| Boxing resorts to low blows attacking UFC |
CBS Sportsline writer Mike Freeman thinks MMA is worthless!
Reported by DAVID HIRIGOYEN of the Courier Reporter. Apparently, it’s time to take a side. The Floyd Mayweather-Oscar De La Hoya fight this Saturday has turned into boxing’s last stand, and the sport is declaring war on mixed martial arts. Sports arguments shouldn’t go farther than: my team is better than yours, college football needs a playoff, the DH has got to go, etc. But boxing is going to battle like a staunch conservative, taking the stand of "We’re right, you’re wrong and you are what’s wrong with the world."
This weekend’s fight is essentially an event to save boxing. Those who are trying to resuscitate the corpse are attempting to drag down its chief competition - the Ultimate Fighting Championship. As a UFC fan, one particular argument that I took offense to was from Mike Freeman, a columnist on cbssportsline.com. Freeman wrote: "Boxing is fighting for its life, and in some ways the largest obstacle to its rebirth is its greatest competitor - the worst league ever invented, the UFC."
Whoa Mike, them’s fightin’ words.
Freeman refers to the "UFC barbarians," as well as calling it "low-brow, ghetto-fabulous hooliganism."
He doesn’t stop there either. He goes on to call UFC fans ignorant, calls its fighters thugs and ruffians, and attacks the sport’s credibility, saying it appeals to "the lowest common denominator of human existence."
Goodness, gracious, sakes alive.
First, let me say how ironic it is that somebody making an argument for boxing would bring credibility and thugs into the argument.
Clearly, he and people like HBO’s Jim Lampley attack the UFC because they are threatened. But I couldn’t be more offended.
Freeman’s statements sound a lot like those Don Imus made. The big difference is Freeman’s lacked the sexist and racist undertones, so it’s less despicable if he berates a bunch of grown men and their fans in a sport that still isn’t mainstream.
But allow me to retort.
The UFC doesn’t go after boxing in this way. Its president, Dana White, is a former boxer himself. When he or other UFC people take shots at boxing, they take shots at the state of boxing, not the sport itself.
It’s like ripping the WNBA versus ripping women’s basketball altogether. Boxing, like the WNBA, is just unwatchable. But that’s not to diminish it or women’s basketball in any way.
Boxing is dying because it is boring. It lacks star power and it’s not exciting when two fighters clutch and jab all night.
"The sweet science" isn’t what it used to be. That’s a fact, not a personal attack on people who still watch it.
Mixed martial arts is an easy target because it lacks history and tradition, so many don’t really know much about it. Boxing is poorly run and has been a punch line for years so it is trying to pick on the new guy. But the new guy isn’t a schmuck. It is as absurd as horse racing going after NASCAR. The bottom line is one is popular, and the other isn’t.
But again, the "pro-boxing" people counter the popularity argument by comparing the UFC to pro wrestling.
They talk about kicks to the groin (which are not allowed), fractured skulls, and invoke the phrase "human cockfighting."
Keep in mind that governing bodies sanction mixed martial arts. Not to mention one can make the argument that it is actually safer than boxing.
The biggest draw to the UFC is the spectacular, vicious knockout. But the guy on the other end of the punishment has always gotten up afterwards and been able to comment on what happened coherently.
Meanwhile, guys actually die from time to time as a result of taking 12 rounds of blows to the head in the boxing ring. While that is rare, what is not is the boxer who grows old and can barely function.
I would never say something like "boxing is the worst sport ever" or call its fans morons. That sounds more like defensive remarks from a group that knows it’s losing.
If it’s not there already, boxing is heading towards a fan base limited to the compulsive gambler. If it does reverse the trend and come back strongly so be it. UFC fans like myself won’t lose any sleep over it. That’s because you can enjoy both. If not, that’s OK too.
Promoters can try to out-do the other. As fans, we just want to watch an entertaining product.
We are, after all, a little bit more enlightened than the barbarians some would make us out to be.
| " | Freeman refers to the "UFC barbarians," as well as calling it "low-brow, ghetto-fabulous hooliganism." |
