Boxing v MMA

This is a regular debate and I thought that I might throw my two cents on here, because I'm pretty opinionated when it comes to this issue.

I honestly believe that boxers don't have the same level of skill as MMA fighters. The point is arbitrary and arguable, but that's generally my first point in connecting the two sport, and here's my logic.

1) There are hundreds of ways to finish an MMA fight. There are hundreds of different submissions and dozens of different strikes that a fighter can use to finish a fight. Boxers can punch each other in the face.

2) MMA fighters need to regulate distance, control clinches and, generally, have more spatial knowledge than boxers. In boxing, the refs control the distance by separating the fighters. In MMA, you better know how to seperate your self if that's not somewhere you want to be.

3) In MMA, a fighter has to be aware of the 3 dimensions of the sport (standup, takedowns and groundgame), but even the standing element is much more difficult to understand because you have to worry about the distance, like I said, you have to be able to endure kicks to the legs and body, you have to be aware of knees and elbows that can dish out nasty cuts and you have to be aware of your opponent setting up the takedown. In boxing, you have to not get punched in the face.

That's my logic. Anyway, comparing the two sports is like comparing apples and oranges, really. I like apples, you may like oranges. Both have their time and place.

I do think the one point worth making is that boxing is not what it once was. They used to be able to call boxers "fighters." Some people make the mistake of thinking that they are synonomous. They aren't.

The fact is, boxing is motivated by money and statistics. MMA doesn't have so much money in it yet that it can be motivated by anything other than the love of the sport.

When it's about the love of the sport, it becomes much more about trying to win, while boxers spend all of their time trying not to lose. That's why boxing bores me. Yes, I watched Mayweather v De La Hoya. It made me need Rampage v Liddell that much more.

In MMA, the biggest insult that you can give a fighter about his style is to say that he fights to not lose. It was said about former UFC lightweight champion Jens Pulver for years, and people made a big deal out of it. At least he could be credited with fighting smart and, still, finishing fights when he had the opportunity.

Boxers simply pad their statistics by taking fights to decision. In MMA, if you take the fight to a decision when you could have fought harder and finished, you are oblidged to apologize to the fans, and you will probably not get a title shot. Ask Andrei Arlovski.

In boxing, fighters get excited about winning a unanimous decision. That's a big deal in the upper echelons of boxing. In MMA, if a champion wins with a decision, his dominance is disputable. If you don't finish, it's hard to say that you deserve to hold that belt. The only reason I don't hesitate to recognize Randy is because he is so much better as a champion than Sylvia was, and at least he tried to lay it one the line.

The point is, boxing is dying because the men who were once fighters stopped being fighters. When boxers started competing in boxing, when they started making it about money, it became just another sport, as far as I'm concerned. I want to watch a competition for the love of the game, for pride, for self respect and for honor, I don't want to watch a fight over the winners purse.

In a fight, a great fight, there has to be more on the line than money. That's why the UFC gets geared up for grudge matches, for the chance for a fighter to avenge a loss and for the chance for a fighter to take a belt, the ultimate symbol of dominance in his weight class. The sport doesn't need money to fuel those fights, they play out incredibly on their own.

Honestly, I have alot of issues with the way this is argued by big commentators because I don't see it as a matter of ratings and ticket value and what celebrity shows up at the fight. I see this who issue as a matter of what sport has the better fighters, the better fights and the better standards set for both of those.

I honestly believe that boxing was the greatest sport in the world for a long. When Jack Dempsey was fighting, when Muhammad Ali was fighting, it wasn't about the money. That might have given them the opportunity to fight full-time, but it as about the respect, it was about the glory of the whole thing. It was a sport that was symbolic of a greater struggle, a physical struggle between two men where there is no interference by the outside world.

Boxers stopped making it about those core martial principles and we have seen the sport slowly deteriorate as a product of that. Now, if you want the pride of being a great fighter, you fight in MMA. MMA offers that opportunity, it offers that chance for fighters to be heroes, representatives of greater cause, while boxers remain, simply, the representatives of the greater paycheck.

That's just my two cents.