ranging set of skills. In a multi-tasking world, it is the multi-tasking combat sport.
FYI Jaehwan, there is no such thing as Ultimate Fighting. Even the UFC calls it MMA. After all, it’s the Ultimate ‘Fighting Championship’ and not the ‘Ultimate Fighting’ Championship.
kimtae
9:46 pm | Apr 16, 2008One additional point, Deford’s comment, “The idea in boxing, which has always styled itself as “the sweet science,” is not to get hit.”, stands in direct contradiction to his earlier comment, “Boxing is the only major sport where the object is to hurt your opponent.”
What a joker. He just loses all kinds of credibility with this.
As for the point of boxing, I boxed, several of my friends boxed, some professionally, and we were all taught that the point of boxing was to knock your opponent out and get the figtht over with as quickly as possible.
jaehwan
12:40 am | Apr 17, 2008Good points, kimtae, especially about boxing. You’re totally correct–boxing was on its way out way beforehand. You bring back memories. I was bored way before MMA came out.
I guess people think it’s more brutal because you usually see more blood in MMA if the strikes fly. It does less damage, but you see more damage. I also agree that the numerous possibilities make it exciting. That’s why I usually don’t like watching one-range fighters like Paulo Filho or Chuck Lidell or ground and pounders like Tito. Snooze. I’ll take the B.J. Penns and Anderson Silvas anyday over the one-rangers.
groinpull
12:56 pm | Apr 18, 2008MMA is way too much like the WWE these days. That’s probably why I don’t follow it anymore. I hate how Dana and the UFC tries to hype up Randy as one of the greatest heavy weights when he was beaten down to LHW and then got clobbered backup to HW by Chuck Liddell.
And then there’s the Serra/GSP thing which makes me roll my eyes. I’m a fan of some of the fighters like Fedor but as a sport, it’s way too much about business and money to my liking.
awong
3:01 pm | Apr 18, 2008I find MMA too boring to watch, so I dont, my friend thinks its a worked shoot lol