Is the Top Rank/Golden Boy blood feud hurting boxing? Sure.

Is boxing still a bigger cash cow than the UFC? Yep.

Are both fantastic though rife with common problems inherent to combat sports? Yessiree Bob.

Edited to add: I expanded this to debunk your points, point by point, because you talk like you know what the fuck you are talking about and you clearly don't (Boxing and sports in general are a major passion in my life as Stevers will tell you). Alright, here goes:

"For instance, if boxing fell under a UFC-type organization, we would have seen Mayweather-Pacquiao years ago. Now we probably never will (or if we do, it'll be at a point when we don't give a shit anymore)."

Boxing has plenty of UFC-type organizations, if the fighter wishes to pay their dues required for "membership". They are called the WBC, the WBA, the IBF, the WBO, and many, many others. The only way the UFC is different than boxing is that ALL the fighters fighting under the UFC brand MUST be promoted by UFC (and not another organization like Dream, Bellator, Strikeforce before it was bought, et cetera).

The reason Mayweather vs Pacquiao never happened is because neither fighter truly wanted the fight.

What will be the reason we didn't see Gilbert Melendez in the UFC yet? He's the Strikeforce Lightweight champ, a legit top5 guy.
What was the reason we never saw Fedor fight Brock Lesnar? Or Fedor vs. Randy Couture?
What will be the reason we never see a guy like Badr Hari fight in the UFC?

Mayweather and Pacquiao don't need to fight to be top 20 fighters of all time. Would I have loved to see them fight? Yes! I also would have loved to see Riddick Bowe vs Lennox Lewis, Evander Holyfield vs Roy Jones Jr, and many many other fights.

"True, they still pick and choose "interesting" fights instead of the legit best fighters.. but the end result is that we get "interesting" fights. In boxing, promoters choose fights based on how likely their boxer is to win. A young boxer that gets a loss in his first 10-15 fights is pretty much done for his career, so they play that game way too much until they get to the point they can contend for a title. "

This is so idiotic I don't really know what to do with it. Boxers only choose easy fights AFTER the promoter floats the opponent to them. If you had a promoter who only offered to put you in against the best of the best, that would be all you fought.

Do many promoters work shamelessly for the best situation for both the fighter and the promoter? Hell yeah. It's a business, just like sports (when your team sells off its' best players to re-stock) decisions are made that often leave fans unhappy.

Another part of that statement upsets me as well, because Boxing has a hell of lot more situations where boxers fight people they have NO CHANCE to beat. That hardly ever happens in the UFC (Anderson Silva and Jon Jones fights notwithstanding). If it were up to you, Buster Douglas knocking out Mike Tyson would have never happened :(

Also, a list of boxers that lost in their first 10-15 fights:

Manny Pacquiao (lost his 11th fight and the belt he was defending) (OOPS SOMEONE LOOKS STUPID NOW)
Azumah Nelson (lost in his 14th fight in a legendary battle with Salvator Sanchez. Boxing Hall of Famer)
Khaosai Galaxy (lost in 7th fight (title fight), didn't lose another fight the rest of his career)

These are with minimal effort. If you meant fighters now, I'll list some of them too!

Jorge Arce (lost 5th fight, in the process of getting ready to fight Nonito Donaire on Dec 15th, champion in 3 weight classes)
Nonito Donaire (OMG HIM TOO?!?!?!?! lost second fight, hasn't lost since, ranked in top 5 lb for lb)

I could keep going but by this point I'll just embarass you further.

Do promoters/trainers often keep their "prospect" young fighters away from crazy tough fights early in their career? YES, BECAUSE IF YOU DON'T THEIR CAREER WON'T LAST.


"When's the last time you saw a non-championship fight that could legitimately go either way in boxing? When was the last time you saw a non-championship fight that you actually gave a shit about? It rarely, if ever, happens."

I see them all the time. You fucking idiot, Pacquiao vs Marquez wasn't for a belt. Neither was Alvarado vs Rios. Neither was Paul Williams vs Sergio Martinez. And on and on and on.

Does boxing have problems? Yes, it does. Certain people in boxing hold too much power (Don King, Bob Arum, Al Haymon) but that's the same in the UFC (Dana White). Certain promoters will do anything to keep the cash cow coming....which is what Dana White does when he holds Kimbo Slice vs Whomever, or James Toney vs. Couture, or whatever.

Get off your uninformed high-horse and come correct if you speak nonsense, son.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/09/2012 09:46PM by Sam.