Why is Professional Boxing dying while MMA is thriving?

Reason #2 - Unity of Command

Quick review for everyone. There are 4 widely recognized and sanctioned boxing organizations: WBA, WBO, WBF and IBF. Each one has their own championships and each one deals with cross promotional bouts on a regular basis. That's a good thing.


Here's the not-so-good thing: these four groups will never consolidate into a single championship organiation, EVER!

Now boxing purists will call this very notion ridiculous and stupid, I know. As we already know, fighters have unified the belts in the past and made the claim as the "undisputed" champion of their particular weight class, but take a look at the world of boxing today. Out of the 18 weight classes, there are NO unified championships. The closest thing we have today is the stranglehold that the Klitschko brothers have over the Heavyweight titles. But both Vitali and Wladimir have already said that they will never fight eachother, so Wladimir will have to settle for 3 of the 4 belts if he can beat British fighter David Haye in their upcoming bout this July. Now, how can you realistically claim that you're the best fighter, the champ, if there are 3 other guys who fight in the same weight class that have a shiny piece of metal strapped around their waist as well? Logically, you can't! And remember what I said about guarding your brand??? That should tell you why unification bouts are the exception, not the norm.

MMA doesn't have this problem completely solved yet, but they are a hell of a lot closer to fixing it than boxing can ever hope to become. With Zuffa's purchase of rival Strikefore, it will not be long before those fighters and those belts are rolled up under the UFC umbrella. Just as they did when they purchased the Pride Fighting organization, they'll hold title unifciation bouts. And that will effectively end anymore debate about who the top MMA fighters are in the world. I've said it before, I believe we're no more than 18 months away from that happening. The UFC will become the next 3 letter organization synonymous with its sport just like the NFL, NBA, MLB and NHL. That gives it recognition and meaning to the casual fan, something boxing lost a long time ago and, by the looks of things, will never get back.


Look, I'm a military man, so this makes more sense to me than any of the other reasons put together. Unity of command is a term that we use to say that when it comes time to make the call, one person makes that call. One guy says yes we're doing this, or no we're doing that. That's what Zuffa is building towards; one organization with all of the best fighters under one roof, all fighting for the same title. When championship fights for the UFC are shown on TV, people will recognize the name and know that the belt carries actual meaning behind it. Boxing will never be able to do that, and it's probably the strongest reason as to why their sport's popularity is dying.