Boxing and MMA on same card a mixed bag

The idea of combining boxing and mixed martial arts in the same show has

been talked about on a big level and done a few times on a small level,

with negative results more often than not.

The two sports have different audiences. Some believe MMA is a flash in the pan and boxing, with its rich history, will eventually persevere. Others argue MMA is the boxing for a new generation and boxing is headed the way of horse racing as far as

mainstream relevance.

I subscribe to neither of these theories.

My belief is both sports will thrive or falter based on each one’s ability to maintain national television exposure and reach the masses, to consistently market new stars and regularly create matches the public wants to see. Besides, virtually all evidence points to pro wrestling and MMA appealing to similar demographics and boxing and MMA’s audience being

completely different.

The original audience that saved a money-losing UFC from extinction was

created in 2005 with “The Ultimate Fighter” reality show. It captured largely 18-34-year-olds who were watching World Wrestling Entertainment’s Monday Night

Raw when it was on Spike TV. They stayed for the UFC show that followed,

and enough started purchasing UFC events on pay-per-view and becoming

fans that the company’s business fortunes turned around that first year

and business exploded the second year.

In a sense, all three came together on Saturday night with the Square

Ring pay-per-view show from the Pensacola (Fla.) Civic Center. The card featured

boxing, headlined by aging legend Roy Jones Jr., several mixed martial

arts matches, and promoted to the pro wrestling audience by advertising

Bobby Lashley vs. Ken Shamrock, both successful WWE stars of years past

who are now fighting in MMA.

Of course, Shamrock ended up out of the show after being suspended for failing a steroid test in California and was replaced by Jason Guida (now 17-20), whose main claim to fame is that his younger brother Clay fights for UFC.

The show itself was neither particularly good or bad. It was far from the

glitz of a UFC event or HBO boxing, also failing to provide the skill level of

fighters those type of shows would feature. But one would have been foolish to go in

expecting that. The real surprise was just how well, under the same bill,

the two sports coexisted.

Dan Lambert, an MMA promoter in South Florida who was at the show representing two MMA headliners, Lashley and Jeff Monson, had experimented with shows like this, always with bad results, and was surprised at how different it was Saturday night.

“My shows drew MMA fans and they didn’t want to see boxing,” he said.

“But this show drew a boxing audience, and they enjoyed the MMA fights.”

Sure, there was booing during the Monson-Roy Nelson match, but most MMA audiences would have reacted similarly during the slow spots of that match.

When Affliction and Golden Boy promotions last year talked about staging a

joint boxing and MMA show, the initial reaction, including mine, was

skepticism. You know, boxing draws older fans and a heavily ethnic base

audience – the exact audience UFC, with its live audience being primarily

20-35, and white, has yet to tap into. A big boxing show is all about the

main event, and the fans don’t even watch the prelims. MMA fans in most

cities are into the entire show. Enough people insisted loudly enough

that the two are oil and water and couldn’t work on the same bill. So

the idea quietly died without even being tried.

This experiment yielded the opposite results. The boxing fans didn’t boo

when the fight went to the ground any more than an MMA crowd in a similar

city would have. They arrived early and were into the MMA fights just

like an MMA crowd would have been. They weren’t turned off by the ground

and pound, but didn’t like when things were on the ground and nothing

progressed – no different than most MMA crowds. Further, they had no issue with

kicks and knees being added to the stand-up game.

But just because fans will enjoy them together doesn’t answer the

question of whether it is financially viable to put them together. It is doubtful this show did

much pay-per-view business. Most MMA pay-per-view events without the UFC

brand name do poorly, Jones Jr.-Omar Sheika wasn’t about to draw a

lot of boxing fans. They had a solid crowd at the venue, reported as 6,559 fans,

but had plenty to do with it being in Jones’ hometown.

Could the experiment Affliction and Golden Boy abandoned work as

an entertaining live event, with both a higher quality of MMA fighters

and boxers? Probably.

Whether it’s viable is a completely different issue.

Boxing draws almost exclusively based on the main event. MMA draws

largely on the main event, but not to the level of boxing. So if there was a strong boxing main event, would boxing fans order it with MMA matches underneath?

Almost for certain, since most pay no attention to anything but the main

event anyway. And If there was an MMA main event that people wanted to see,

would having a marquee boxing match keep people from buying? No.

Sounds easy – except for the way costs are structured.

Just putting fights with either sport on pay-per-view means nothing, as the little PPV interest in this past weekend’s event showed. Big-time boxing main events cost so much to put together that there is little money left for the undercard.

Somewhat similarly, Affliction so greatly overpaid for most of its fighters that they can’t turn a profit via the traditional PPV model.

As for combined cards, there are too few fights people will want to see on pay-per-view that

making it work is tricky. For a television event on Showtime, HBO or even CBS, the mixed card could work with the right names in terms of generating a larger viewing audience. But networks would be best-served having only one marquee boxing match because the average mainstream viewer may have a problem with two 12-rounders going the distance on the same night.