MMA: Where Amateurs Thrive Part 2

By Angel Flowers - 06/27/2017 - Comments

Image: MMA: Where Amateurs Thrive Part 2

By Angel Flowers: Last month I wrote an article about how MMA fighters would box if they could. I singled out the biggest fact of why this is true was because of money. Some of my readers pointed out that future Floyd Mayweather victim Conor ”Notorious” McGregor has made millions of dollars as the UFC’s top star, but had to admit it was pocket change to guys like Floyd Mayweather or Manny Pacquiao.

McGregor saw the writing on the wall and has been chasing a boxing match with Mayweather just to get his hands on the money he never would have made. I can’t see him getting a better deal than Pacquiao got against Mayweather, even with the scale at 60/40 and him paying half to the UFC McGregor stands to make upwards of $20 million on the fight. I said more MMA fighters would do so if they could and weeks later turns out I was right.

Stipe Miocic, the man Dana White would lead you to believe is the baddest man on the planet and the current UFC Heavyweight Champion has been pining for a fight with WBA/IBF Heavyweight Champion Anthony Joshua. Miocic could make the biggest payday of his career by far if Joshua takes the fight and Miocic has resulted in name calling to get it. UFC Featherweight Cub Swanson wants to fight retired Paulie Malignaggi, it would no doubt be the biggest payday of Swanson’s career. Even UFC knockout Artist Jimi Manuwa is seeking a bout with former heavyweight champion David Haye on the Mayweather card. In reality I don’t think anyone can blame them.

The guys in the UFC train just as hard if not harder than boxers, they have to be able to dodge blows and chokes coming from a variety of angles. The only problem with them is despite their work ethic they just do not have the skills boxers do, if they had then they would switch over. Any UFC fighter would be more than content with Floyd Mayweather’s ninth highest payday, the cool $25 million he walked away with facing Ricky Hatton which is almost more than Conor McGregor’s net worth despite the Irishman being the main event of 3 of the top four UFC PPV’s in history including its number 1. Money is king in our world but it does seem like many are out right hating on McGregor and his fight, chief among them Gennady “GGG” Golovkin.

Golovkin has argued that McGregor, should not get his fight with Mayweather, a man Golovkin has been chasing. Golovkin has a habit of wanting to fight men much smaller than he is and wanted the Mayweather fight despite never beating anyone of note other than little welterweight Ezekiel Brook, a man two weight classes below him. Now that Conor McGregor has decided to get the big money in boxing, Golovkin is angry that he couldn’t get the fight himself. If Golovkin was just interested in boxing, it would have been him instead of Sergey Kovalev getting knocked out by Andre Ward last week. Instead he decided to take on the super welterweight champion in Saul “Canelo” Alvarez. Golovkin has a habit of calling out smaller men or getting them to fight him while never going up in weight himself where he most likely would get KO’ed. I think as a man who has made money boxing he shouldn’t downgrade his MMA brothers from trying to cross over in the world of boxing where real money can be made. At the end of the day it is what GGG has done himself, chase money instead of trying to find the best fight.