Golden Boy Challenges UFC, White

[Steel Mamba]

“Do you think I’m (expletive) crazy?”

Yes

[Liquidrob]

Now look at MMA. You have Joe Rogan, who isnt standing out there in a tux with a bow tie, and most importanty, he speaks the language of the douche in the Affliction shirt. You've got Mike Goldberg with his stupid spikey hair, Gus Johnson with his NFL/NBA cred, Mauro with his pop culture referances, etc etc. These guys speak the language, they connect with people under 60.

Don't forget Frank and his middle school braces

[BigBucs]

Its the fights that draw the fans not how the analyst dress. Thats pretty ridiculous to think boxing personalities have to start wearing skinny jeans, female pastels and mohawks to appeal to the younger generation. I love the presentation and the pageantry of boxing. The tried changing the whole presentation and personalities with KO Nation a few years back and that shit was ridiculous. Mind you I was in my teens then and thought the shit was terrible.

Here is a partial article reviewing the premier of the series.

Article: Boxing fans deserve better than `KO Nation'

Article from: Chicago Sun-Times
Article date:June 15, 2000
Author: Larry Hamel CopyrightCopyright 2000 Chicago Sun-Times. (Hide copyright information)

How bad is "KO Nation," HBO's new hip-hop boxing series?

It's as bad as "BAD," the network's consistently excellent "Boxing After Dark," is good.

I purposely refrained from commenting on the premiere of "KO Nation" a few weeks ago, figuring that it would be impossible for the network that brings us the best boxing on the tube to air such a stinker again.

But it was second verse, worse than the first. "KO Nation" hasn't been the bomb, it has been a bomb. The series' second effort Saturday was the most inept boxing broadcast I've seen in years.

How could a network with normally impeccable production values allow host/ring announcer Ed Lover to commit one bonehead mistake after another? ...

What we need is for all these alphabet organizations to be done with and have one governing body much like Whites UFC but that will never happen because there is so much greed and money in boxing it will be difficult to put it together. I gotta roll. We can rap about this later.

[CrimsonGhost56]

lol. Ed Lover is the announcer? does Dr. Dre do the color commentating?

[SHOGUN]

So it's boxing's version of the Iron Ring?

[Warner2BruceTD]

Its the fights that draw the fans not how the analyst dress. Thats pretty ridiculous to think boxing personalities have to start wearing skinny jeans, female pastels and mohawks to appeal to the younger generation.

You're missing the point.

MMA does a fantastic job attracting the younger demos, an area where boxing fails miserably. If you don't think the presentation matters, I don't know what to say.

[BigBucs]

Im not missing the point. The bottom line when drawing fans is putting the best in against the best not if the analyst and commentators can speak the new generation lingo and dress "hip".

[Warner2BruceTD]

Im not missing the point. The bottom line when drawing fans is putting the best in against the best not if the analyst and commentators can speak the new generation lingo and dress "hip".

First of all, don't get wrapped up in that. The fact of the matter is, no matter what combat sport you are talking about, it's all about stars & star power. And that dosen't always mean the best vs. the best. And the biggest problem for boxing right now, is they have no stars. You could match the two best flyweights against each other, and no one would care and it would bomb becuase not a single casual sports fan could even tell you who the best flyweights are because they arent stars. Boxing isnt lacking skilled fighters, it's lacking fighters with star power, because boxing does nothing to create new stars.

And again, you are missing the point, because whatever it is boxing is doing now, they are failing miserably at creating stars. Your're right, it has little to do with "speaking new generation lingo", or the clothes they are wearing, it has to do with mixing in some fresh faces that younger demos can relate to. When I say MMA commenators "speak the language", it's not even about the words they're using, it's about being relevent and not stuck in a 1950's mindset of this is how we do things.

They need a free TV outlet and a willingness to air real fights for free, and they need to freshen up how they present their procudt. And instead of completely useless verbal attacks on Dana White that accomplish noting, these promoters should steal some of his ideas and implement what he has done to constantly create a stream of new star after new star.

[RosettaStoned]

LoL @ W2B tooling folks. Some things never change.