UFC Gains As Boxing Loses Out During 2020-21
It took around one month of last year’s pandemic for the folks behind the Ultimate Fighting Championships (UFC) to put plans into place to rejuvenate their fighting season, while all other sports were waiting for the green light to get going again but having no idea when that would be.
Following an inevitable one month delay from their proposed start date, the UFC returned with UFC 249 between Tony Ferguson and Justin Gaethje on May the 10th at the Jacksonville VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena in Jacksonville, Florida. The fight, which had been originally scheduled for the 18th of April, meant that is was the first major sport to return to scheduled events just two months after lockdown.
The switch and delay was the result of New York’s banning of major sporting events during the pandemic, while Florida clearly harboured no such concerns. In all the UFC hosted three shows in three days at the arena between the May the 9th and the 16th of May.
The crowds were kept out, but people watched on TV and online and the organisation’s social media following swelled enormously. Following the Florida shows the circus moved on to Las Vegas where they repeated the trick.
The whole situation highlights the differences between the two sports of UFC and boxing. UFC hosts multi-fight cards with flexibility if some fighters cannot attend, boxing meanwhile is much more limited and as shown recently with the delay to Fury v Wilder III due to a positive test it is less resilient. The fact that elite boxing requires so much prize money too meant that it was almost impossible to stage the big fights behind closed doors.
Fight Island
In the meantime, UFC boss Dana White had commissioned the construction of what was later to be labelled UFC Fight Island on Yas Island in Abu Dhabi, part of the United Arab Emirates. The venue hosted four more events in 14 days.
Inevitably, some fighters and a few cornermen tested positive to COVID-19 but were at least able to quarantine meaning the events were able to continue without too much interruption.
It was a risky strategy being the first sport to return but if viewing figures are to be believed it is one that paid off and now the organisation looks to be thriving as fans starved of sports had something to watch, and if they were to get hooked on it, they could be fans for life.
Boxing Has Taken A Hit
While returning early was possible for the UFC, it simply wasn’t an option for its blood sports’ brother, boxing.
There can only the big matches we all look forward to if the gate plus the TV broadcasting rights contribute to the pot.
Immediately after the pandemic hit around March 2020, show after show after show was cancelled and removed from the schedule. This left fighters, promoters, broadcasters, journalists, venues and, indeed, fans without their favourite sport.
In short, without fights, nobody can make any money, so it was disappointing to see the match that was supposed to take place last weekend between Tyson Fury and Deontay Wilder in Las Vegas get postponed after Fury tested positive for coronavirus.
This whole situation may make boxing reflect on itself and it will be looking over its shoulder at the younger mixed martial arts cousin. UFC has continued to explode while boxing is becoming ever more stagnant, evident by the fact that it is proving almost impossible to arrange the fight everyone wants to see between Fury and AJ.
Will The Big Fight Ever Happen?
While the fight has been tentatively pencilled in for a date in October, the postponement will have knock on effects for the match everyone has been waiting for, his unifying title bout against Anthony Joshua.
Fury tested positive last week and even now as the UK unlocks, for the time being at least, boxing simply cant take chances with multiple breakouts in or even out of the ring.
The fight against AJ was itself organised after a third fight against Wilder fell through on numerous occasions again due to Covid.
However, Fury is contractually obliged to fight Wilder so there is little he can do but wait until October and hope for better luck then.
In the meantime, as boxing attempts to return to normality, Joshua has been talking with Ukrainian Oleksandr Usyk about a potential fight in September.
