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Originally Posted by lovebuzzkurt  I agree that the youth demographic is up for grabs in the US but some people will not be AS easily swayed into MMA, because they grew up watching boxing. Its not because differnt color skin means different people its just boxing is still very much a part of almost all Mexican American households, on spanish TV fri night means boxing on. I have personally seen the resistance like i said from 21 yr olds because they grew up watching something different and didnt understand all the aspects. Anyway
though i know you were not bashing boxing, im just tired of people in general who do and i wanted to point out that MMA's status as a mainstay sport is not a done deal yet and that boxing is not and never will be dead. People get over it both sports can co-exist. |
I have to disagree with you on a few points. First of all, nobody really grew up with MMA since the sport itself is still in its nascent, albeit quite robust, stage. So the current fan base, even if predominantly white, did not grow up with the sport to justify the interest, as you seem to claim. I myself grew up in Eastern Europe and would eat up any news or snapshots of professional boxing. When I came to the US in my late teens I religiously followed boxing and watched PPVs, until the UFC came along. I, as many other people here, just think MMA is much more entertaining to watch and the overall skills those athletes possess nowadays are simply unmatched by any other fighting disciplines, including boxing.
Your analogy of introducing MMA to Mexico to introducing soccer to an average American is incorrect, IMO. MMA after all is a fighting sport and probably more than 50% of it is boxing. Soccer is an entirely different discipline from anything Americans were used to, plus it was already crowned as the most popular sport in the world and superior to anything else Americans grew up with. Americans don't like to hear such things, as the history teaches us. Your point about the resistance from Mexicans or other Hispanics to MMA is well taken though--Mexico and other Latin American countries have historically produced many great boxers so there is certainly heritage there and understandable following. So conversely, the alleged reluctance to accept the sport might be a function of lack of 1st generation Hispanic fighters in MMA perhaps. But MMA is certainly not a white man's sport. As it matures and grows, it will attract a wider fan base, especially if the purses offered improve to at least provide incentives for fighters to enter the sport and make a living out of it. This does not happen overnight.