Saturday night I had the pleasure of attending the UFC on FOX 4 fight card at Staples Center in Los Angeles.As a big fight fan, and a person who has trained in both the sport of boxing and in MMA, I am one of those rare, all around fight fans, that has…
Saturday night I had the pleasure of attending the UFC on FOX 4 fight card at Staples Center in Los Angeles.
As a big fight fan, and a person who has trained in both the sport of boxing and in MMA, I am one of those rare, all around fight fans, that has love for both the sport of boxing and MMA, in a world where it seems you have to only love one or the other.
The main reason why I had an interest in attending the UFC on FOX 4 fight card was because I was a big fan of both the main event and co-main event fighters, Shogun and Machida.
From the pre-fight promotions, to the actual fight atmosphere, and post fight activities, I took notice to the reasons why the UFC is so successful and growing stronger to the mainstream as opposed to my personal favorite sport, boxing.
For those of you who have never been to a UFC fight, it is a bit of everything from a fight, to a rock concert, to even a DJ club party.
There is constant entertainment from the laser light shows, to the DJ constantly spinning good mash ups of rock and rap songs together between fights and down time, the UFC understands that they must keep the audience entertained at all times.
Many boxing fans may be also haters of the UFC, but there are definitely many things that boxing can and should learn from the UFC in order to win over new fans to their sport.
Here is a list of five things that boxing must learn from UFC on FOX 4.
If there is anyone in the sporting world most privy to the pitfalls of fame and fortune, then Mike Tyson is your man. The former “Baddest Man on the Planet” has elected to share his personal experience of sporting tragedy with UFC light hea…
If there is anyone in the sporting world most privy to the pitfalls of fame and fortune, then Mike Tyson is your man. The former “Baddest Man on the Planet” has elected to share his personal experience of sporting tragedy with UFC light heavyweight kingpin Jon Jones, who himself was recently in a spot of bother.
From Tyson, original quotes reported by Kevin Francis of the Daily Star (h/t Boxingscene.com):
“I had millions of dollars during my life but I didn’t have a support system. I had a bad support system, so I received bad support. Nobody really knows Jon Jones and he is now in a time that is vital to his career. We know him as a great fighter and the way he carriers himself, as a great individual, a humanitarian.
But is he going to let the bright lights and the dark shadows invade his life? Will he be one of those rising meteors that flies through the air and lights the world up, but then dies down in a moment? I hope not.
You live and you learn from mistakes.
Hopefully I can use some of my downfalls to make myself better, make people around me better and show that you can come back from anything.”
Since capturing the 205-pound crown at the young age of 23, “Bones” Jones’ rise has been nothing short of meteoric.
Thus far, the Ithaca, N.Y., resident has successfully defended his title on three separate occasions and defeated four former champions in the process.
That said, an inadvertent striking of a Faustian bargain (media) has propelled him from MMA nonentity to overnight superstar—television appearances and endorsement deals have come aplenty.
However, said bargain also has its negative aspects.
For a while he was the darling of the media—he averted a mugging and came to the aid of a mother and her child.
Nevertheless, another side of Jones soon surfaced, which, if only for a short period would turn his goody two-shoes image on its head.
In May of this year, Jones was arrested and charged with a DWI offense after crashing his Bentley into a telephone post. No one was injured, but it could’ve been worse.
Following the above mentioned incident, Jones has more or less stayed out of the media’s spotlight and kept a low profile.
With regards to Tyson, at 20, he became the youngest ever heavyweight boxing champion in the history of the sport when he decimated the late Trevor Berbick in two rounds.
In his day, the now 46-year-old was a hell-raiser personified, and as he alluded to, squandered a fortune.
The native Brooklynite’s fall from grace was the culmination of a myriad of incidents, none more so than when he lost his titles to James “Buster” Douglas in February of 1990.
From that point onwards, his life and career spiraled out of control, and he eventually wound up incarcerated for several years on a rape charge.
Tyson, however, has managed to turn his life around, and for the better.
If there ever was a rags to riches and back to scratch story, well, Tyson is it.
Jones is no Tyson for sure, but it would be wise to heed the warnings of sports’ most polarizing figure.
Jones is slated to throw hands with Dan Henderson at UFC 151.
Mike Tyson, boxing’s most enigmatic figure, let rip with a few expletives in his quest for MMA fighters to earn more money akin to the millionaire status afforded some of the sweet science’s elite pugilists. Tyson made his points to the MMA…
Mike Tyson, boxing’s most enigmatic figure, let rip with a few expletives in his quest for MMA fighters to earn more money akin to the millionaire status afforded some of the sweet science’s elite pugilists.
Nothing personal to nobody, they gotta be (expletive) millionaires. They gotta get the (expletive) money they deserve. How is (MMA) going to be bigger than boxing if they don’t have cash? These guys need to be multi-multimillionaires. They need to have their big (expletive) mansions, their big cars and if not, they should be able to take care of their family. They should be able to live without fighting no more.
It’s been well-documented that most professional combatants are paid a pittance in comparison to their pugilistic contemporaries, especially those on the undercards.
However, depending on pay-per-view sales, main attraction fighters like Anderson Silva and Georges St-Pierre are more or less guaranteed several of millions.
That said, for UFC 129, St-Pierre’s overall salary amounted to $2.5 million.
Nevertheless, that still pales into significance to what two of boxing’s pound-for-pound kingpins Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao accrue for a night’s work.
In his last outing against Miguel Cotto, the recently incarcerated Mayweather took home in excess of $30 million dollars.
Conversely, Pacquiao was handed a handsome cheque of $26 million following the recent loss of his WBO welterweight title to Timothy Bradley, who himself wasn’t left out of pocket as he amassed a career-high $5 million.
Now contrast that with the payouts for UFC 126 (PPV non-inclusive) below:
Anderson Silva: $200,000 (no win bonus) Vitor Belfort: $275,000
Forrest Griffin: $275,000 ($125,000 to show, $150,000 to win) Rich Franklin: $75,000
Jon Jones: $140,000 ($70,000 to show, $70,000 to win) Ryan Bader: $20,000
Jake Ellenberger: $32,000 ($16,000 to show, $16,000 to win) Carlos Eduardo Rocha: $8,000
The former undisputed heavyweight champion, who squandered the millions he earned during his boxing career, is an enthusiastic supporter of MMA, and if going by his recent advocacy for better pay, it must be said, has the sport’s best interests at heart.
File this one under the “not sure if serious” department: Chael Sonnen says that Anderson Silva truly is the Mike Tyson of our generation. But he also says some more stuff:You hear those things but they told us that about Mike Tyson too and what a wimp…
You hear those things but they told us that about Mike Tyson too and what a wimp that guy turned out to be when he finally got some real competition. He’s kind of like the Mike Tyson of our era where they say certain things but at the end of the day when they lock that cage door he’s not going to have a friend and he’s not going to have a two-by-four and I’m sure he could use either one when I get my hands on him.
Mike Tyson was undefeated for five years, and he wasn’t fighting scrubs during that stretch run. Also? He was absolutely and utterly terrifying during that time period.
Nobody in this world would argue that Tyson was not the baddest dude on the planet during his heyday in the 1980s. Tyson was 37-0 when he was finally defeated by Buster Douglas in 1990, and the vast majority of those came by utterly vicious knockouts, often in the first or second round.
Mike Tyson wasn’t a wimp. But I get that he’s a sympathetic character right now, even after all of the legal trouble he went through, so taking pot shots at him might help get you a little bit of publicity.
Anderson Silva? He’s not a wimp. Nobody that steps in that cage for a living is a wimp. Sonnen knows this, so we can file this one under “just saying stuff” as well.
But he’s also not the Mike Tyson of our generation. If Silva was known the world over and was a truly legitimate sporting star in the eyes of the mainstream, then he might be viewed as Tyson-like. As it is, he’s just the scariest man in professional cage fighting. And hey, that still stands for something.
Jon Jones could be the greatest talent MMA has ever seen.At only 24 years of age, the UFC light heavyweight champion has destroyed all comers in a way that is rarely seen in combat sports.Well, there was that Mike Tyson guy who took the boxing world by…
Jon Jones could be the greatest talent MMA has ever seen.
At only 24 years of age, the UFC light heavyweight champion has destroyed all comers in a way that is rarely seen in combat sports.
Well, there was that Mike Tyson guy who took the boxing world by storm in the late eighties.
Is Jon Jones the Mike Tyson of MMA?
There are certainly some similarities between the two. Both were ahead of their time in ascending to the top of their sport.
While Jones became the youngest champion in UFC history at age 23, Tyson remains the youngest boxer ever to capture the WBC, WBA and IBF heavyweight titles, doing so at age 20.
Like Tyson, Jones instills fear in his opponents. Most of his foes lose the fight before they even step into the Octagon. This isn’t because he rambles on about beating his opponents to death or eating their children.
Jones and Tyson don’t have to have the same personalities to draw up the same aura of invincibility.
With only three successful title defenses under his belt, some are already calling Jones the greatest of all time. As an opponent, it’s hard to ignore what your eyes see and your ears hear.
Clearly, Jones is a special talent that comes along once in a lifetime. The hype train pushing Jones is unlike anything ever seen. It’s amazing how a 24-year-old fighter can go from winning the light heavyweight title one year to being compared with the best heavyweights the next.
A plethora of personal issues plagued Tyson down the line in his career, but along with being under the tutelage of Greg Jackson, Jones has a good head on his shoulders.
People tend to root against him due to his excessive confidence, but as cliché as it sounds, the sky truly is the limit for Jon Jones.
Years from now, we could be watching UFC President Dana White wrap the heavyweight title around his waist.
Whether it’s Tyson or Muhammad Ali, Jones has to be thrilled about being compared with some of the greatest fighters the world has ever known.
Some people may not like it, but Jones is looking to craft his own legacy. He seeks a legacy that stands alone from every athlete who ever put on a pair of gloves. Every fighter feels the same way, but Jones is one of the few brave enough to say it and capable enough to prove it.
Sometimes, it’s best not to waste your time hating when success appears inevitable.
If there is anyone in the sporting world most privy to the pitfalls of fame and fortune, then 
