By Dexter Reyes
I’m basically the only boxing fan among my friends, most of them watch Mixed Martial Arts — mainly UFC. Right now, the biggest UFC event of the year is coming up this Saturday April 30, 2011 at a sold out Rogers Centre of 55,000 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. This event marks the biggest live attendance in UFC history. It shows how far MMA has come in such a short time, they basically surpassed boxing in North America, especially in Canada, where almost every young male under 25 follows the UFC.
The buzz for UFC 129 Georges St-Pierre vs. Jake Shields has been more widespread than the May 7th boxing match between Manny Pacquiao and Shane Mosley. I know with the younger crowd they tend to follow MMA more so than boxing, a sport that they consider lame or boring compared to MMA.
The Pacquiao vs. Mosley fight hasn’t sparked much interest among the hardcore boxing fans either, and it seems the buzz just isn’t there. I could be wrong, but I feel that the UFC 129 pay-per-view card will out do the Pacquiao vs. Mosley pay-per-view in terms of PPV sold. The UFC event has a stacked undercard with featherweight champ Jose Aldo vs. Mark Hominick and you have Randy Couture’s final fight against Lyoto Machida just to name a few. In boxing people just pay for the main event, and the Pacquiao vs. Mosley main event isn’t a fight that boxing fans were to crazy about. Sure an upset can happen if Mosley lands one of his power punches, but the fight people want to see is Manny Pacquiao vs. Floyd Mayweather Jr., a fight that fell through after numerous negotiations.
Over or Under 1,000,000 Pay-Per-View Buys?
I would say UFC 129 Georges St-Pierre vs. Jake Shields does over one million buys, and Pacquiao vs. Mosley does under one million buys.
What do you guys think?
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