Boxing is better than NHB to watch

[CASCAGROSSA]

I used to love boxing, now I can't even watch a good fight, NHB has made everything boring to me now. I dont know exactly what it is, but I dont like watching kickboxing or boxing anymore. Id rather watch a local nhb fight than a trinidad vargas rematch. Just me I guess,

[Newbie]

Judo Guy

"The most exciting early UFC matches that I remember were Royce vs Kimo and Royce vs Severn."

What about Scott Morris vs. Pat Smith, John Matua vs. Tank Abbot, Asbel Cancio vs. Dave Beneteau? Whenever I talk to casual fans of the UFC, it is matches like these that they talk about the most. I believe that an occasional brutal, one-sided ass kicking is very beneficial to the excitement level of MMA.

Another point I would like to make is this. A popular sport needs popular competitors. Most fans of popular sports are casual fans. If you talk to casual fans of the Ultimate Fighting Championship, the name that pops up the most is, in my experience, Tank Abbot. I believe that SEG should have done a better job of marketing Tank as the spokesman for the sport. His mannerisms and behavior were as beneficial as his fighting style in terms of the image he could have portrayed for the sport. He should have been more carefully matched and he should have been provided with more incentive to train.
In my opinion, a bad example of a spokesman is Randy Couture. Sure, he may be a good person, except do you really believe that his personality is ideally suited for captivating the interest of 30,000 screaming morons while they are in a drunken rage eagerly awaiting the next bloodbath? Those screaming morons are the potential saviors of MMA. As far as the loyal, hard core fans are concerned, their PPV dollars are much, much, much easier to depend on in comparison as well as of a far less significant amount.
If the Ultimate Fighting Championship could generate and maintain larger audiences, the money would be there. The sponsors of the event could then take care of the legal and political issues.
The way to attain popular support for MMA is to appeal to the masses. The sport must be presented in a way that they can appreciate and enjoy. If the sport must be pimped out to a bunch of a drunken, ignorant, bufoons as a means of attaining that goal, then it must be. There is only one rule that should never be broken. That rule is that MMA competitions should never be scripted.
The part that we, as loyal fans can play is that of mass protest and the proliferation of instructional journalism designed to educate the general public.



[Edited by Newbie on 12-06-2000 at 09:18 AM]