Teddy Atlas says MMA is not a “pimple on the ass of boxing”

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In a new interview legendary Boxing coach Teddy Atlas who trained Mike Tyson in his glory days talks about how Mixed Martial Arts is not pushing Boxing into it’s grave. He talks about how MMA has been marketed better than Boxing, but says our sport is still a “Pimple on the ass” as far as attendance and pay per view sales.

Fanhouse.com caught up to Atlas and got his opinion on MMA and he honestly makes some good points about Boxing improving because of our sport.

“Not at all. A lot of people say that. I think people who say that are ignorant. They just say that because it seems like the thing to say. One of the healthiest things in our society is competition. That’s always been good for our American way of life and business as a whole. So competition should be good for boxing. Mixed martial arts is a different entity than boxing. And if there’s competition it should be healthy, because it should push one of the businesses — really both businesses, but just talking about boxing — it should push boxing to get its own house in order”.

“Mixed martial arts does a better job of marketing their sport. You hear more about mixed martial arts because they market it better. Boxing doesn’t market its sport. The perception is, ‘Wow, this stuff has kicked the s**t out of boxing.” That’s not true. It’s just that they talk about the sport”.

“You brought up a good point about us — we don’t even talk about it enough. The sport does not market itself. There’s no one there to do that. So you get the perception that mixed martial arts is really climbing. The reality is, when you see a big fight, whether it’s De La Hoya-Pacquiao or De La Hoya-Mayweather, or whatever, you realize — and I’m not knocking mixed martial arts, I think that sport’s good and the participants are tough guys — but Ultimate Fighting’s not a pimple on the ass of boxing”.

Actually Teddy UFC 91 and 92 pulled in just as many pay-per-view buys

“When you see boxing, with those pay-per-view buys, and one fighter making $40 million and the other fighter making $20 million, you say, “Are you kidding me? You think (the UFC is) making inroads into boxing? No, no, no. They don’t come close. Not when it comes to the big fights. But the problem is, that’s what boxing has come to, where you only get that one big fight a year or one every two years.That’s the problem. You don’t have the public talking about all the other fights in between.”

I actually agree with a lot of what Teddy is saying about Boxing, did anyone know there was a war and probably the fight of the year so far (in either sport) on HBO this past weekend? No, you know why? Shitty marketing.

As far as the UFC not being a “Pimple” the UFC here are the top 10 pay-per-view numbers of 2008 from Yahoo! Sports. (Full article) I added in UFC 92 myself to show the difference.

1. UFC 92: The Ultimate 2008 Frank Mir vs Antonio “Minotauro” Nogueira Dec. 27, 1.25 Million 1.3 Million (according to reports from Dana White not official numbers)

Top 10 North American PPV buy rates, 2008

1. Boxing:Oscar De La Hoya vs. Manny Pacquiao, Dec. 6, 1,250,000

2. UFC:Brock Lesnar vs. Randy Couture, Nov. 15, 1,010,000

3. Wrestling:WrestleMania, Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Paul “Big Show” Wight, March 30, 670,000

4. UFC:Georges St. Pierre vs. Jon Fitch/Lesnar vs. Heath Herring, Aug. 9, 625,000

5. UFC:Lesnar vs. Frank Mir, Feb. 2, 600,000

6. UFC: Quinton Jackson vs. Forrest Griffin, July 5, 540,000

7. UFC: St. Pierre vs. Matt Serra, April 19, 530,000

8. Boxing: Felix Trinidad vs. Roy Jones Jr., Jan. 19, 500,000

9. UFC:Chuck Liddell vs. Rashad Evans, Sept. 6, 480,000

10. UFC:B.J. Penn vs. Sean Sherk/Tito Ortiz vs. Lyoto Machida, May 24, 475,000

Do I need to say more how Teddy was wrong about that statement?