Boxing Trumps MMA This Saturday

December 5th marked a big day for combative fighting. UFC had the finale of The Ultimate Fighter 10, while boxing had a match up between 2 of boxing's most avoided fighters, Sergio Martinez vs Paul "The Punisher" Williams. Having the advantage of TiVo, I watched both events extensively. And in the end, Boxing had more action in 2 bouts than MMA had in 6.

Before the night began I was leaning towards UFC than boxing. Lets face it, if you are a real Boxing fan, you were upset that Kelly "The Ghost" Pavlik was ghost & bailed out twice on fighting Paul Williams. But Sergio Martinez actually turned out to be more than a fitting opponent. In the 1st round BOTH fighters scored a Knock Down, but Martinez's was more convincing. During the first 3 round the underdog Martinez dominated a close match, including the CONVINCING knock down over the favorite Paul Williams in the 1st. Going into the 4th round, Williams was starting to land his vicious left hand. Both fighters went back & forth for a full 12 rounds, but in the end Paul Williams landed the majority decision, 114-114, 115-113, & 119-110...wait...119-110!?

Yes, 2 of the 3 judges had the fight close & one had an unexpected blowout. This marked the first night women were able to judge a fight better than men...Amazingly, there were 2 female judges who scored the fight correctly, while 1 male judge had the fight scored dramatically skewed. Pierre Benoist (the Judge who scored the bout ridiculously) somehow saw the bout 119-110 favored towards Williams. If you saw the fight, there was no way Martinez won just won 1 round (as Benoist scored it). Especially when everyone else on Ringside saw the fight more evenly matched. This is the problem that haunts boxing, that feeling that the fight 'might' be fixed occasionally. The fight was a close toe to toe bang out. Every round was close, but you couldn't have possibly give every close round to Williams. Williams was undoubtedly the busier fighter, he threw more & landed more punches overall. But Martinez landed at a higher connecttion rate across the board on jabs (Martinez 37% to Williams 27%), power punches (Martinez 41% to Williams 33%), & total punches (Martinez 40% to Williams 31%). In all but 3 rounds Martinez landed at a higher percentage & landed more punches in several rounds (2, 3, 4, & 10). So how can Benoist just give him one round? Benoist should be banned from ever judging a prize fight again.

I then tuned in to MMA, the Finale of The Ultimate Fighter 10, which was full of surprises. Matt Mitrione vs Marcus Jones ended in the 2nd round, when Mitrione landed a devastating punch that put Jones out. But the fight everyone was waiting for (at least those watching the UFC event) ended in a surprising disappointment. Kimbo Slice vs Houston Alexander was as eventful as reading the Dewey Decimal System at your local library. Kimbo & Alexander went a full 3 minutes (in a 5 minute round) without landing anything significant in round 1. Alexender threw a few kicks, Kimbo threw a total of 3 punches. & the most hyped fight in MMA history started with more questions than answers. In the 2nd round, Kimbo dominated with a powerful SLAM, that shook the Octogon, then passed to a FULL MOUNT on Alexander, but did little damage. The 3rd & final round was also uneventfully, as Kimbo landed the unanimous decision for his first UFC win.

The Ultimate Fighter main event was Roy "Big Country" Nelson against Brendan Schaub, which ended late in the 1st round with a Nelson (former IFL Champ) KO of Schaub, winning a 6 figure contract for the UFC. In the end, Dana White's plan to steal viewers from Boxing might have worked in the box office, but failed miserably in action. In fact, I can argue that the most drama was provided by a bunch of UNPAID athletes in College Football in the Big 12, Big East, & ACC Championships...but I digress.

In the end, I believe that the UFC will overtake Boxing sooner or later...or will they? Regardless of what the "ratings" tell you, boxing wins yet another head to head battle with Mixed Martial Arts.