Saturday night offered a premier event to see which contact sport, boxing or UFC, will be the future star. FOX offered a heavily promoted premiere for UFC on broadcast television while boxing offered much of the same, relying on the name of its big star Manny Pacquiao.
It should come as a surprise then that the heavily promoted event was more satisfying for viewers, and the old outdated boxing event was more useful for promoters.
UFC did all it could. It created an amazing set and set all its wheels in motion in a greatly organized event. Everyone could foresee that having only one premiere fight was a bad idea--it called for an early knockout to ruin all logistics. And it did.
Except it didn't. The most exciting moment in any fight, however disappointing it may seem, is a first round knockout. It proved that UFC is real fighting, not guys wrestling on the floor for hours, pounding each other's faces in.
It worked. It was a light, sensational entree to the sport.
Personally I would have placed a lightweight fight at the beginning, to whet the appetite. You know the type, the one with acrobatic kicks and punches that show the real athleticism of the sport.
But this isn't sex. Length does not matter. It was a sensational part. It'll help Dana to plan future events and it got people talking about the sport. That was its goal. Viewers won, promoters won. Numbers came in showing the 18-45 male demographic showed up. That's all the UFC wanted.
Now on to that other sport and proof that length doesn't matter. There was a spectacular premiere fight. It wasn't one sided, it was close and contested with the underdog out boxing the favorite.
During the conference call prior to the fight with Juan Manuel Marquez my first fight question was, "Do you need to knock Manny Pacquiao out to win the fight?"
He was reluctant to respond, but it was clear to anyone present in the first two fights that it was true. Pacquiao also knew he needed a knockout to silence critics. Neither man delivered and Pacquiao got the benefit of the doubt for having a more aggressive style and, here is the kicker, being the fighter controlled by the promoters.
I was just added to the boxing beat late in the summer. My first fight was the fiasco between Mayweather and Ortiz. Every boxer in that card controlled by Golden Boy (if Mayweather is counted as a Golden Boy fighter as he is in this instance) won in what seemed questionable calls by the judges.
That's the problem with boxing. It's controlled by the promoters, and the promoters won. And that's all that matters. The fight may have been stolen, but how many people will show up to watch the fight again when HBO repeats it this Saturday to confirm their thoughts? Much more than if it had been a clear victory for either fighter.
The fight is being talked about, boxing is dominating national discussions. Marquez lost out, but the promoters won out.
Now Marquez-Pacquiao IV seems a genuine rematch, not just a redundant one. And more importantly Pacquiao vs Mayweather Jr. is still alive.
The only real losers Saturday night were Cain Velasquez and Juan Manuel Marquez.
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