Re: OT:Shamrock/Ortiz-Youtube already!

I'll give you Tyson, but Holyfield wasn't there until he won multiple
titles, and was never as big a draw as the other three.

Holyfield was a part of some absolutely mammoth PPVs. Was he as big as
Ali, Tyson, or Sugar Ray Leonard? Of course not. How many guys have
that drawing ability? Holyfield was, in his prime, a bigger draw than
anyone currently boxing, except perhaps Oscar De La Hoya (who is the
biggest nonheavyweight draw in history). The Bowe trilogy, the Moorer
fight, the Foreman fight, the Buster Douglas fight, both bouts with
Lennox Lewis (particularly the first one) and of course, the two Tyson
bouts, the second of which was the most purchased PPV in history, all
did giant numbers, had bigger mainstream exposure, and made more money
than any fight card that's thrown out there in the last two years that
didn't include Oscar De La Hoya in the main event.

Well, there's Fedor and Nogeira and Barnett and CroCop. They're not
being given a chance (not that they want one with the UFC) and they're
the best fighters.

With Silva crossing over and PRIDE's interest in the US market (which
they feel will ultimately be worth more to them than Japan), its a
matter of time before the Fedors and Noguiera's end up in the UFC.
Barnett will probably *never* appear in a MMA ring again because of
what happened when he was last with UFC. He's not competed in the US
since and would have to go through the recertification process almost
from scratch.

I don't know what you consider a "legitimate" reason
and I don't agree with this qualifier. MMA is a business rather than a
sport, even more so than boxing. If it were a sport, then the
sanctioning bodies would be trying to make these fights rather than get
its competitors from a reality show. Football and soccer and baseball
and rugby don't obtain their competitors in this way.

Boxing is trying to create competitors from reality shows. Didn't you
hear? Sergio Mora/Jermain Taylor is basically a lock for this fall.
It'll do better on PPV than Hopkins/Taylor I or II did, watch.

As for MMA being more of a business, well, things are changing rapidly,
as the fact of Wanderlei Silva appearing in the octagon (as well as the
announcement in Japan that Fujita and possibly Phill Baroni will join
him) illustrates. Bigger fights will occur as the money increases and
TV exposure continues to increase. HBO is signing the UFC, and Showtime
is signing the WFA, and that's not stuff I'm making up. The argument
that its still a fringe sport whereas boxing isn't ends the second you
turn on Sportscenter or your local news' sports report.

The way things run now will change though...just wait until DKP or Bob
Arum decide to get serious about MMA. They will. There's too much money
to ignore, and given that the two biggest promoters consist of a guy
who's killed two people and another one who got his start promoting
Evel Knievel's Snake River jump, how can you not expect them to go
where the money is at some point?

.

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