Then in the 80's came a young boxer like no one had ever seen before.  Iron Mike Tyson taking all three heavyweight belts by the tender age of 19.  People were so excited about Mike that they would flock to their TV sets just to see him interviewed let alone fight.  Welterweight , lightweight and middleweight fighters like Sugar Ray Leonard and Roberto Duran, Marvelous Marvin Hagler and Hit Man Hearns were giving us fights that would be talked about for years to come.

But somewhere lurking in the shadows, a new breed of fighting was started.  It was basically a no rules, no holds barred style of fighting.  It was a "black market" sport if you will.  Names like Tank Abbott, Ken Shamrock, Hidehiko Yoshida, Don Frye and Royce Gracie were starting to circulate.

Due to it's violent and sometimes barbaric style, many said this fighting will never make mainstream TV.  Fighters were getting maimed and sometimes even killed.  But as the 1990's progressed all that changed.  Suddenly, the UFC brought in some rules.  Rounds actually had a time limit, fighters could no longer resort to all the dirty tactics that they had in the past.

Fighters like Tito Ortiz, Ken Shamrock, Chuck Lidell, and Mark Coleman were becoming household names.  Water cooler talks were becoming less about boxing and more about the Ultimate Fighting Championships. 

And justifiably so.  As all the great names in boxing were headed into retirement, the new guys just couldn't fill their shoes.    The heavyweight division had become a joke.  Names like Francois Botha, Andrew Golota,  Frank Bruno, Oliver McCall, David Tua and Hasim Rahman were actually getting title fights and even winning once in a while.  Sure you had Lennox Lewis.  Problem was, he had the personality of an accountant.  You never knew which Lennox would show up either.  Losses to Oliver Headcase McCall and Hasim Rahman were proof of that.  The young superstar Mike Tyson landed in jail on rape charges and never found his form again.  So what was left?

As time has passed, the UFC has continued to grow and boxing has continued to decline.  No one watches or cares about the heavyweight division of boxing anymore.  You have to turn to other divisions to watch such epics as Floyd Mayweather lulling viewers to sleep with a non-descript win over billionaire Oscar De La Hoya .

Compare that to the recent battle between Chuck Lidell and Quinton "Rampage" Jackson in UFC 71.  This fight featured some unbelievable punches and a whole lot of spills and thrills before Rampage finally buried the former champ.

This isn't always the case though.  Many UFC fights feature a lot of boring ground grappling .
I still say that in it's purest form, nothing  beats a great boxing match.  The problem is, there just aren't enough quality fighters to keep the average boxing fans interested anymore.  The UFC has it's own reality show and just seems to have more glamour and glitz for the time being.

Boxing better clean up it's act pretty quickly, or it may just find itself being the sport on the outside looking in.

Agree or disagree, I'm off the goalpost.

www.offthegoalpost.com