One Take on Floyd Mayweather vs. Juan Manuel Marquez Going Up Against UFC 103

As a fan of both boxing and MMA, the last thing I want to do is write about the two sports competing with each other. That subject is tired and it's been tired, and the people who keep bringing it up tend to be ill-informed about one sport or the other.

Nevertheless, another round of those stories is sure to be popping up at the end of the summer. And this time there will be a (sort of) legitimate excuse for them, as the UFC officially announced yesterday that UFC 103 will be held on September 19 in Dallas, the same night that Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Juan Manuel Marquez are set to do battle in Las Vegas.

For an interesting take on the situation, you can check out Sherdog.com's Jake Rossen and his latest blog entry for ESPN.com. Good looking out to Tim Starks of The Queensberry Rules for tweeting that one to my attention.

There are some funny quotes in there from Dana White badmouthing the Mayweather-Marquez fight as one with no interest, and suggesting that people even told Floyd to steer clear of that weekend because of UFC. That's humorous because Dana knows his boxing, so I'm sure he realizes that the weekend closest to Mexican Independence Day traditionally has a big fight starring a boxer of Mexican heritage (usually Oscar De La Hoya in recent years), so it makes perfect sense to hold the fight on the 19th to excite JMM's fans.

It's also making me smile to think about what Money's reaction would have been had one of his advisors really gone to him about avoiding the UFC. I'm quite sure that guy would have been cursed at, smacked with a stack of $100 bills, or something to that effect.

In any case, it's a bit of instant revisionist history to think that the folks behind the rescheduled Mayweather-Marquez fight were playing some kind of game of chicken with the UFC, simply because the boxing match was officially announced first. Yes, the UFC was rumored to be running that date, and yes those rumored dates generally turn out to be correct, but it is what it is.

So while some people are sure to seize on White's comments, they need to be taken in the proper spirit. Dana is, above all else, a masterful promoter, and he understands full well that fanning the "UFC versus boxing" flames will only help drum up interest in a UFC card that currently has no main event.

That's an important fact to keep in mind if Mayweather-Marquez ends up selling more pay-per-views than UFC 103, which both Rossen and I expect it to do. The pro-boxing, anti-MMA crowd shouldn't crow too loudly about one of the biggest names in boxing garnering more buys than a show that, unless something surprising happens, will have no title matches and none of the UFC's top stars. That's not even close to comparing apples to apples.

Anecdotal evidence continues to support the idea that the crossover audience between boxing and MMA isn't as large as some members of the sports media assume it is, meaning the upcoming storm of articles about this supposed clash is probably pointless. My guess is that it wont be Mayweather's biggest PPV or the UFC's best numbers of 2009, but everyone will make enough money to come out alright.

Posted by The Franchise