Cammo101 wrote:KNICKS1970 wrote:Cammo101 wrote:These are the 2 best fighters in boxing and they won't be fighting each other and one of them is turning down 40 million dollars. This clearly highlights a lot of what is wrong with boxing and why boxing is fading.
I agree with why MMA passed it up, but I think boxing's slide is more self inflicted than you seem to be indicating.
It's hard to say boxing is fading when the most anticipated sports event of the year is...a boxing match.
The only MMA fight that is even close to being as big as Mayweather-Pacquiao is Lesnar-Emelianenko. And that fight has had just as many problems getting made, even before Brock's illness. Fedor is even more of a hardass in negotiations than Floyd or Manny.
But, the problem boxing has it is really only has 2 marketable fighters, and neither are getting younger. The only reason that fight was so big is because it involved the 2 marketable fighters.
This particular fight would be bigger than any MMA fight. But, it is the only one. MMA has many many more marketable fighters.
My concern is what happens when Floyd and Pacman are gone.
Lesnar, GSP, Penn are the three biggest in the UFC. None compete with Mayweather or Pacquaio.
Fedor, Silva and maybe another couple are second tier. No bigger at their peak than Hatton, Cotto or Hopkins have all been over the past years.
Guys like Amir Khan, David Haye and others have more buzz relative to their talent than anyone comparable in MMA. They can single-handedly carry stadium-sized events. Khan has 4 part hype shows in lead-up to nothing fights.
