According to the latest boxing news, former International Boxing Federation super middleweight champion Jeff Lacy (22-1, 17 KOs) doesn’t think too highly of MMA sport. In fact, it appears that Lacy, 30, has little respect, saying “I don’t think that we really paid much attention to them. I see that as a fad, to tell you the truth. To me it’s not a sport.” Lacy went on to point out that the yearly gross for all MMA fights came out to the exact same amount that one boxing match – Oscar De La Hoya vs. Floyd Mayweather – made in a single night.
Lacy likewise stated that the MMA isn’t as popular as boxing and that the sport’s two biggest stars – Chuck Liddell and Tito Ortiz – probably made as much money as Lacy in their entire career, despite the fact that Lacy only held onto the super middleweight title for all of four fights before surrendering it to Joe Calzaghe in December 2006. Lacy did have one bit of kind words for MMA, stating that they’ve done a good job marketing the sport. This is true, I must admit, because the MMA advertisements are everywhere, with TV commercials on HBO, Showtime and regular cable stations along with billboard ads and newspaper ads.
For a sport that still at it’s infancy, MMA has made a tremendous surge overnight. However, the sport suffers from lack of stars, as it’s a difficult sport to stay on top for very long. It seems as soon as a fighter is billed as the top fighter in a particular weight class, he’d almost immediately slapped down by some unknown fighter, and the process starts all over again. It’s almost impossible to get behind a fighter for very much long, because of the fact that the bouts are so brutal that anything can happen.
Another factor that takes away from MMA is the shortness of the bouts, which often only last a minute or two before one of the fighters taps out. All the submission holds, wrestling and lack os stand up fighters make the fight less appealing than it would otherwise be. Likewise, the usual athletes that compete in the sport are short wrestler types, not particularly fast on their feet or quick with their hands. In fact, when they’re on their feet, they’re like fish out of water, clumsily moving around the ring, throwing slow, amateurish-looking punches.
More often then not, they quickly tire out after a few swings and try to take the fight back to the ground where they can do what they do best – wrestle. Not interesting for an average fan that want to see real athletes compete and not the ape-like typical wrestlers.