By Allan Fox: Former two division world champion Ricky Hatton, who now promotes boxing matches for his company Hatton Promotions, says he’s interested in branching over to promoting Mixed Martial Arts [MMA] fights as well in the near future. Hatton sees a ton of interest in the fast growing MMA sport, and he wants to get involved. He says he likes the sport and he enjoys watching English MMA fighter Michael Bisping compete.
Hatton said to sherdog.com “Who’s not to say that I won’t dip my toe in the promoting of the Mixed Martial Arts? We’ve got to move with the times. It’s so massive now – not just in the United States, back in England and globally. It’s getting bigger and bigger all the time.”
Hatton is right. MMA is growing substantially and one of the reasons for this explosion is because of the exciting fights they put. UFC president Dana White isn’t afraid to set up the best against the best in the Ultimate Fighting Championship fights, and the fighters aren’t just rolling around on the mat like they used to with a lot of wrestling and submission holds.
The sport now has a great of stand-up fighting, and with the lighter gloves there are a lot more explosive knockouts that MMA fans seem to really enjoy. It’s pure violence and fans seem to enjoy that.
One of the things that have hurt boxing is the lack of competitive fights. Promoters don’t want to take chances with their fighters by matching them against opponents that could beat them, so you see a lot of mismatches for much of the fighters’ careers. If you’re lucky, there might be a small handful of competitive fights but for the most part there are just way too many mismatches. Certain promoters have a stranglehold over the sport, and they’re reluctant to put their guys in with anyone that they think could beat them.
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