Reason #3 - Fighters afraid to get into a Fight
Every fighter wants to be a champion, because of what that very word signifies: greatness. By winning a championship, you are trying to declare to the world that you are the very best at what you do. But, there are those fighters that transcend that greatness and seek to become even more. For them it's not enough to just be the best welterweight, they want to be the best pound for pound fighter in the game. They want people to look at them and say with absolute certainty, based on sheer skill and ability, that they are better than everyone else in their entire sport.
Right now, the sporting world is split: Manny Pacquiao or Floyd Mayweather Jr. Depending on who you talk to, you'll get a different answer. Regardless of which side of the fence you're on, there's no denying that these two athletes are ranked #1 & #2 in the sport on the pound for pound list. But the debate that will rage on forever until you get these two guys in the same ring with each other. You would think that wouldn't be a problem and that both men would be eager to prove who truly was the best, but you'd be wrong. What keeps this fight from happening is one of the most common practices in boxing, protecting the brand. Mayweather has an image of invincibility to protect. His claim to the title of pound for pound champion rests mainly on his ability to protect his untarnished record. Keeping his record clean keeps the cash cow going. Keeping his record clean means he'll always have that edge in the debate and is what will keep him and his camp from committing to the bout. They can't risk losing that image. Boxers compile grandiose records against second rate competition and work to build a brand name rather than build a top flight resume worthy of the hollow championships they hold. This tragedy of promotional control trumping the voice of the fans is one of the main factors responsible for boxing's decline.
Conversely, within each of the major MMA organizations there exists a group of puppet masters. They are the matchmakers that pick who is going to fight, where they will fight and who they will fight against. In Strikeforce, it's Scott Coker. In the UFC, it's Joe Silva. He, along with the UFC brass decide the match ups and make the fights that the fans want to see. This system prevents fighters and their managers from loading up their records with cheap wins. In MMA, there's nowhere for a fighter to hide. If you're good enough to get the hype train behind you, then you will be forced to back it up in the cage. The perfect example of this dynamic is the ascension of Jon Jones to the UFC Light Heavyweight Championship. Jones rolled through his first 7 opponents in the UFC, compiling a 6-1 record with only a disqualification loss in a fight he was dominating to keep him from perfection. He was pulling off moves that people had never seen a fighter his size attempt with relative ease and was dubbed a phenom. And after only 13 professional fights, he was given a shot at the belt against Shogun Rua, who was considered one of the top 5 fighters on the planet. And what did he do? He demolished him in the worst loss of Shogun's 9 year career.
There's the difference. MMA bigwigs get it, boxing purists don't. Fans want to see the best possible match ups at all times. Fans don't care about wins or losses, they want to be entertained. Watching Mayweather jib and jab an ancient Shane Mosely for 11 rounds is not entertainment, it's boredom. Unless boxing magically changes its ways and starts to match the best fighters against each other on a consistent basis, then more and more fight fans will look to MMA for what they used to get from boxing: dominant, deserving champions taking on relevant and talented challengers who fight for the crowd as much as they do for themselves.
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