MMA legend Demetrious Johnson thinks boxing is more exciting than MMA right now
Well, I am going to disagree with him on this one and I think the only reason that they are focusing on his very public opine about this because with him, it is easy to suggest that it is sour grapes that is doing the talking here.
"Mighty Mouse" was one of the most dominant champions ever in the UFC. He was also barely a draw on any event that he was involved in and I suppose there are a number of reasons why that could be the case.
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I think that a lot of modern-day fighting fans aren't even aware that this guy was the champion for a very long time in the flyweight division and that is probably because it is the flyweight division. In order to qualify for flyweight, you have to weigh 125 lbs or less and while this is all fine and dandy for women, this is honestly too small to be exciting in a men's division. This is why Mighty Mouse was able to be champion for as long as he was and well, basically nobody cared. He was the flyweight champion from 2012 to 2018 and during that time he had a ton of fights but seriously, nobody really looked forward to these bouts and the pay-per-views suffered pretty terrible sales. The reality of the situation is that people just aren't that interested in seeing people that are the size of middle-school children duking it out in an octagon.
It was such a non-issue for most fans that when Johnson finally lost the belt to Henry Cejudo in 2018, I think most people didn't even notice it happened.
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You would think that a guy that had made 11 straight title defenses (which is a record in UFC) and had basically torn through everyone, that it would be a big deal but it wasn't even the main event because UFC is aware of the fact that they cant sell a pay-per-view with the little guys as the top-billed.
I am sure there are some people out there that are going to disagree with this and you are welcome to do so but for a majority of fans, we have a limit on how little the men can be before we lose interest. I can appreciate how difficult it must be to become a fighter at that weight and appreciate even more how difficult it must be to maintain a weight that I was at when I was 12 years old.
When Johnson was traded to ONE championship for Ben Askrin, he basically disappeared from the scene entirely despite becoming champion over there as well. As boring as Johnson was to me and most others, it can be safely argued that ONE championship came out on top in that particular trade because what a huge letdown Askrin turned out to be.
Johnson has likely always been displeased with his fight purses but the fact of the matter in combat sports is that you get paid a portion of what you can bring in and unfortunately for Johnson, there just aren't that many people interested in seeing him fight.
I believe that he is making this very public opinion known because he is frustrated about the fact that he likely has made less money in his entire career than the big boys of boxing make in a single fight. He wants a piece of that action in making the big money, but it might be too late for him unless he can get some sort of silly fight the likes of which Jake Paul organizes. He is currently 37 years old and well, in fighting, unless you are Mike Tyson, that is too old.
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There is no doubt that boxing pays better than MMA in a general sense and this is a conversation of great controversy seeing as how UFC rakes in almost all of the MMA money and the champions of other minor establishments like ONE Championship have much worse payouts. So Demetrius is probably making the right decision as far as his wallet is concerned, but I seriously doubt if he actually means what he says.
I don't know if anyone would really be interested in seeing Mighty Mouse put on boxing gloves either though. I know that I wouldn't. As has been proven time and time again, MMA fighters tend to not do so well in the boxing ring and he would almost certainly not be an exception.
What do you think? Is boxing more exciting than MMA in your opinion?