I’m going to come out swinging to start off this article. I believe that Floyd Mayweather is scared to fight Manny Pacquiao. I don’t see this fight happening because I believe Mayweather and his camp will do everything possible to duck this fight. They’ll demand outrageous percentages and any other stupid schemes they can come up with.
Now that I got that out of the way, I would like to examine some comments made by former multi-time boxing champion James “Lights-Out” Toney which cut to the heart of this article and back up my opening paragraph…
In an interview with BallerStatus.com, James gave us his opinion on the current state of boxing and the MMA:
“[Boxing’s] gone downhill because look at the fighters we got.. Everybody is scared to fight each other. That’s the main reason why people are going from boxing to MMA, because MMA is putting on the fights that everybody wanna see….My daddy was one of them MMA guys. I love it. I like watching it. They putting on the best shows. That’s why the boxing people get mad because they getting all the fans. They’re giving the fans all the good matches, which should be done in boxing. I watch it, but they can’t mess with me…I like Rampage [Jackson]. I like watching … not Brock Lesnar. He’s phony. Fedor Emelianenko, he aight. Georges St. Pierre.”
You can read James Toney’s entire interview here at BallerStatus.com
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After reading these comments, it got the wheels turning in my “meat head” as my critics like to say… Are boxers really afraid to fight each other? Well, as I stated in my opening paragraph, yes I do believe Mayweather and others are afraid to fight each other.. But I would not make the blanket statement that everybody in boxing is scared to fight each other..
I don’t see Manny Pacquiao being scared to fight anyone. I’m sure if I dig further into some of the current crop of boxers that there are more fighters who aren’t afraid… So, I strongly disagree with James on the statement that every boxer is scared to fight each other.
Now, he is correct when it comes to the fact that MMA does give the fans the fights that they want..
It doesn’t take years to develop. As soon a fighter becomes a viable contender or a feud has been established then the UFC (and other MMA promotions) make the matches.. And you almost never see any MMA fighter running scared from a fight.. It’s all about putting on the best fights that the fans want to see. This is where MMA is much better than boxing. They want that fans to enjoy their product. How often does boxing put on a match that the fans really want to see?
MMA doesn’t wait years before they actually put on a match like boxing does. I can’t help but point towards Mayweather and the fact that he should have fought Pacquiao years ago but boxing and Mayweather continue to drag this on.
So far, most of what James said has some truth to it.. Other than a blanket generalization, the other thing that I strongly disagree with is James calling Brock Lesnar a phony. Please tell me how this beast is a phony. Just because he went into pro-wrestling doesn’t mean he is a phony.
Brock was a collegiate national heavyweight champion.. His strength, speed, and size are freakish and unparalleled. He has beat everyone that he faced accept for the first loss to Mir and you can chalk that up to inexperience. HE can outwrestle any heavyweight. His ground game is improving and his he has legit knockout power… But let me get back to the point of this article…
Gone are the days of Hagler, Hearns, and Leonard. Until boxing actually gives us fights that we truly want to see, the sport will remain in trouble and definitively surpassed by MMA.
