FanPost

What if UFC Ventured into Boxing's Turf?

It's arguable UFC's popularity is a result of suave marketing. Many of UFC's fans are also boxing fans who lost interest in boxing for a number of reasons such as a lack of strong cards, questionable decisions to name a couple. I want to raise similarities and differences between the two sports and wrap this piece up by poising a couple questions and possibilities to increase the popularity of boxing by working with MMA, or vice versa.

One striking difference between the two sports is that UFC constantly has stacked cards unlike boxing. The last real interesting venture boxing took on that drew a lot of interest was the Super Six tournament that Andre Ward won - could Top Rank or another organization not line another series up to generate more interest in boxing if the intent is to stand on its own without MMA and capture a larger audience outside hardcore fans? Secondly, boxing has many champions in one weight division, with no belt holder being the clear cut consensus as the champ. In MMA, the UFC champion is the best.

Mixed cards have taken place at smaller venues throughout Canada in Winnipeg for example. Would boxing's popularity reach new heights if the UFC ventured into the boxing business? With UFC Fight Nights almost every Wednesday, could there not be 2 boxing matches, and 2 MMA bouts on one UFC Fight Night? The same idea can apply to Top Rank venturing into the MMA business (I believe Oscar de la Hoya has toyed with the idea previously) to generate more interest, that hand in hand with a TV deal could be a start to boxing getting up off the canvas and making a comeback in terms of popularity.

Thanks for reading,

Jason Bone