I often find myself mystified by trendy sports that pop up and garner the attention of a large percentage of the population. I can count a number of those sports off, including NASCAR, snowboarding, poker, and many of the other “sports” that people watch. I can begin to understand some of them, but I find myself left out of liking these sports when it seems like everyone else does. The recent surge of interest in the UFC is no different for me.
I simply can’t understand the appeal of UFC. I am a boxing fan, and one would think this would make a transition into watching UFC a lot easier. This isn’t the case at all for me. I don’t enjoy watching UFC fights. It’s simply a street fight. There is little to no technique used to win, and while there is no doubt that these guys are great athletes and imposing physical specimen, what they do isn’t a sport, it’s a brawl.
I have to find myself agreeing with Floyd Mayweather Jr. who thinks that the UFC guys are just people who couldn’t cut it boxing. Boxing takes talent, it takes skill, and it takes a technique and knowledge of what the other person is going to do. UFC takes brute strength. I have a feeling that most people disagree with me on this, and I understand that I’m just one of those people who just doesn’t get it, and I’m okay with that.
As we prepare for UFC 71, a clever promotional name if I’ve ever heard one, I am sad for the future of sport. The sports world is moving in a direction where they don’t want to see a good fight, and just want to see blood and violence. This would certainly mean the end of the road for boxing, where there doesn’t have to be a knockout for it to be a good fight. I have no doubt that plenty of people will fork over the money to watch the UFC pay-per-view Saturday, and that is their choice, just know that you won’t be seeing any praise of whoever wins the fight from this writer.
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While I’m not a fan, the guys are ridiculously tough.
I’m willing to bet Lidell would fare a hell of a lot better in a boxing match than a boxer in UFC. Hell, I think it was Bernard Hopkins who admitted that some UFC guys could kick his ass.