To start this off, I have to let everyone know that I’m a big fan of the sport of boxing. I actually train more boxing at this point than I do MMA, and I still go absolutely crazy for fights like Diaz vs. Marquez from a few weeks back. Man, that was a great fight. Don’t get me wrong…I love MMA more than boxing, and I think a big reason for that is because every MMA show, and just about every fight on any UFC card are easy to get excited about.

What I mean by that is guys like Jon Jones, who are like 6-0 and really still an infant in the sport, have the potential to absolutely captivate a worldwide audience by throwing Stephan Bonnar from one end of the cage to the other…and guys like Paulo Thiago can come in and shock the world by knocking out top 10 fighters like Josh Koscheck. I’m not saying things like this don’t happen in boxing. Upsets happen everyday, but we typically don’t hear about any of them. I mean, the UFC puts on PPV events constantly, and free events as well, and fight fans can follow the careers of their favorite fighters very easily. In boxing, the only fights that get any kind of press are either world title fights (and don’t get me started on the number of “world titles” out there) or fights between guys like a past his prime Roy Jones Jr. vs. Joe Calzaghe…which in MMA terms was pretty similar to when Matt Hughes fought Royce Gracie. Granted Gracie was further removed from that level of competition than Jones was, but you get the point. The only people in the world who really gave Jones a shot were the nostalgic fans who were hoping to see the RJJ of old, maybe just one more time…because Roy Jones Jr. in his prime was flat out brilliant. Hit up youtube if you forget.

Anyways, before I get too side tracked (if you know me, you know I can talk for hours about literally nothing) back to my point. In boxing you only hear about SOME world title fights, and fights between old, but very popular former champions vs. the young champion who is a stud, but looking to increase his popularity by beating the guy everyone still loves, despite their diminishing skills…and there is nothing sadder in all of sports than watching a guy you idolize  hang on too long and take a beating from a guy he would have toyed with years earlier. So this brings me to yesterday. I still read boxing websites from time to time, but hadn’t had a real reason to lately. I was watching sportscenter, and they said something about Vitali Klitchko (I’m not going to bother and check if I spelled it right) vs. Juan Carlos Gomez going on RIGHT NOW for the WBC world HWT title.

Wait a minute…WAT

A WBC WORLD HEAVYWEIGHT TITLE FIGHT??? And it was on free ESPN? How did I not hear about this? VK was the guy who gave Lennox Lewis (the last popular and talented HWT we miss desperately) a beating, bad enough that Lewis opted to retire after the fight, even though he won by cut stoppage. Great move be Lewis, as he was still on top, and would rather retire on top (and still filthy rich) than hang on too long and be that guy we feel bad for because he loses to some shit head who he would have mopped the floor with a few years earlier. Look at any recent Holyfield fight (yes, that crazy old bastard is still fighting) to see what I mean. Evander was amazing in his prime, and now…well, if you haven’t seen the fights, don’t.

Back to my point…Klitchko was fighting the #9 ranked HWT according to Ring magazine, and I hadn’t heard of it. If you don’t know what Ring magazine rankings are…basically because of the multiple world titles in every weight class, they rank all the fighters, so even if you’re a world champion, you might not even be in the top 10 on their ranks. They are universally considered to be the best ranking system, and they name a champ and then the top 10 guys behind them. I mention this because a fight between a world champion and a guy in the top 10 is big…especially when it comes to HWT’s, because for some reason, the fans love the big guys.

This fight was equivilant to something like Fedor vs. Arlovski, or Fedor vs. Sylvia…or for those of you who only watch UFC…this would be similar to when Randy Couture fought Gonzaga. This was a pretty big fight, and free.

After watching it, I realized why it was free. I was bored to tears, and just kept watching, almost out of spite. VK won by late TKO, but they were both kind of pawing at each other the whole fight. VK landed big towards the end and took him out, but Gomez looked like he didn’t want to be there. It was similar to the third time Arlovski fought Sylvia…the boring 5 round decision that made us all want to cry. We all knew both guys were better than they showed, and both are still great fighters..but that fight wasn’t fun to watch. I’m sure Klitchko and Gomez are very good fighters…getting into the Ring Magazine top 10 is a huge accomplishment, and something only 10 guys in the world (in each weight class) can say at any given time…but their fight made me realize why I hadn’t heard about it before hand.

HWT boxing has lacked a marketable fighter since Lewis left, and even he wasn’t as marketable as Holyfield, Tyson, and others from that era…I don’t know enough about HWT boxing to say who the next big marketable fighter is, but I do know one thing…it won’t be a 6-0 guy with a year in the sport who is going to take over. That’s part of what I love about MMA. We get to see exciting fights constantly. Not only is the sport itself exciting, we get to actually see the up and coming guys. We get to see the guys like Jon Jones or Paulo Thiago before they are famous world champions, or challengers for world titles…and not only do we get to see them, it’s typically not buried on the undercard of a show that we only buy for the main event.

In the UFC, we aren’t really buying just Rampage Jackson vs. Chuck Liddell…in many cases, we’re just as excited as the other 4 guaranteed fights we get to see, and there is actually a ton of internet debate about which of the untelevised prelims that we hope they show first. In some cases, MMA fans are excited about all 10 or so fights to the point that we read the internet play by play of them as they happen. The fact that there is even a need for a few websites to post this stuff is amazing. Is there a boxing site that posts play by play of unaired prelims? Not that I know of.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m still into boxing….but I love MMA so much more.