BOXING VS EXTREME CAGE FIGHTING (UFC)

     In February 5, 2005 a friend was in Las Vegas and scored tickets to see a humongous UFC pay-per-view show at the Mandalay Bay Events Center. Being a long time boxing fan he couldn’t resist the urge to go. It was the Super Bowl weekend and the area was buzzing with people every where. The UFC event was to be held in Japan but UFC President Dana White moved it back to Las Vagas. Headlining the card were fan favorites Tito Ortiz and Vitor Belfort. It was UFC 51.
     The event was the best he had ever seen. In his own words ” better than a Sugar Ray Leonard fight or Marvelos Marvin Hagler”. He explained to me that watching the fight live made boxing look stale by comparison. The spectators were a highly intense group of people, about 14,000 plus. Those are old Mike Tyson numbers!
     After hearing all of that, I then was on the hunt for copies of the fight. Finally, I was able to watch the next event “UFC 52″ on Pay-Per-view channel. The event headlined Randy Couture and Chuck Liddell. One of the highest-grossing UFC events ever at the live gate with 2,575,450 in ticket sales. Dan “The Beast” Severn was inducted into the UFC Hall of Fame at this event. “Wow!” My friend was right it wasn’t fake or seemed a little boring through the middle of the fight. I thought to myself, here was an event where they were putting a semi controlled street fight in a chain link fence shaped like a octagon and a referee to stop them from killing each other. This is exciting!
    Boxing seemed to have lost its degree. Had you watched a steady string of UFC before catching Saturday night’s bout, you might turn off boxing forever.
I have been around boxing all my life, and now I understand UFC’s allure. Boxing is in athletic sense… pure. I will always be a boxing fan.
      UFC continues to grow and will get even bigger as it gains more widespread acceptance across the country. It’s sanctioned in five states and soon will be in California. The boxing fans that are on the fence there is plenty to like about UFC’s model. Their is five weight classes, no promotion scams, no politics, and no big red gloves. The one sure thing of UFC if you take your eyes off of the action one half a second you will miss the deciding K.O. Punch.