Boxing had a better year than MMA in 2009.
I had to summons my inner Larry Merchant to type those words, and cringed in doing so, but it's true. With the emergence of Manny Pacquiao as a legendary pugilist and the reemergence of Floyd Mayweather Jr., boxing delivered more compelling storylines and bigger fights this year.
While UFC 100 will go down as the top pay-per-view show of 2009, generating a staggering 1.72 million buys, boxing produced three fights that eclipsed the coveted seven-digit PPV threshold.
Both of Pacquiao's 2009 bouts, a beat down of Miguel Cotto in November and his thrashing of Ricky Hatton in May, generated more than 1 million sales. Add the 1.05 million buys from the Mayweather-Juan Manuel Marquez bout in September, and boxing did PPV numbers it hasn't seen in years.
From a sheer volume point of view, of course, the UFC produced more than pay-per-view buys in 2009 than boxing, but MMA's top brand didn't clip the 1 million mark before or after its landmark 100th show in July.
However, MMA Nation shouldn't view this buying shift as an imminent sign of the apocalypse. Even through the Great Recession of the past two years, MMA and boxing have successfully coexisted, with MMA continuing to grow and becoming more mainstream, while boxing has reestablished a measure of relevancy on the American sports landscape.
"There's a pretty big tent in combat sports, and I think there's room for both," said Al Bernstein, a longtime boxing announcer and analyst, who believes the rise of mixed martial arts has been beneficial to the Sweet Science.
"One of the many benefits that mixed martial arts has given boxing is that it helped take the stigma off of boxing," he said. "The more MMA gets to be a mainstream sport, the more the stigma leaves boxing because boxing's too violent. That sport is way out there. Let's be honest; it's much edgier than boxing. (If) a guy gets knocked down in boxing, you can't stand over him and land that last punch. For some people, that's hard to look at."
In MMA, however, landing those final blows is part of the natural flow of a fight. It might be hard for some to watch, but that hasn't prevented MMA from becoming a bankable combat sport in the U.S. Admittedly, Bernstein is still trying to get comfortable with that aspect of the sport, but he's one boxing traditionalist who has embraced MMA.
"My theory is that they never battle each other," said Bernstein, who, in addition to his regular role as boxing analyst on Showtime, has done "play-by-play" for two MMA events on the premium-cable network. "Even though there are some people in the mixed-martial-arts world and certainly some people in the boxing world that want to act like there is a competition, sometimes because it suits their purposes, I am of the mind that they can coexist."
Bernstein admits that there are certain demographics that aren't drawn to boxing and other demos that don't get MMA. Painted with a very broad brush, boxing skews older, while MMA tilts younger. But, with a unique view as one of the few broadcasters who works in both sports, Bernstein has seen his share of crossover fans.
"I've had enough involvement in the mixed-martial-arts world to talk to mixed-martial-arts fans, and they are interested in boxing," he said. "The older boxing fans, they've been slow to understand the nuances of MMA, but not all of them reject it completely."
In fact, lately, it seems like there are just as many 40- and 50-year-old guys sporting their Affliction T-shirts at MMA shows as there are 18- to 35-year-olds.
Even in the midst of the past year's boxing renaissance, MMA is more mainstream today than its combative sports cousin. Boxing might have had the more marquee fights in 2009, but it is MMA that's on network television and more embedded in pop culture.
Plus, boxing's talent pool remains far too shallow, at least right now, to return to its glory days. Aside from Pacquiao and Mayweather, boxing doesn't have any transcendent superstars. Boxing does have an enormous opportunity with a potential bout between those two next year, but even that super fight will have little impact on the continued growth of MMA.
"I don't see UFC having a tag day for itself," said Bernstein. "And, Strikeforce is growing exponentially and doing all the things that EliteXC didn't do, and there are other companies in MMA that are doing pretty well."
Change to scoring system could aid judges – One of the most pressing issues facing mixed martial arts in 2010 is judging.
As witnessed in a number of fights this year, when a bout is left in the hands of those three arbiters at cageside, the outcome often remains in question. The Lyoto Machida-Mauricio Rua light heavyweight title fight at UFC 104 served as the flashpoint this year that put judging on the hot seat for countless numbers of fans.
Most in attendance at Staples Center in Los Angeles, and seemingly the majority of those who saw the bout on pay-per-view based on the Internet chatter that followed, had the fight for the Brazilian challenger. But, the judges scored it for the Brazilian champion, and Machida kept his belt.
"You're never going to have a fight judged when everyone's going to be happy," said veteran referee "Big" John McCarthy, who also judges his share of fights. "What we try to do is get the judging to the point where everyone is viewing things in the same fashion. They're looking and understanding what's really going on in the fight, who's really controlling the tempo of the fight, who's controlling that pace and that action, so that the person who really, in the end, should win the fight is normally going to be the guy coming out with the win."
As McCarthy sees it, addressing the current state of judging in MMA requires a two-pronged approach. First, more emphasis needs to be placed on the training and education of judges, and that education needs to focus on both judges new to the sport and those already established in MMA.
Secondly, McCarthy thinks judges could benefit from a re-tooled scoring system.
"Half-points are something they should look at," McCarthy told MMAjunkie.com (
www.mmajunkie.com). "The ability to say that that was a very close round and instead of a 10-9 round, it's a 10-9.5 round, that could be something that could help with the scoring. Instead of giving a 10-8 round, judges could give a 10-8.5. Right now, you don't see a lot of 10-8 rounds from judges because they are so afraid to give it because they think they're actually making it so that one fighter's not going to have a fair chance.
"I don't know if it's the total answer, but it should be looked at," McCarthy added. "And, I think everything should be looked at. ... Anytime you can make an improvement to the system, we should try it."
McCarthy is not alone in advocating that a half-point scoring system should be considered. Dave Meltzer of Yahoo! Sports recently spoke with Nelson "Doc" Hamilton, who has worked as a referee and judge in kickboxing and MMA for more than 20 years. Hamilton says the use of half points would give judges more flexibility to differentiate scoring.
"To a man, every judge I've spoken with favors this system," Hamilton told Yahoo! Sports.
This type of change rarely happens quickly, but it's not as if MMA has a 50-year-old scoring legacy to overcome. MMA in and of itself is innovative. With the UFC's clout and Marc Ratner's influence with athletic commissions, making tweaks to the scoring system for the betterment of the sport shouldn't be a high hurdle to clear.
