Arguably it's not even a question of which sport is better anymore. Recently we saw the first professional boxer to fight in mixed martial arts, this was of course James 'Lights Out' Toney who stepped up to fight Randy 'The Natural' Couture. I am an avid mixed martial arts fan. I like sports, I used to be a big football fan, I was madly into the NBA also, I can watch snooker, tennis I even like watching curling even though I think calling it a sport is wrong. I have always enjoyed watching people compete to be the best of the best, but oddly I never liked boxing, aside from the Rocky films but then who isn't a fan of them?
For some reason boxing just never had enough in it for me. A couple of guys who are no doubt tough as nails wearing these stupidly large gloves that cover up their whole faces barely ever punching each other just always bored me. Now I know that there have been some great boxers, even if you don't know anything about it, you will know who Muhammad Ali. There have been some amazing fights too, again you will probably have heard of The Rumble in the Jungle where Muhammad Ali fought George Foreman. If you ever get a chance to watch it would recommend you do, you can see the iron will of Ali who will not back down until he has his belt back. It's amazing.
Still even considering the prestige and history that boxing has, it was never for me. I was a martial arts fan. The beautiful flowing of kung fu, the power of karate and the devastating speed of muay thai always left me waving my arms and kicking at imaginary foes in my back garden. More than that, the attitude of martial arts intrugued me. I love the serenity of Shoalin Monks who are Buddists and could quite easily take you apart. That people who practise martial arts do it do defend themselves and to be able to discipline themselves - I think this attitude of peace is missing from boxing. Boxers like Floyd Mayweather Jr. never talk about their opponents with respect and I think that kind of attitude will be one of the fallings of boxing.
I do of course understand that fighters have to hype the fight, it helps promote it and make more people want to watch it. James Toney did a brilliant job of trash talking leading up to his fight with Randy Couture but mostly it just left more and more people wanting to see him get lose. I didn't necessarily want to see him lose, I had no doubt that Couture would win but, the fake animosity always has and always will infuriate me. What's the point? Now I know that there are guys like that in MMA the most famous is probably Tito Ortiz, he can be the most cocky and arrogant man on the planet when he is scheduled to fight but then is one of the nicest guys ever and he proved it after he appeared as one of the coaches on the UFC's The Ultimate Fighter series.
Aside from all the back talk and the fight promoting I just genuinely believe mixed martial arts will eventually replace boxing all together. This is more than just a general dislike for boxing, I have a tremendous amount of respect for how hard they work. The thing is that for all the hours a boxer puts in, a mixed martial artist will do the same (potentially more) and train in several different styles of fighting. I get angry when I hear people idly talking about how 'crap' they think the UFC is because they just don't understand it.
Mixed martial arts is incredible. And it's continuously getting better. I trained in MMA for about eight months and I loved it but I eventually just got lazy. The dedication it takes to learn jiu jitsu and wrestling and boxing and Thai boxing and then putting them altogether is astounding and there is nothing better than watching two guys (and increasingly more girls) step into the cage and try and prove who is better.
Yes, there are some boring fights, when two guys just dance around each other for fifteen minutes I get annoyed. When someone gets a takedown and does nothing with it, I get annoyed and when you have someone who just doesn't want to engage at all I get annoyed. All in all there are just so many facets to mixed martial arts that boxing will never be able to keep up with. As the UFC keeps growing and helping mixed martial arts as a sport grow more and more fans will come to realise just how brilliant this sport is and people will forget that it was once said that boxing was better than MMA.
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