Boxing vs. MMA: Stop The Madness

June 17th, 2009

Peter Czymbor

Writer’s Note: I’m both a fan of boxing and MMA

Can we stop the boxing vs. MMA debate?

Both sports are healthy and regularly staging big events. Just look at Pacquiao vs. Hatton for evidence from boxing. Look ahead the UFC 100 card featuring Brock Lesnar vs. Frank Mir for MMA.

The dumbest of the boxing vs. MMA alleged “feud” took place this past Saturday in Alabama, a place that once allowed a brain damaged Meldrick Taylor to fight.

1988 Olympic boxing heavyweight gold medalist Ray Mercer was scheduled to fight former UFC heavyweight champion Tim Sylvia in a boxing match. Despite it being a boxing fight, the bout was set to take place in a cage as opposed to a ring due the fight headlining a card of mostly MMA bouts.

However, the association of boxing commissions stepped in and prevented the bout. Mercer, entering with a boxing record of 36-7, with 26 KO’s, had an enormous advantage in experience over Tim Sylvia, who was scheduled to make his boxing pro debut, and the ABC likely didn’t want to see him get killed.

A press conference took place to announce the cancellation of the boxing match, only to see the fight suddenly tuned into a MMA rules fight. MMA has no regulation on a national level, so the fight could legally take place.

Tim Sylvia said that he was hoping to pursue a career in boxing and that Ray Mercer would be a “stepping stone”. He said an MMA fight with Mercer would be just “another win on my record”.

Not so fast.

Mercer, while clearly not as well rounded of an MMA fighter, knocked Sylvia cold with one punch, winning his official pro MMA debut against a former UFC heavyweight champion by 1^st round KO.

Mercer had previously fought MMA just once, competing in an exhibition bout, and losing via 1^st round submission to Kimbo Slice.

The boxing industry has not touted Mercer’s success this past weekend. The MMA industry has tried to ignore the embarrassment. One MMA website recently wrote a report about Sylvia’s next fight in August being cancelled due to him losing this weekend. It didn’t even mention who he lost to.

- What have we learned from the Ray Mercer – Tim Sylvia sideshow? Boxing and MMA are two different sports. Just because you’re successful in one doesn’t mean you’ll be successful in the other. Mercer lost to Kimbo, a very limited fighter, yet knocked out a former UFC champion in his next MMA bout. A Boxer will always have a punchers chance if the fight remains upright.

- MMA fighters who can’t take a punch should probably not enter the world of boxing. This isn’t to say that there are not any MMA fighters who couldn’t make the transition without some training. However, you can’t teach a good chin. You either have one of you don’t. Tim Sylvia should stick to MMA. Guys like Andre Arlovski probably should as well.

- On that note, boxers should probably stick to boxing unless they have some training in other fighting disciplines or hope to land that one big shot. For good examples of boxers going to MMA, see Marcus Davis and Jens Pulver.

Josch Is discussing this article

Alright...I am a 4-year varsity wrestler at my high school, Ive been wrestling since I was 6 years old. I have been boxing for about 7 years and have been nationally ranked more than once. I also have trained in grappling and competed in kickboxing. Not bragging at all, just wanna express where I'm coming from.

I think Boxing is dying personally. I train in both Boxing and MMA, and I must say that the fight gym is a whole more exciting than my boxing gym. Even from a spectator viewpoint, I grow restless at the very long and dragged out 12 round boxing match with little bursts of excitement spreadout with huge gaps. On the other hand, the MMA fight is constantly moving, changing postition and exciting.

People like to say that Boxing is full of a bunch of masters at the sport, yes maybe so but, MMA has masters in wrestling, grappling, boxing, kickboxing and even karate and all these masters seek out to try and master as many thing as they can so they can compete with the other masters of these other sports...as a result you get fighters like Anderson Silva who will jack you up standing or the ground, Chuck Liddel who can knock you out and dont even think about holding him down (Olympic Wrestlers have tried and failed).

MMA is a more strategic sport...period. You gotta know more than just to throw punches and bunches , bob and weave, get your punches and get out and stick and move.

Boxing may stick around but it's already started to die down.

Markk Is discussing this article

I like it, finally the spoken truth. I was a kick-boxer in the 80's and Pro boxer in the 90's, all before the acronym MMA was used. Back then even after the PKA had disseminated into lesser organizations the issue of kick-boxer vs. boxer was an issue, yet performing well in both (yeah I know I'm modest) it's difficult to face a boxer. To compare anyone in the MMA to a Mayweather, Morales, Tyson, Delahoya or Jones is just an insult to those guys. Lets face it pound for pound if anyone in the MMA could make $10,000,000 for a single bout it would be bye-bye MMA and hello WBA. Boxers defenses and punches are clearly honed in on from early stages. To expound on that, there was never an amateur kickboxing league compared to the USA Boxing federation where you have kids who from 8-18 have well over 50-200 fights a piece before they enter the pros. No contact sport has that discipline that I know of except Greco-roman wrestling, and even still a wrestler never endures the test of a boxer. That’s just fact.

I fought in karate tournaments and wiped the floor with Thai-boxers and jujitsu guys in semi-contact matches but never on their turf. It’s an apple to orange comparison and quite frankly grappling is flat out boring. Watch a heavyweight prize fight, not a championship, versus a heavy weight collegiate wrestling match and you decide. I personally think MMA’s excitement comes from quick knockouts, bloody fights and WWE style smack talking. My kid loves the stuff yet technique is hard to be seen when the fighters are standing, as were kick-boxers, unless they had incredible legs and phenomenal stamina. Remember, their rounds were 2 minutes versus 3 for that very reason. And more and more the Greco-roman wrestlers are coming into MMA and giving the Jujitsu guys there due. Again because of the early age development, the fact that it’s not $100 a month for a martial art school, but $100 for a season that has support from the local rec league.

I give MMA its props but

Josh Is discussing this article

Thank you for discussing this topic. I agree with you that both sports are doing well and that both sports are not necessarily in competition. It has been repeatedly discussed that they appeal to different age demographics, in addition to the fact that they each offer enough unique expressions of athletic ability that they easily stand alone. Rugby and football have more in common that MMA and boxing.

Thank you for being one of the lone voices out there that does not jump on the 'boxing is dying' bandwagon.

Brian Is discussing this article

Best article on the boxing vs mma wars I've read yet.

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