December 12, 2007 Observer Newsletter: Is boxing in trouble with UFC’s rise?

Thomas Hauser, the well known biographer of Muhammad Ali and one of the best known boxing writers, wrote a long story on boxing and UFC on the secondsout.com web site this past week.

Even with boxing having its biggest show, he said the sport was in trouble. Using Google hits to judge popularity, he listed the most popular fighters of today as: 1) De La Hoya; 2) Manny Pacquiao; 3) Mayweather; 4) Oritz; 5) Liddell; 6) Couture, noting MMA’s biggest stars as significantly more popular than Bernard Hopkins, Kelly Pavlik and Wladmir Klitshcko. Emmanuel Steward ripped MMA as being ugly and brutal, with nothing beautiful about it like a nice jab in boxing.

He noted UFC follows the WWE when it comes to marketing and stated studies that showed UFC gets its crowds more than WWE fans than boxing fans. Hauser blamed the firing of Chris Albrecht from the head of HBO for the demise of the HBO/UFC deal.

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