Smoke and Mirrors; UFC and Pretty Boy Floyd’s Slow Waltz
Posted by Dave Walsh on September 20th, 2009
Oh the irony of it all. Last night saw UFC counter-program the return of boxing’s Pretty Boy; Floyd Mayweather, Jr. Floyd, the oft-controversial performer came back after a two-year retirement after seeing Manny Pacquiao take his place on the top of the food chain in the media’s fickle eyes after destroying Oscar De La Hoya and Ricky Hatton. Floyd saw this and saw dollar signs, while UFC saw this as their chance to take another jab at the sport they and their rabid fans see as a dying art and proclaim dominance that they could do well against boxing’s biggest star.The numbers aren’t out yet, but the results are in, and they can be weighed against each other. UFC saw no real surprises on their main card; Cro Cop is washed up, Hermes Franca isn’t very good, Martin Kampmann was overrated and Vitor Belfort when he trains for a fight can beat a gatekeeper handily (with illegal blows to the back of the head). The undercard was just rather dull and the card featured some of the worst preliminaries UFC has offered on a PPV. The card was easily the least entertaining since UFC 55; Andrei Arlovski vs. Paul Buentello.
Mayweather vs. Marquez on the other hand saw a lively undercard as Chris John took Rocky Juarez all twelve rounds for a decision, Michael Katsidis overwhelmed a scrappy Vincente Escebedo and Cornelius Lock devastated Orlando Cruz with a left hook. All three of these bouts were incredibly exciting and put on this card to prove that they can not only compete with UFC quality-wise, but put on a better overall show.
A lot of talk right now from UFC fans is that the Mayweather fight was a “multi-million dollar sham” of a fight; Mayweather was fighting a lighter fighter who stood no chance against him. The truth of the matter is, after coming back from a two year layoff, taking on a fighter like Manny Pacquiao would be a giant risk, as would a fight with Shane Mosley. Plus, from a business perspective, a multi-million dollar warm-up fight before the big fight makes perfect sense. Instead of people asking the question “does Floyd still have it?” there will be no doubt that he still has it when he goes into his next fight against whomever it is.
What is sort of humorous is that those calling this fight a sham are staunch supporters of the UFC, who have been known for questionable match-making in the past to rake in the cash. How many times did they sell fans on Tito Ortiz vs. Ken Shamrock? Or how they sold fans on Matt Hughes vs. Royce Gracie, the former “king” of the UFC? How about Brock Lesnar against “top heavyweight” Frank Mir? If you aren’t buying those, how does this stack up for a parallel to Mayweather/Marquez; top fighter from a lower weight class calls out the highest ranked fighter in a higher weight class, the fight is accepted, there is a multi-part hype show and months of media buildup with the words “pound-for-pound” being tossed around. The fight happens and the smaller man simply stood no chance against the bigger, more skilled fighter. Except you ate it up.
BJ Penn vs. Georges St. Pierre.
BJ Penn had very little chance of actually winning in this fight, but showed he was serious about it and people were sold on this fight by Dana White and the UFC. The fight itself was an annihilation by a virtuoso at his weight class, but when BJ goes back down to his true weight class he continues to dominate and will continue to be the best there for quite a while. Much in the same vein, Juan Manuel Marquez will go back to his native weight class and most likely continue to be one of the absolute best at it.
On top of that, next month UFC is presenting Light Heavyweight kingpin Lyoto Machida against a man clearly not the #1 contender, Mauricio Shogun Rua in a terrible style match-up. Quentin Rampage Jackson, the true #1 contender at Light Heavyweight was first tied up with The Ultimate Fighter as a lead-in to a Rashad Evans match — because he saw more dollar signs in that fight — and now tied up with the A-Team movie, pushing the Rashad fight back until March (reportedly).
So if boxing isn’t giving us the fights fans want to see, what is UFC doing? Did I want to see Rich Franklin vs. Vitor Belfort? Don’t fans want to see Vitor Belfort vs. Anderson Silva? Why bother with a warm-up fight, right? I’m also really glad UFC is giving us Brock Lesnar vs. Antonio Minotauro Nogueira, and Lyoto Machida vs. Rampage Jackson, and Anderson Silva vs. Frank Mir, or how about Fedor Emelianenko vs. Brock Lesnar, and then how about Georges St. Pierre vs. Jake Shields?
Get my point? This isn’t a perfect world. Instead of seeing last night for what it was; a night that featured a lot of great fighting, it has to be a polarizing event, what does that tell us?
September 20th, 2009 at 2:58 pm
the ufc didn’t counter floyd. they already had this date scheduled, and floyd’s fight got pushed back due to his injury. what’s laughable is that some people think this. if the ufc wanted to “counter” maywether, they wouldn’t have put on their wekest event of the year (on paper). the maywether fight will probably outsell 103, but not by much. if this ws brock or gsp in the main, flyd and marquez would have rescheduled…again.
September 20th, 2009 at 4:28 pm
That really isn’t the point if it was pre-scheduled or not. The point is they could probably get a few more viewers if they picked a week when there wasn’t a Floyd Mayweather boxing match. They knew there was going to be more mainstream media attention to Floyd and that it would alienate some fans who would much rather see the better Mayweather card.
Dana was trying to make a point that even with a weaker card he could do well against the boxing juggernaut, plus taking a risk and putting on some of his best fights against Mayweather would be suicide and they know they’d lose out on the much needed attention they’d get.
September 20th, 2009 at 6:08 pm
so your’e saying that dana should have rescheduled and didn’t to make a point? puhleeze. dana stated that they never worried about floyd, they only checked the calender for when oscar was fighting. oscar was always the draw, not flyd, not haton,not manny. manny and floyd got big pushes in their careers from fighting oscar. and if the ufc put it’s top stars, namely brock, i guarantee you it would be suicide for floyd. odh promotions would NEVER LET THAT HAPPEN. their too smart. the ufc should reschedule for floyd.lol. the ufc NEVER reschedules, unless there is a hurricane or an earthquake. i still like boxing alot, but once floyd and manny are gone (floyd will fight once per year tops) boxing will have a very hard time finding ppv money. not meant to be an insult, just a fact.
September 20th, 2009 at 7:11 pm
That’s been said for years and yet boxing survives and always will. But even if you’re right, Dave’s point is still accurate. It’s funny to see all this weird “partisan” arguing instead of appreciating a very good show.
Anyone who could drown out the shrill had a lot to enjoy last night. Two completely different clinics on boxing technique were on display from Chris John and Floyd Mayweather Jr., and the rest of the show was exciting and at a high level as well.
Bring on Pacquiao/Cotto and Pavlik/Williams.
September 20th, 2009 at 7:21 pm
Right, the polarization is just worthless. I’m, obviously, a big fan of the UFC and they’ve gotten hundreds of dollars from me a year, but I also love boxing. Last night as a boxing fan was a bigger deal than last night as a UFC fan.
UFC’s offering was fine, if not a bit weak, and against such a great card like the JMM/PBF card they just looked kind of sad.
September 21st, 2009 at 2:01 am
I really can’t watch boxing anymore, I did in the old days before MMA but can’t do it now. Maybe I’ll search for a couple of the fights you mentioned above and try to watch them. I’m certainly not going to watch a 12 round one-sided affair. I now I find I’d rather watch 2 really high level grapplers in an ADCC match than any boxing match. Kickboxing is much much more exciting than boxing itself. I watch all the top K1 cards.
In fairness, Rich was out before the final 1 or 2 blows to the back of the head came down so those didn’t influence the outcome.
Cro cop’s best days are long gone but Dos Santos showed some serious speed and ability. He looked good and I’ll be tuned into his next fight for sure.
Yeah, Kampmann was exposed. Being a Danish kickboxing champ probably isn’t that high on the overall food chain of strikers. Daley despite the book on him having no ground game did look explosive and again, I’ll be watching his next fight.
Overall, pretty average UFC card, less than average actually for a PPV but I wouldn’t compare it to the worst of all time, it wasn’t bad. Actually it was better than UFC 101. Other than 2 fights, that card was terrible.
I’m sure Floyd will win the PPV contest here but I sense that’s only because of the media push boxing gets and MMA doesn’t with the exception of UFC 100 and we saw how that drew.
Boxing’s not dead, it’ll always be here, just as amateur wrestling will always be here but do you really see any new stars coming up in boxing that have the ability to change the overall slide of boxing? If Floyd and De La Hoya don’t fight, who’ll drive PPV for boxing? I kind of feel that in 5 years time, boxing won’t even be able to put on a PPV at all.
Beyond the more diverse fighting you get in MMA, it’s become such a cultural phenomenon as well. Imagine guys like Brock with little MMA experience driving hugh PPV numbers. We just saw Kimbo smashing viewership records on TUF, wait till he gets on a PPV, I won’t be surprised to see new record setting PPV numbers. Although these guys don’t have the MMA pedigree, they do have a huge followings and will only increase MMA’s penetration to the masses. Eventually the real media will have no choice but to cover it.
September 21st, 2009 at 2:52 pm
Ugh, this persecution complex has got to end. UFC gets plenty of media push at this point… not that anyone should be really proud of the amount of attention Kimbo and Lesnar get. At some point as MMA fans we have to admit that we haven’t seen a rise in popularity because it’s a fascinating interplay of styles (etc), but rather a more brutal spectacle.
Anyway, despite the naysayers I expect this Mayweather/Marquez PPV will come back with strong numbers, and Pacquiao/Cotto will do even better. But in the end this competition will drive both sports to come up with better shows which can only be a good thing.
TH
September 21st, 2009 at 4:51 pm
Nepal — with the Floyd fight, though, it is 12 rounds of a master clowning a great competitor. I watched it more out of awe than anything else.