After the Couture Toney fight at UFC 118 every member of the Old White Guy Media Establishment(think of guys like Rick Reilly, half of the blowhards on The Around The Horn Show, almost everyone in sports radio) was quick to say that the fight meant nothing. That years of trash talk by boxers towards MMA wasn't tarnished. The problem is they misunderstand the strategy and technique of world class MMA fighters and how much better equipped they are for a real fight than any boxer. They misunderstand how a sport that has a plethora of endings, strategies, possibilities and packaged like the WWE is so successful. A sport with submissions, stoppages, decisions, knockouts, kicks, choke holds, elbow smashes, armbars, sprawling technique. Is much more exciting than a sport where two guys sit and try to punch each other over and over again mixed in with that hugging stall tactic thing they do.
They've misunderstood the MMA vs Boxing debate as much as you can misunderstand a subject. The old white media is saying the fight didn't prove anything. The Randy Couture James Toney fight proved years of boxers saying they could knock out any MMA fighter in less than 10 seconds was just that, talk. To paraphrase something I saw on Sherdog.com, the point of prizefighting is to see who the toughest man in the room is. An MMA fight is much closer to a real fight than a Boxing match ever would be and the MMA guy won decisively. They misunderstand that the Toney Couture fight proved the MMA guys are the toughest dudes in the room, the point of both friggin sports, I'm pretty sure of that at least. They misunderstand in terms of excitement and significance of a real fight is MMA is NBA Basketball and Boxing is Horse in the driveway. They really really really misunderstand that MMA is much much safer than Boxing, Football and Hockey but that's not the point here, the point is to bitch about the media!!
They misunderstand that the public(for the most part) has upgraded and moved on to a better more exciting product. Maybe the old white guy media will understand when Floyd Mayweather Jr gets destroyed by Diego Sanchez or BJ Penn in 30 seconds in 5 years because he's desperate for a big payday once boxing has officially died. I'm really going to enjoy that.
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