To My Esteemed Co-Editors:

Who is your guys' dealer? I want to try whatever it is you're smoking. Pacquiao/Mayweather on a major network? If and when this fight happens, it will be the most lucrative boxing match in history.  All the ad dollars in the world won't be able to replace the PPV cash that fight would rake in.  Why does boxing put everything on Pay Per View? Because they can. People will pay it and if Dana White keeps trying to take on the sweet science head to head the UFC will go the way of Elite XC. Have you guys checked out network ratings lately? NOTHING is a guaranteed draw.

Boxing is on PPV because die hard boxing fans will pay to watch it. Real fans won't let anything get in the way of them seeing a marquee matchup. These diehards are the only ones who would watch the fight anyway. Boxing is technical and brutal, making it damn near impossible for the sport to have casual fans.

The "one big night a week" idea died with Friday Night Fights at MSG in the 1950's when football started to rule the sporting scene - long before Don King's greed corrupted and revolutionized the sport at the same time. A network fight would fail harder than Kimbo Slice's CBS debut (seeing any parallels here fellas?). I'll go so far as to predict that within a decade, MMA will be viewed in the same light as Mr. Blake's beloved WWE.  Fun, but not taken seriously in the sporting world.  I, for one am looking forward to the 2021 debut of VH1's "Tito Knows Best" featuring the zany exploits of the Jameson-Ortiz clan.

Waiting until the 21st to see the fight?  Fine, but you're not a real fan and boxing doesn't need you.  What's the point of watching a sporting event (other than the Miracle On Ice) once you know the outcome?  Will you be as excited when Cotto goes down in the second round or as shocked when his wife leaves the arena after the ninth as those of us who watched on Saturday night?  It will be a hollow, drama-free experience that you have for the sake of watching some violence - sounds an awful lot like MMA.  You want to know why Randy Couture  is fighting on Spike?  Because he's old.  In his prime, The Natural fought on PPV just like Pacquiao.  The UFC tried proving they were the bigger game by putting up a mediocre Pay Per View package against the Maywether fight  and lost in a landslide.

If boxing is obscure, MMA is screwed.  Think of all the great fighters: Marciano, Dempsey, Joe Lewis, Frazier, Ali, Liston, Foreman, Holyfield, Lennox Lewis, the Klitschkos, De La Hoya, Robinson, Leonard, Mosley, Gatti, Ward, Maywether, Pacquiao, the list goes on.  Try to name just five MMA'ers with that kind of star power.  Ortiz, Ice Man, The Natural, Shamrock, Lesnar?  Kind of a stretch, no?  If boxing is obscure, who's suffering? The fans?

Everyone who wanted to see that fight either went to Vegas, shelled out $50 to HBO or found a friend or a bar that did and watched the spectacle that can only surround a matchup in the squared circle.   The fighters?  Paquiao and Cotto split a purse of over $30 million.  The promoters?  This is one of the single largest money fights in boxing history and set the stage for an even bigger one in the potential for Pacquiao/Maywether.  The 24/7 alone will break ratings records on HBO and the fight could be the largest watched world wide in history.  I don't see a problem here.

The bottom line here is that boxing's fan base has been maxed out since the days of the Rumble in the Jungle - it's not going to get any bigger - and it doesn't need to. Saturday night's fight was watched by "millions around the world" from San Juan to Manilla, with damn good ratings here in the States. It may appear that boxing has fallen off in America, and maybe it has, but with the constant bombardment of televised sports from paintball to darts, a smaller market share stateside is to be expected.

The fact remains that Pacquiao, Cotto, Marquez, Hatton, Lewis and the Klitschkos are national treasures and treated as royalty in respective homelands. They're not roided out white boys from middle class, Inland Empire suburban backgrounds fighting in the octagon because they couldn't get into Cal State Long Beach and were too lazy to learn how to box. These are warriors fighting for their lives, fighting for their countries. Fans around the world live and die with victories and losses of their fighters.

I've watched dozens of MMA matches and to be honest can't really think of one that stands out as "great" but there are a handful of boxing bouts that took place both in my lifetime and before that I consider myself lucky to have witnessed (even post facto). Why do MMA'ers fight more often than boxers? Because fights are shorter, they rarely (if ever) go the distance and a technical submission is far less taxing on both the victim and the fighter who administers it than a late round knock out or 12 rounds of pure punishment.

Look, I love MMA. Watching two rednecks kick the shit out of each other is fun. The inbreeding of disciplines is great to watch, and as I've said before, I support the opportunities to earn it afford wrestlers and martial artists. Bruce Lee had it right, combining disciplines makes for a more effective way to attack. But a more exciting sporting event? I'm not so sure.

What's great about boxing is the science, the technical nature of the sport, the psychological advantage a fighter can gain with just one punch. And I defy anyone, with the possible exception of the NFL to replicate the pomp and circumstance surrounding a title fight. Boxing knows how to market itself, and more importantly who to market itself to. Dana White is throwing shit at a wall and seeing what sticks, trying to make as much money as fast cash as he can. Why does the UFC advertise so heavily? Because as Too Short tells us, "you should be gettin' it, getting it while the gettin's good" and it ain't gonna be good for long.

Boxing has a sustained history going back hundreds of years.  Private high schools and colleges still field teams.  Quarreling brothers still settle their arguments with 8 oz. gloves.  True fans of the sport still appreciate a great fighter, a great matchup.  There's no way to know a great matchup in the octagon.  The sport is flooded with headliners and the fights are short.  Results are inconsistent and the term "star" has become convoluted.

Dana White and the UFC are no less exploitative than King in his heyday, while boxing has improved the way it cultivates talent by leaps and bounds in the last 30 years.  Like baseball, football and any other American sporting institution, boxing will have its trials, its tribulations its ups and downs, but it will always hold a special place in the hearts of sports fans.  No matter what comes along to challenge, Boxing will soldier on.

Finally, since I may not post again for a while, an early happy birthday shout out to founding Bomber and UFC enthusiast Blake, who turns 25 tomorrow.  Happy birthday buddy.  I'll do an extra shot of Jack for you tomorrow night.

-Wild

Did you add $50 to your cable bill to see these two go at it? Me neither.

Boxing is so irrelevant on today's sports landscape that its pulse barely registers. Saturday night's Pacquiao-Cotto fight generated more than 1 million pay-per-view orders and, yet, more people than not are waiting for HBO to re-run the fight on November 21st.

On the same night, UFC 105 aired live from England on Spike. For Free. With Randy Couture fighting in the main event. I can't remember the last time a major attraction fought on HBO's Boxing After Dark let alone on cable. Every major sport is on basic cable at least once a week showcasing a marquee matchup. Boxing, on the other hand, takes its marquee matchups, which happen every six months, and feels ballsy enough to charge $50 to watch on tv. What?! How does this make sense?

Fighters and promoters alike show such a limited business acumen and such an amazing shortsightedness (editor's note: "shortsightedness"... this word may or may not exist) in their continuing to distribute the product at an exorbitantly high premium. Why? And for what? The product is predominantly plodding, tired, and predictable.

Why can't boxing take notes from the other sports? Revenue is in advertising. And boxing has plenty of advertising (History Channel's newest show "Pawn Stars" received a shout-out courtesy of Michael Buffer), but boxing must not be charging enough. That's the only conceivable explanation for refusing to ditch the stubborn reliance on pay-per-view as the main vehicle for turning a profit, right? ...Right? The assumption becomes fighters can't make big enough purses without the pay-per-views. Maybe that's true; so here's something as a solution: Fight more often. Don't argue with me. Most matches consist of pawing and clutching. Sparring matches are tougher than the actual matches.

Hello, Capitalism! Advertising, Everywhere There's Advertising!

As I'm writing this, I realize that the model for boxing needs to reflect the WWE. Yes, the artist formerly known as the WWF needs to be the future of boxing. Without scripting the outcomes of each fight, boxing instantly becomes accessible. Accessibility breeds relevance, relevance breeds fandom, fandom breeds profit. Under the current model, boxing lacks any sort of legitimate marketing strategy. Timelines are too tight to drum up public interest in the face of the NFL, MLB, NBA, or the UFC. Hell, even tennis' majors and golf's opens accumulate more interest in the leading months and weeks than boxing.

Boxing currently works like this: announce the fight a year in advance, nothing for nearly 10 months as the fighters train and work up a hatred for the opponent, weigh-in & press conference during the week of the fight, and then fight night. Only recently did boxing have the smarts for HBO's 24/7. 24/7 is so amazing that I've had to completely swear off watching until the marathon airing the morning of the fight. And it does the same thing to me every time: I know who's going to win even though it's never who I want to win, the series manipulates both training camps to make me feel like the underdog has a legitimate chance to win, and I end up like Ralphie from "A Christmas Story" waking up on Christmas Morning ready to piss myself in excitement only to be disappointed in the end. That's right, Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather winning fights is like getting clothes for Christmas. Miguel Cotto, Ricky Hatton are the no-chance-in-hell-are-you-getting-this-for-Christmas Red Ryder BB Gun.

WWE Money says: "King of the Castle, King of the Castle."

Imagine that boxing carved out a night during the week, traveled to different venues, used a rotating roster of fighters, allowed the storylines develop themselves without scripting anything other than a fight card, and established a set amount of pay-per-view events per year. How does this not sound like awesomeness? I would be there every week on cable and every other month on pay-per-view. Think about it: all the obscure names become less obscure, all the household names penetrate more households. And, even better, fighters fight more fights. The only aspect of boxing that changes is the boxer's lifestyle: "Money" Mayweather buys luxury cars less, "Pac Man" makes terrible Phillipino movies less.

As unrealistic as this is, here's the most enticing part: more consistent exposure leads to more advertising opportunities leads to more money. This isn't just the best way for fans to experience boxing, it's the best way for boxing to generate a jaw-dropping ROI and the best way to lift boxing out of pay-per-view obscurity.

The weekend of September 18th, 19th and 20th may well have been the best for sport thus far in 2009.  Penant chases all over Major League Baseball continued to burn while two of college ball's top 10 were upset and the NFL provided an exciting week two wrought with rivalries, surprises and the stadium of the century.  But for all the highly publicized matchups this weekend, none were as highly anticipated for fight fans as Floyd "Money" Mayweather Vs. Juan Manuel Marquez and Boxing Vs. The UFC.  

The former because many believed that the fastest hands in the world may have met their match in the urine drinking Mexican fighter and the latter thanks to the war of words between Money Mayweather and the money-grubbing Dana White (President of the UFC).

Dana White rolled the dice this weekend. Would he crap out?

 White scheduled a UFC Pay-Per-View event in which no titles were on the line and not one big name fighter was on the card to go up against Mayweather's return to the ring and his first defense of the welterweight crown since he TKO'd Ricky Hatton in 2007.  White believed that this would prove once and for all that America preferred Mixed Marshall Arts to the sweet science - which he compared to "Dancing With The Stars".  Upon hearing that White believed the public would rather watch nobodies in the octagon over the reigning champ in the ring, Floyd implied that the UFC only existed for white boys who can't box.  The stage was set.  Well, half set.

While Mayweather took to the press to defend his sport to the haters who prefer MMA's no holds barred brutality to the finesse and  style of the sweet science, he would have to take to the ring to silence the haters who believed a two year vacation had slowed him down.  The very same haters who believed his mouth was writing checks his ass couldn't cash and who, like myself believed the undefeated fighter had stolen the De La Hoya fight seven months prior to his systematic dismantling of Hatton.  Mayweather would be fighting for his pride - and for his sport.  The stage was set.

As a former wrestler, I've been a fan of the UFC from the beginning.  My friends and I liked MMA before it was cool - before most people knew about it.  I've always supported the UFC because of the opportunity it gives wrestlers, but I always thought White was like Don King, only worse.  I see the value in MMA and recognize that any given fight has the potential to be more exciting than a boxing match - just not a boxing match starring Money Mayweather.

Not wanting to drop the sum required to order either fight and not wanting to have to choose between events, my friends and I found a bar where we could watch both for a cover charge of ten bucks.  We were relegated to the steps.  The place was

Seasoned veteran Juan Manuel Marquez, who looked Saturday to become the first professional to defeat Floyd Mayweather

packed.  The amount of Tapout and Affliction Banned gear donned by the bar's patrons coupled with the cheers for KO's and submissions in UFC's undercard, and the general lack of interest almost everyone showed in the boxing undercard led us to comment that perhaps Dana had pulled off his coup.  Furthermore, thanks to a compelling season of 24/7 and the fact that Money had been out of the fight game for a while, we all thought we might see a new champ.  The outcome of the De La Hoya fight had me toying with the notion of rooting for Juan Manuel Marquez.  All of these notions would be debunked as soon as the Mexican National Anthem began to play at the MGM Grand.  It became immediately clear that the capacity crowd at El Guapo, Hollywood was there to see Maywaether/Marquez.  The UFC had provided some great pre-fight entertainment, but the main event on Saturday night was in Las Vegas.  Dana may have won the battle for undercard interest, but when it came to the main event, America showed it still loves boxing.

Thanks to the atmosphere in the bar, it also became clear that we'd better pick a side.  It was electric and we were over 250 miles from the fight.  So electric in fact, that a brief fistfight would break out by the valet stand in the moments immediately following the bout.  Maybe it was the chants of USA! USA! maybe it was the news that Floyd was favored 5-1, maybe it was the air of supreme confidence surrounding Mayweather as he approached the ring, but my crew and I decided we would be backing Mayweather in this one.

Almost as quickly as we realized that boxing had won the night, we realized that Mayweather was in complete control.  From the opening bell it was clear that we were watching a mismatch as Floyd dropped his gloves and stuck out his chin - daring Marquez to take a shot, only to see the Mexican fighter whiff and be met with a flurry of jabs.  When Floyd dropped Marquez early in the second it was already abundantly clear that we were watching a one sided fight.  

Mayweather continued to bob and weave, putting on a show as he tired out his opponent.   Marquez couldn't land a punch to save his life.  Mayweather's punches were well timed and well placed - connecting with 59%.  Marquez landed just 11% of his jabs and under 20% total.  Between each round he looked exhausted, while across the ring Money sat with his up, smiling, barely a mark on his face.  Marquez was cut after round two and the blood didn't stop.  Marquez was fighting for his life while Mayweather, in his element was having the time of his.  Fighting with the bravado and speed of a Roy Jones Jr., Mayweather spent most of the fight with his gloves down and his chin out, resting on the ropes when he needed to, taking body shots like they were nothing and suffering almost no solid blows to the head.  Floyd was smiling and motioning for Marquez to advance, daring the seasoned fighter to approach him - and every time he bit, Marquez paid the price, missing wildly only to get caught by jab- hook combinations.

Say what you want about Floyd, but nobody works harder in the gym and nobody is quicker in the ring. His natural ability, his pure joy for the sport and his knack for talking shit - and backing it up make him and his sport fun to watch.

As I watched the two main events on side by side TV's it occurred to me that Mayweather/Marquez looked like a sport, like a beautifully coreographed violent dance routine, like two fighters punching their hearts out - while the UFC bout looked like two white supremacists from the Inland Empire humping each other.  Does this mean I'm done watching UFC?  Not hardly.  I love the explosiveness of the sport, the takedowns, the knock outs and the roots it shares with wrestling.  What it does mean is the next time Dana goes up against a title fight, he better put some guys out there who'll bring the noise.  No Mr. White, we wouldn't rather watch a bunch of bush leaguers go at it than a title fight featuring the most exciting boxer of the decade.

Saturday night settled a lot of debates in the fight world and answered a lot of questions.  However, we were left with one glaring unanswered query: Where does Mayweather go from here?  Who out there can test a man that seemingly can't be beaten?  Is there anyone with the skill, the quicks and the bravado to take on the fastest hands in boxing?  Two words: Manny Pacquiao.

With a professional record of 49-3-2, the seasoned former Lightweight world champ is the last thing standing between Mayweather and immortality.

-Wild