By Martin ‘The Brain’ Potter of the Boxing Clever Podcast: Mike Tyson, when he was at the peak of his powers, used to be known as ‘The baddest man on the planet’. At that moment in time as the undisputed world heavyweight champion in the worlds’ premier form of fighting, calling Tyson the best and indeed ‘baddest’ fighter on the planet was legitimate – he had earned that honour. However in the last 15 years as the UFC (MMA’s leading promotion) has risen to prominence around the globe, it is now questionable whether the heavyweight champion in boxing can still be called the planets’ toughest man.
Can a sport that many (not myself I might add) have called human cock fighting really topple the fine art of pugilism? In a special edition of my show – The Boxing Clever Podcast – I spoke to British based light-middleweight boxer Yassine ‘The Showman’ Elmaachi, as well as British MMA fighter and former UFC star ‘Slick’ Nick Osipczak to get their views on everything boxing and MMA. In this article, using exerts from those interviews as well as my own views as a fan of both sports, I have attempted to objectively answer a couple of key questions regarding the worlds’ two leading combat sports.
Is MMA more entertaining than boxing?
In my opinion, despite the undoubtedly slick productions put on by the UFC, boxing will always remain the more entertaining of the two sports. The reason for this is simple; in MMA you have a ground game and the ground game, more often than not, is dull to watch – I’ve lost count of the number of times I have fast forwarded through an entire five minute round as one fighter lays on top of another. I put this point to MMA fighter ‘Slick’ Nick and although he gave a perfectly reasonable and plausible response, I don’t really buy his answer. Nick stated that in order to enjoy and appreciate the ground game you have to know what is going on from a technical standpoint. Nick suggested that this was why I didn’t like the ground game and that as a boxing fan / writer I was bound to enjoy the stand-up action more. In short his point was; if you understand the ground game, you will enjoy it.
What I didn’t tell Nick, and the reason I don’t accept his argument, is that I do understand the ground game and I still don’t find it entertaining to watch. For many years during my misspent youth I competed at a high level in Judo, culminating in winning a silver medal in the British Junior Championships. Many of the techniques I learnt in Judo are the same or similar to techniques used in MMA and whilst I do appreciate the skill involved I just don’t find they make for great entertainment. I don’t believe you will always enjoy things you understand – I understand that Mariah Carey has a good voice but I sure as hell don’t like her music.
In terms of the stand-up; I do enjoy watching two guys slug it out, either in a cage or in the ring, but two world class boxers throwing bombs are always going to be more skilled, and thus more enjoyable, than two wrestlers throwing haymakers. The reason the UFC exploded in popularity was in a big part due to the final of the first series of the ultimate fighter when Forest Griffin slugged it out with Stephen Bonnar in a stand up war. Yet as fun to watch as that bout was, it was no Hagler – Hearns. Not even close.
Despite my preference for boxing as entertainment, I do like the UFC and do think boxing could learn from it in a few respects. The UFC shows adopt a slick packaged presentation that seem far more modern than the men-in-a-studio-in-suits we still see fronting boxing shows. You get sucked in by the snappy UFC pre-fight videos and find yourself routing for fighters you have never heard of. Also, to use an oft used cliché, in the UFC the best do fight the best and rarely do we get Pacquiao – Mosley mismatches (sorry to blow my own trumpet but I did state it was a mismatch months ago on this very site). Boxing needs to up its game on the matchmaking front and promoters and fighters need to put the sport as a whole ahead of their own selfish interests.
What is the more effective form of fighting?
When I put this question to both the boxer and the MMA fighter, both categorically said that an MMA fighter beats a boxer. ‘Slick’ Nick, who has trained in Nottingham with world super-middleweight boxing champ Carl Froch and is the same weight as ‘The Cobra’, was extremely confident in stating that he would beat Froch in the cage. Yassine Elmaachi, a light-middleweight boxing contender in the UK, was equally conclusive, stating that he wouldn’t countenance fighting an MMA fighter as he knows he would lose.
As unpalatable as it might be to boxing fans, I tend to agree with both Nick and Yassine. The answer really lies in logic; a boxer can only box, but an MMA fighter can box, kick, elbow, knee, wrestle, etc. Therefore no matter how skilled the boxer, he is immediately at a huge disadvantage because he is pitting one skill against several. Allied to that argument is the fact that the moment a boxer starts to use another fighting style (by kicking or wrestling), he is no longer a boxer and has become a mixed martial artist.
I would argue that a world class boxer does have stand up skills greater than any stand up found in MMA, but anyone who thinks guys in the UFC are glorified tough men fighters are fooling themselves. Many UFC fighters are world champions or Olympic level athletes in other fighting disciplines and they have added boxing to their resumes. MMA can still learn things from boxing and many of their fighters have sought out top boxing coaches like Freddie Roach to help them, which shows they do appreciate and need the art of boxing.
So will MMA kill off boxing? I don’t think so. Boxing has a great history and tradition compared to MMA and once you get over the stylish UFC presentation, the fighting itself is not as fluid or enjoyable on the whole as its purely fistic counterpart. I believe both sports should take positives from each other and they can exist side by side. Two weeks ago in Canada 50,000 people watched UFC 129 and in two months’ time 50,000 people will be there to watch Haye – Klitschko, which just shows there is a clearly a market for both sports.
Ultimately it doesn’t matter who is the ‘baddest man on the planet’ any longer, it is about who is the most entertaining and on that score boxing wins by KO.
To hear the full interviews with boxer Yassine Elmaachi and MMA fighter Nick Osipczak listen to the special edition of the Boxing Clever Podcast available on iTunes or at www.boxingcleverpodcast.libsyn.com. You can email me your thoughts and questions at boxingcleverpodcast@gmail.com..