This is the most insulting thing anyone has ever said about MMA.
The WWE is not a sport. It is a more ratchet trailerpark version of Broadway.
The Forgotten Golden Age of MMA – Part I: The Golden Age of Wrestling & the Lost Art of American Catch-as-Catch-can
Accusations were made that Hackenschmidt threw the fight, and that Gotch had hired Ad Santel to injure Hackenschmidt‘s leg in training (the latter was easily proven false).
The public soured on professional wrestling, equally tiring of the long boring matches in addition to the fixed matches.
Cageside Featured Guest Columnist John S. Nash brings us part one of a fascinating four-part series shining a gas light on the forgotten golden age of mixed martial arts, an age that existed during the Belle Époque.
www.cagesideseats.com
The end of this "Golden Age of Ultimate Fighting" began with the first shots fired in Sarajevo on June 28, 1914. For the next four years, Europe would be engulfed by "The War"; amongst the casualties would be the mixed fights that had been popular only a few years previous, swept away suddenly by the forces of history.
The War would also spell the end of the mixed competitions in the United States. For a multitude of reasons, professional wrestling, the driving force behind mixed competitions, would move from an often-worked-but-still-legitimate sport, to pure vaudeville. A proposed million-dollar
contest between the champions of wrestling and boxing, Ed "The Strangler" Lewis and Jack Dempsey, could have perhaps rescued it from this fate, but in the end, the match failed to materialize, and legitimate contests became a thing of the past.
Only in Asia did mixed fighting continue, at least for a few more years. In July of 1925, Ad Santel visited the islands of Hawaii to meet and draw with another jujutsuka in Tsutao "Rubberman" Higami.
Cageside Features Guest Columnist John S. Nash brings us part four, thus concluding his fascinating series shining a gas light on the forgotten golden age of mixed martial arts, an age that existed during the Belle Époque.
www.cagesideseats.com
Please look up the roots of MMA in Japan & its connections with pro wrestling there
Nothing I said was insulting there
I merely pointed out the similarities in structure between MMA & pro wrestling like promoter controlled titles, promotion of the brand above individual fighters/wrestlers, & the personality of Dana White being akin to the role Vince used to play
I guarantee that Dana White probably has more fans than quiet a few fighters including ATG's like Demetrius Johnson while you would be hard pressed to find fans of Arum or Hearn, especially fans who like them more than boxers
Boxing fans tune in to watch Boxing & individual Boxers, who promotes them is of little concern. Even this forum's structure tells its own story with its separation between "UFC Discussion" (used to be called The Heavyweights as I remember) & "Worldwide MMA discussion" (called the Lightweights iirc). You don't see "Top Rank discussion" or "PBC discussion" on Boxing forums, just Boxing discussion (
https://www.boxingforum24.com/forums/world-boxing-forum.6/) & perhaps subforums for regional/national discussions like British boxing forum (
https://www.boxingforum24.com/forums/british-boxing-forum.8/) & boxers of the past (
https://www.boxingforum24.com/forums/classic-boxing-forum.12/)
Even the way UFC titles its events as UFC 300 tell its own story (again keeping the brand center stage just like WWE). You don't see Boxing cards titled Top Rank 1000, instead its Canelo vs GGG or Inoue vs Fulton, boxers aren't interchangeable cogs in a promotional machine & if Canelo or Inoue get injured those events will have to be postponed
To top it all off, now both UFC & WWE are under Endeavour