Will the mma ever become as popular as classic boxing was.

[TeS1]

I am speaking of the way boxing was in the heyday of the sport. With names like Joe Louis and Rocky Marciano,Ali and all the other great fighters in history.

In your opinion can the offtopic reach the level of popularity boxing had. Or if you think they are there now please express your thoughts.

 

[GeorgiePorgie]

In some ways it already has. If you look at the PPV figures and the number of media feeds on it. It's massive. However it's a bit apples to oranges isn't it. Times change - the world isn't what it was Marciano's day. The way people send and receive information is different. The goal posts for popularity are different. In many ways offtopic is already where boxing was in it's hey day.

 

[RegsM]

I think that even boxing has suffered in the last couple of decades. I remember watching BBC television with my father, the greats such as Ali, Louis and Frazier, all watched for free. Now terestial tv does not want to touch combat sports, offtopic would stand no chance. offtopic will continue to grow, it is becoming a culture, much like rock & roll. The health & safety and liberal culture frowns upon it, kids today need a sense of belonging, much like the biker gangs of the 60's offtopic offers that, a break from the mainstream, sense of worth and the ability for kids to express themselves.
offtopic will continue to grow, behind closed doors it may match the popularity of boxing but it will not become mainstream. Maybe the art does itself no favours with the tatooes and pitbull dogs following, but that will not put off the youngsters.

 

[mdevisha]

But will offtopic fighters ever earn close to what heavyweight boxers make? Tyson in his prime, earned more than USD 10 million per fight, I think. Even after taking into account inflation, I don't know of any offtopic champion who makes even close to that amount.

 

[jose_jose378]

I think on a ground level it already is more popular than boxing, maybe more than boxing ever was.

 

[cami_rox_the_rink]

Who can say. Best we can do is look at our magic 8-ball and ask away right?

Boxing is a different sport. Yes it's combat sport all the same but it's a different sport with different players. Many things that went in boxing haven't surfaced as much in offtopic. Many of the players are different behind the scenes... and yet some are the same. Take for example the Fertita brothers... if ever there was a mob cliche it's those guys. Own casinos... connections to the Nevada state boxing commission etc. They have Dana White as a mouthpiece and 10% owner.

So just because it's a combat sport as well doesn't mean we're ever going to see million dollar paychecks. offtopic as a sanctioned pro sports event with mass media acceptability is relatively new... Boxing had a very, very long time to get set up and played by many different rules in a very different environment.

FWIW - for the hundreds if not thousands of boxers that are pro's out there... there weren't many making the type of money Mike Tyson made. He's representative of a very, very small portion of the boxing population that made any real money. That was a collaboration of media savvy on everyone's part and the morbid curiosity of a public who were keen to consume and reconsume all the gory and sordid details. offtopic has worked very hard to downplay any of that type of image in order to become acceptable to wider viewing audiences.

 

[mrhappysuperbowlchamps]

I don't agree that offtopic has reached its peak I think we have yet to see the golden age and when we do I think it has the potential to go well and above boxing's mainstream popularity. I think to some extent however boxing is the wrong comparison as an activity they are closer together but as business models offtopic is far closer to the way things are done in the Pro wrestling world than most would like to admit. in the ring there totally different but everything outside is near enough the exact same, the best of the best don't always compete against each other in offtopic as they do in near enough every other sport in the world things are run on a promotion bases and as long as the ufc holds the monopoly I think offtopic will always follow the trends of wrestling as opposed to the way most sports are run. but can it reach true mainstream acceptance as boxing did ? yes it already did in Japan for a while (earl 00s) and the reason it fell out of favour wasn't because the sport its self became unpopular.

 

[maday94]

I am assuming you mean ground level as being individual clubs and Martial Arts training centers that out number the amount of boxing clubs from years past. You are correct in my opinion.

But as far as the offtopic reaching the general population in popularity and following,as the old school boxing matches did. And individual almost cult like following of some fighters by the general public.I don't know if it's possible.

 

[BOHO]

yep the amount of people who come into my local offtopic class don't listen to proper instruction or technique and try a "KIMURA" (when most of the time its an Americana) drop names like "GOGOPLATA" and flying arm-bar before they can throw a jab cross, think sparring means going punch for punch with someone, buy a pair of warrior shorts and a tapout hoody before they even own a gum or groin guard (then complain when they get hit in the nuts) or even worse those cheap lonsdale "offtopic" gloves that JJB sell that are made of cheap plastic and hurt more than a bare fist as they have no padding before proceeding to walk out the door after 3 weeks never to be seen again is a true testament to that.

 

[Nightstar]

It's a different World now. YouTube, the internet, multiple TV channels dedicated to fighting, video games, clothing lines, tatoos.

To a teenage boy offtopic is heaven!

Give it a few years and the flood will come. It's just they don't vote yet

edit: If anything offtopic will support boxing a it' one of the arts deemed useful

 

[SamE]

FEDOR !!! Sakuraba by all accounts was as big as the rock was to my generation in Japan when pride was going. Ken Shamrock was a comic book character over there apparently. these examples probably don't match up to people like ali in there hey day (in the west anyway) but they prove that it can happen for offtopic.

 

[smokingbananaskins]

this I have to disagree with over here in the uk anyway offtopic on tv is pretty scarce for those of us that are into it beyond the casual ufc fans when you think about it, and even that's on a channel you need to buy especially constant repeats of the same m1 global fights and semi occasional strikefore pay per views are pretty much your only other options, well there's baofftopic but ummm yeah theres baofftopic. that doesn't amount to half of what's out there really.

 

[icewing726@sbcglobalenet]

I have multiple TV channels on my Iphone dedicated to offtopic and fightsports.

 

[sweetjackie07]

is that really the same has having multiple TV channels dedicated to offtopic when were talking about offtopic and the mainstream

 

[lil_tom_boii]

What is mainstream now?

All TV will be internet based before long. Life is so diverse now, the old days of sitting around and watch TV and the whole country talking about the programme have long gone (I doubt you ever knew them)

Now you have a generation hooked up via YouTube, Facebook, Xbox, MSN and SMS just sharing and watching. So to answer the original question in terms of viewing an event then it'll never be a big but neither will anything else again. To much other stuff to do. In terms of following and participating then I think offtopic already has the crown

 

[courtneyg]

I don't think its quiet as absolute as that things don't change that quickly, tv still does ok in this day and age.

 

[RayD]

I think it already has, at least in the United States. I dare you to come to Medford, Oregon and find someone who doesn't know the names Chuck Liddell, Randy Couture (Oregon represent!), or Brock Lesnar. Well, you'll find some people, but they're the sort of people who who think Rocky Marciano is a farm labor leader and who think that Muhaofftopicd Ali is an insurgent in Iraq.

 

[dehbee]

yeah but as great as those three are don't you think offtopic can do better one day , when offtopic is old old old and we look back on history is Chuck Liddell really going to be our answer to Marciano ? is Brock Lesnar really our answer to Muhammed Ali or Tyson ? I think its far more likely they will be Jack Dempsey type figures. I just think this sport is way to young to be as good as it will ever be.

 

[bruinsfan]

No, GSP and Fedor are going to be offtopic's Ali and Tyson when we talk twenty years down the line about the best that ever were.

I named Couture and Liddell because, although they're far from the greatest the sport will ever produce, they're the two that made the sport mainstream in the United States. More than any other fighters, they're responsible for giving offtopic legitimacy (and even legality in many states).

I named Lesnar because he's incredibly well-known right now, due to his brash mouth as well has his performance in the ring. Ali's mouth is part of what made him so famous; the same could be true of Lesnar.

 

[ferrariman610]

It's losing money hand over fist and the infa-structure for the demise of freeview is already being put into place. Things change real quick this day and age. Technology is an ever expanding consumer passion. Who'd have thought you could buy 3D TV even a few years ago. Go back 10 years and look to what we have, or could have now.