In what looks like only the first of a series of ratings battles between Boxing and MMA, Floyd Mayweather is going head to head against the UFC on September the 19th.
The undercard of UFC 103 will be airing for free on Spike TV, the UFC's carrier channel for free shows and The Ultimate Fighter. In a bizarre move by Mayweather he actually pushed the date of his fight back so that it coincided with the UFC card.
Never one to back down from anything Dana White, the bullish and often overly aggressive president of the UFC then decided to air the preliminary fights for free in an effort to both publicize the UFC card and take buys away from the Mayweather fight. Which one will come out on top in terms of total buys will probably be the boxing in this case. The UFC 103 card isn't particularly strong, and was probably seen as a soft target that Mayweather could use to claim he was bigger than the sport of MMA.
That being said, he certainly isn't the biggest draw in either MMA or Boxing, Brock Lesnar and Manny Pacquiao are both capable of selling more pay per views, and the formula for MMA to use several big name fighters on each card means that they aren't just trying to sell an event on one or two names alone. Floyd may be a great fighter, but he isn't that popular without some angle or hook to sell the fight without a exciting opponent. Mayweather alone isn't the kind of guy who will drum up the kind of sales that the likes of Ricky Hatton would for example, meaning Floyd needs the easy attention that verbally sparring with MMA brings.
The war of words between the pound for pound great and the legendarily outspoken UFC mouthpiece Dana White has been brewing for some time now, and doesn't appear to be showing any signs of abating:
“I used to talk like Floyd Mayweather when I was involved in boxing. I talked just like him, until I educated myself about this sport. These guys are amazing athletes, Floyd Mayweather is one of the best boxers ever, (and) Sean Sherk will whoop his ass in under two minutes. Any day that Mayweather wants to put his money and his ass where his mouth is, I’m ready. If he wants to step up, let’s do it. I’m willing to put together a fight for Sean Sherk and Floyd Mayweather with numbers that would make sense for Floyd. And I guarantee you he would not accept it. Floyd Mayweather would never fight in the UFC because he would get his head ripped off.“ (Dana White)
"I'll beat him and come home and watch basketball. Why would I go into a sport paying hundreds of thousands when I'm in a sport paying $20 million?" (Mayweather).
"UFC's champions can't handle boxing. That's why they are in UFC." Mayweather then added: "Put one of our guys in UFC and he'd be the champion. Any good fighter, he'd straight knock them out. Take Chuck Liddell. Put him in the ring with a (boxer) who is just 10-0 and Chuck Liddell would get punished. They wouldn't have a chance to grapple (us) because we'd knock them out." (Mayweather).
"Boxers couldn't become mixed martial artists. That's why they're boxers," White then added: "They (Boxers) are one trick ponies. Our guys can do everything. They can box, they can kick box, they can wrestle and do jiu-jitsu. They are much better athletes than boxers." (Dana White).
“Who? Who’s Lyoto Machida? Lyoto Machida? Oh you mean that guy who sold 200,000 PPVs now he’s a superstar? It doesn’t take much over there does it? I’ve sold 3.5 million PPVs between my last 2 fights alone. How much money did Machida make his last fight? $100,000 maybe? Tell Dana White, for $100,000, I will come show him what a 28 million dollar check looks like. (Mayweather)
"He's not a superstar," White said. "Floyd doesn't sell. Floyd plus another great fighter sells. You need two good fighters that people really want to see. It's not a fight people want to see." (Dana White)
"How is Machida as good as Floyd Mayweather? Because he’s beaten a few unskilled bar room fighters? At the end of the day, you already know, when you watch Floyd Mayweather you see the past, present and future of the sport. Machida don’t deserve to be mentioned in he same breath as me. Kousta Tszyu would whip up on his stank ass anyway.” (Mayweather)
And so it goes on for some time between the two, there are valid points on both sides to an extent. I don't imagine Mayweather would want to actually last long against the likes of Sean Sherk in MMA just the same as Chuck Liddell wouldn't last long boxing Mayweather. A particular gem shows the extent of Floyd's patter:
“In boxing, we know who’s dominating. Black fighters and Hispanic fighters is dominating in this sport,” Mayweather continued. “And this is not a racial statement but there’s no white fighters in boxing that’s dominating, so they had to go to something else and start something new.” (Mayweather)
Not heard of the heavyweight scene over the last 10 years Floyd? I would also argue that if he was really looking to be accurate, Black fighters aren't dominating nearly as much as Hispanic and Asian fighters either these days. Also poverty levels tend to have more to do with domination of boxing than any other factors. That isn't to say that Dana White hasn't had his share of idiotic statements over the years, but nothing bordering on the racist.
Source: examiner.com
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