FanNation

     Normally I keep my blogs to MMA only because at this juncture in my life it seems to be the sport least tainted by outside influences. College sports are about the rich staying rich and not letting the little guys join their club be it football or basketball, and let's face it most people don't care to much about any other college sports. The hardcore fans keep up with the other sports but to average joe's its football and basketball. Nascar is about the multicar teams helping each other out to win or at least consistently place high. In baseball its whoever spends the most money wins or at least pretty close to it. The NFL has parity, but in recent years is starting to just get stale for me. And who really watches the NBA and NHL during the regular season?

     This makes boxing or UFC/MMA the only year round sports that you can watch month in month out. Boxing anymore though has about two fighters who are worth actually paying to watch fight anymore. Paquiau or who ever you spell it, he comes out and puts on an entertaining fight each and everytime he steps into the ring. Other than him though is there really anyone worth watch box? In my opinion not really. Yet when you tune into a UFC broadcast there is always a pretty big card with the usual suspects providing entertaining bouts such as GSP, Spider Silva, Wanderlei Silva, and BJ Penn to name but a few. I think UFC has the natural advantage over boxing though because look at how many guys in the UFC are former college wrestlers if they are american, and BJJ if they are from just about anywhere else specifically Brazil though. These guys are doing this most of the time from the time they are about 5 years old. I think boxing in this country really began its downturn after the era of Sugar Ray Leonard. How many boxer's are household names these days? Not to many other than an Oscar de la Hoya. Look at the 70's and some of the 80's though. You had Ali, Frazier, Leonard, and to some extent Mike Tyson. I think it began with the advent of pay per view. Back in the day you could tune in on the weekend's and catch ABC's Wide World of Sports and see quality boxing most of the time. At least until the Mancini vs. Kim fight that ended tragically around 82 or 83. I used to love boxing though but it has been replaced in my mind with MMA for the forseeable future.