MMA Deals Put Boxing On The Ropes

Showtime’s March 1 boxing telecast featuring Rafael Marquez and Israel Vazquez was a delight for ring sports enthusiasts. 

The fight, in which both 122-pound warriors battled and battered each other over 12 action packed rounds in the rubber match of their fight trilogy, will certainly be a contender for fight of the year.

Too bad only 15.5 million Showtime pay TV subscribers could witness the slugfest (Showtime will air a replay of the event tonight (March 4) at 10 p.m. and March 5 at 11 p.m.).

Millions boxing fans starving for a good, quality action-packed fight after a couple of snoozers (i.e.HBO’s Feb. 23 Wladimir Klitschko-Sultan Ibragimov bout) missed out on Vazquez-Marquez.

If only boxing had a major broadcast network outlet through which it can showcase its brightest and best fighters.

That’s why broadcast network CBS’ decision to televise live events from Showtime and Pro Elite’s mixed martial arts (MMA) franchise EliteXC is such a coup for the burgeoning action sports category.

CBS will provide immeasurable exposure to Kimbo Slice and other EliteXC athletes — as well as the overall MMA genre — via four live, prime-time Saturday night events a year.

Time will tell whether EliteXC can deliver on CBS’ internal audience and advertiser expectations, but at least the network is willing to give a prime-time slot to MMA events — something it hasn’t offered the older-skewing, advertiser-adverse boxing genre in years.

The CBS/ProElite TV deal – coupled with Ultimate Fighting Championship’s recent multi-year sponsorship agreement with Anheuser Bush’s Bud Light beer brand — amounts to a powerful one-two gut punch to the sweet science’s once unchallenged supremacy within the ring sports arena.

The biggest MMA events still can’t match the media hoopla and pay-per-view revenue take of a marquee boxing match. But boxing had better find a way to provide more exposure for fights like Marquez-Vazquez and its future stars before Chuck Liddell becomes a more recognizable household name among young sports fans than Floyd Mayweather.