UFC vs. Boxing Tomorrow Night
Tomorrow night is UFC 103 with Rich Franklin taking on the returning Vitor Belfort and usually the UFC does not have any competition on Saturday Night’s but they do now. The fight between Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Juan Manuel Marquez is taking place tomorrow night at the same time as UFC Fight. I don’t know who made scheduling for this fight but it’s going to cause them to lose a lot of money.
If you haven’t noticed, no one really cares about boxing anymore. They don’t have any fighters with greatness or class in them anymore. There is no more Lennox Lewis, Evander Holyfield, George Foreman or Oscar De La Hoya. You have a couple decent fighters in Ricky Hatton and Manny Pacquiao. Other then that I really don’t know anyone in the sport anymore.
The one thing that the UFC does way better then boxing is that they market their fighters. People like Chuck Liddell, and Randy Couture are well known because their face is shown on more then just UFC TV. The only marketable fighter boxing has is the guy who is probably one of the most hated athletes ever and thats Mayweather. He’s been some commercials, been on Dancing with the Stars and has made a fool out of himself on WWE television. There is one problem with that. You can’t rely on one guy, especially if he is hated to help the industry succeed. The UFC has multiple guys who help UFC stay successful. It’s like I told someone yesterday, that even by having one of my favorite wrestlers in Triple H standing in Mayweather’s corner doesn’t help the cause because UFC is what boxing was and could have been.
I believe that tomorrow night is boxing’s last stand at glory. If they do not outdraw or have more pay-per-view buys, boxing as we know it will be totally irrelevant in sports. The UFC’s time is now. They have been dominant on TV and in pay-per-view over the last couple years. The last boxing fight that even drew and made a lot of money is when De La Hoya and Mayweather fought. Other then that I don’t know of any other fight that has drawn any attention. So if you were to ask me which one I am going to watch, I will says UFC 103 hands down. Tomorrow night is going to be an interesting night.
