It's true, there aren't very many guys in boxing who make Mayweather or Pacquiao money. But those guys that do make
crazy money.
Actual earning figures aren't always easy to find, but here's a few examples:
De La Hoya v Mayweather in 2007 they earned $52m and $25m respectively.
Mayweather v Mosely in 2010 was over $60m (with 22.5 guaranteed) and $6.7m respectively.
Pacquaio v Marquez in 2012 was $26m (all guaranteed - he lost) and $6m plus a PPV cut respectively.
Compare that to MMA: the last Jon Jones fight where his purse was reported, as far as I can tell, was
UFC 145 v Rashad Evans, where he made $400K just to turn up. Though he no doubt got other unspecified bonuses on top, that's nowhere even close to the money Mayweather's opponents make, let alone what Mayweather himself makes. And Jones is the pretty much undisputed best fighter in all of MMA, the Mayweather equivalent in his sport. Rashad got $300K for that fight BTW.
GSP made the same sort of money at
UFC 167 v Johnny Hendricks: $400K, no win bonus, though undoubtedly a PPV cut and other bonuses on the side. Hendricks only made $50K. The $400K deal seems to be what Brock Lesnar was on too.
There aren't very many guys in the UFC who make Jon Jones or GSP money either though. Mid-teir guys can make somewhere in the low six figures for a fight if they win, more if they get a fight night bonus. And at the bottom end of the food chain, there are a heap of fighters in the UFC who make less than $10K per bout. Then consider the fact that most of them would be lucky to get four or five fights per year
if they stay healthy.
Boxing figures are similarly hard to find, but from what I can tell the bottom end is about on a par. Although it depends how far down the rabbit hole you want to go, and how far you want to stretch the term "professional" - there'll be fighters in both sports who are fighting on small regional cards for a few hundred bucks if you look far enough down the food chain.
On a side note, there's plenty of stories of broke boxers, or guys who need to keep fighting long past their use-by date because they need their money. Apparently even Mohammed Ali was one of them. Hell, apparently even Manny Pacquiao is broke most of the time:
http://www.sbnation.com/longform/20...y-pacquiao-vs-brandon-rios-fight-2013-profile (excellent read if you've got the time, BTW)
That's largely due to money mismanagement, but anywho. MMA also has those stories, just look at the recently-retired Chris Leben.
But I'm probably digressing. Long story short, if you add up
all the money there is in boxing and compare it to
all the money in MMA, it's a safe bet that the boxing pile is much, much bigger than the MMA pile. That doesn't mean it won't change in the future, but it suggests that boxing will be on top for a long time yet in terms of which is the biggest sport.
On the safety issue agreed, getting punched with the gloves from either sport will hurt. But here's some info on how safety in MMA stacks up against other sports:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mixed_martial_arts#Safety
Cliff notes: at least two fatalities in the USA since 2007 directly resulting from MMA bouts, injury rates are much higher than judo, taekwondo and amateur boxing, and at least as high, if not much higher, than professional boxing.
I'd love the ufc if they didn't all try to ground and pound and bore me to death more then boxing ever did
I found that the lighterweight guys stand up more then the heavier fighters
Oh I dunno, you can have incredibly boring stand-up fights in MMA too: see Rashad Evans vs Little Nog for a prime example. Or pretty much any time two heavyweights go the distance. I remember a Frank Mir vs Roy Nelson fight that was a complete snoozefest because both guys were gassed out by the start of round two.
I just like exciting fights, wherever they happen. And I definitely agree that the lighter weight classes can provide some of the best action
