Media Dana White is never going to allow cross over fights into boxing again

Why would he? James Toney crossed over into mma and was embarrassed in 2 mins. Conor crossed over into boxing and was outclassed for 10 rounds.
 
Ogata said:
To be fair, we have seen kickboxers come in and do extremely well. From Cro cop to Anderson Silva to Izzy. Same with Cung Le even though he came in late.

Even guys like Melvin guillard started off as kickboxers. KJ noons was a boxer kickboxer who got in the mma boom.
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Melvin Guillard's comeback to boxing (bareknuckle boxing that is) sadly didn't go that great, at least BKFC has kept him around a long time since he's a relatively big name, but going 2-7 in that org isn't exactly great.

Last time I've watched "The Young Assassin" fight was when he got smoked by Gomi (despite the latter having his right leg in pretty bad shape from a training injury, it even buckled right before the KO) in RIZIN back in... damn, 2018?
7 Years already?


Anyway, I mostly replied to mention that my boy KJ Noons (his scrapped UFC bout against my other boy Yan Cabral was a sizeable blow to me <mma1> ) wasn't exactly a boxer/kickboxer who later got into MMA, for the first half of his career (pre-UFC let's say) he was pretty much kickboxing/boxing/competing in MMA all at the same time.


For instance, Noons had 4 boxing bouts in 2009, which was the "break year" he took from MMA after his career's biggest win over Nick Diaz which got him the EliteXC belt, followed by a defense against Yes Edward.

Then he took a year off to box, and came back in 2021 to fight André "Dida" Amado at DREAM 13

(sadly mostly remembered today as that dude on Wand's team who sucker punched Chael Sonnen and got kicked out of TUF & banned from attending any UFC events; in the past he had cornered big names like Shogun & Wandy... but when he started, Dida was a hyped prospect, Sakuraba's protégé at Chute Boxe, young Dida would always shout out to Saku ringside after his fights, t'was heartwarming as the Gracie Hunter's biggest nuthugger)


Noons' boxing & MMA careers were fairly intermingled, even his brief amateur boxing stint happened a couple years after his first few MMA bouts
(KJ went 2-2, 3 of those bouts taking place at the 2004 USA Western Olympic Trials, but after winning his first 2 bouts he lost in the bracket's semi-final to Jorge Hernandez who then lost to James Parison who then lost to Andre Dirrell, who ended up qualifying for the 2004 Athens Olympics proper and lost to Gennadiy "GGG" Golovkin , who snatched the silver medal after immediately losing to gold medalist Gaydarbek Gaydarbekov)

He also took a short break from MMA after his 2007 upset loss to Charles "Krazy Horse/Kid Khaos/Felony" Bennett at EliteXC and won a boxing bout, right before coming back and finishing James "Lil Tiger" Edson Berto, a win that was pretty solid at the time & aged fairly well, with Berto finishing his career in Bellator fighting against their elites and not doing too horribly.

Aaaanyway, not trying to bust your balls, but for some reason I've always had a soft spot for "King Karl"
(his rivalry with Nick Diaz was huge for something that wasn't taking part in the UFC, and Noons milked it for all it was worth, rematching the older Diaz bro for with the Strikeforce WW belt on the line... if only that KJ hippie had gotten a haircut before the fight, things might have turned out different <{hughesimpress}>but then he wouldn't be as dashing, and wouldn't be King Karl, so "it is what it is"©)

so I followed him around, even watched him live once in Strikeforce when he got into it with another fav of mine in the co-main, Josh "The Punk" Thomson in my dear Columbus Ohio at the Nationwide Arena
[where I also got to watch UFC 96, Rampage vs Jardine with Shane Carwin vs Gonzaga as the co-main, and back in the ol' days one of the GFC: Team Hammer House vs Team Gracie events that were so dear to me, headlined by the first fight between Wes "The Project" Sims vs Daniel Gracie that ended in a draw & led to a bloody rivalry & rematch, and other badass wrestling vs BJJ bouts involving big names like Matt "The Law" Lindland vs Fabio Leopoldo <5>
and others like Big Ben Rothwell, Vitor "Shaolin" Ribeiro, Dustin Hazelett, Mike Pyle, Rhalan Gracie, and even War Machine; screw that guy, can't believe he rep'd Team Hammer House <DisgustingHHH> he got sub'd by a Carlson Gracie black belt, Team Gracie's Mike "Odizo" O'Donnell.

it was only my second live MMA event and I was just 18, not nearly even old enough to drink booze in the US, so we had to cook a space cake instead in our college dorm, and enjoyed a trippy night of fights, good times indeed ^^]

... and since KJ is one of the very few high level MMA guys who would often take boxing bouts on the side, I had to step up <RomeroSalute>


To stay on topic a bit more, when it comes to MMA guys going boxing a couple times to get a big paycheck, I don't mind it since
- it gets casuals exposure to the MMA dudes (most of my friends went to the sports bar with me to watch Floyd vs Conor, and most of them didn't care that much about MMA in general but they knew who Conor was and the fight was promoted so well that nobody wanted to miss it)

- it brings light to the big issue that is the UFC not paying their fighters nearly enough. The 1% champions & popular names with big social media presence might be well compensated, but too many elite fighters get paid peanuts despite being in the top 10 of their division, because they're "boring" or whatever.

- it can lead to absolutely insane upsets like Francis Ngannou vs Tyson Fury

(even the promo was epic, even if before the fight started noone gave Francis a chance of surviving more than a couple rounds, and predicted that was ended up taking place in the Anthony Joshua bout would happen against Fury)

Anyway, WAR KJ, his last victory in the UFC in 2016, a 30s KO over Sam Stout was memorable, especially for how it ended for the ref 🤼‍♂️
GIF: Dazed And Confused MMA Fighter Tries To Put Ref In Headlock | Balls.ieGIF: Dazed And Confused MMA Fighter Tries To Put Ref In Headlock | Balls.ie
 
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Intermission said:
I as a fan want to see it. It's more exciting than a regular fight. But it's obvious from his reply that it's never going to happen again

But I guess Dana wants his fighters health intact

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How about this take? Yeah, Dana means what he is saying right now. But once there's a boxing league with plenty of boxers on UFC level salaries, he might change his tune. If its a matter UFC palookas fighting Boxing palookas for relatively low pay, he'll probably come up with a rationale to justify those matches.
 
loisestrad said:
Most of the UFC-Boxing crossover fights has seen the UFC fighters winning or at least looking good, relative to them being the ones to cross over.

Vitor Belfort beat Evander Holyfield, which shocked the world. It was a shocking upset that left the boxing world in awe.

Ngannou of the UFC and MMA came close to beating the boxing champion of the world, Tyson Fury, and most peoble who defended Fury had the good ol' defense ready: Fury underestimated Ngannou. He was drunk. He had problems.
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Sleep off the pills, lady.
 
wwkirk said:
How about this take? Yeah, Dana means what he is saying right now. But once there's a boxing league with plenty of boxers on UFC level salaries, he might change his tune. If its a matter UFC palookas fighting Boxing palookas for relatively low pay, he'll probably come up with a rationale to justify those matches.
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If there's a boxing league in the UFC?
 
Intermission said:
If there's a boxing league in the UFC?
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My idea is that cross-overs between two leagues (one boxing, one MMA) both under TKO/Dana could become feasible if the athletes are on comparable pay scales.
 
If Dana has another chance to make big money off a boxing match, and he has a fighter with enough pull to force his hand (i.e. another commercial-smash fighter like Conor) he would do another boxing match.

The Mayweather fight if anything was a win given it wasn't a quick KO; I don't know why anyone would think otherwise. Dana will do what best suits the UFC making money, and the Floyd/Conor match did nothing to disuade him from that in the future.
 
joy2day said:
If Dana has another chance to make big money off a boxing match, and he has a fighter with enough pull to force his hand (i.e. another commercial-smash fighter like Conor) he would do another boxing match.

The Mayweather fight if anything was a win given it wasn't a quick KO; I don't know why anyone would think otherwise. Dana will do what best suits the UFC making money, and the Floyd/Conor match did nothing to disuade him from that in the future.
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Never. He only did it because Mayweather wasn't a puncher
 
Intermission said:
Never. He only did it because Mayweather wasn't a puncher
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No, he did it because it made him a lot of money and because Conor had the pull with the UFC that forced his hand. If another fighter came around that brought as much money to the UFC as Conor did, Dana would do it in a minute if that's what it took to keep that guy. Conor is far different than anyone else because he was far more popular back in the day; there's no one else that sells PPVs like that.
 
joy2day said:
No, he did it because it made him a lot of money and because Conor had the pull with the UFC that forced his hand. If another fighter came around that brought as much money to the UFC as Conor did, Dana would do it in a minute if that's what it took to keep that guy. Conor is far different than anyone else because he was far more popular back in the day; there's no one else that sells PPVs like that.
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Thats only part of the reason. if the boxer Conor faced was ngannuo he wouldnt green light it. His fighter might never come back to his own sport.
 
99 out 100 promoters would have put UFC out of business a long time ago. But people are mad at Dana for petty things that actually make people talk about MMA.
 
Btw, what do you guys think about Dans gleeful smile about Ngannous result?

Doesnt that show some deep seeded venom?

hes a bitch..
 
Intermission said:
So what did he do that 99 people wouldnt?
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Dana has been committed for almost 25 years to ensure UFC is a success. It is a lot more to him than just a business to generate money. He could have easily left after the Endeavor acquisition as a centimillionare. But he kept the full control of the company and made it more popular.

Dana manages to keep the margin really high and avoids co-promotions. He made the promotion synonymous with MMA for a typical fan.

We have seen PRIDE, Bellator, Strikeforce, etc. etc. failing to do that.
 
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