UFC’s Jorge Masvidal fighting Canelo is not boxing clever – combat sport crossover call outs must stop
- Fans are greedily eating up every morsel of clickbait as UFC fighters and boxers challenge each other
- Perhaps we’ve only got ourselves to blame – it’s human nature after all to wonder who is the best
If it’s not Jorge Masvidal repeatedly offering to step in the ring with Saul “Canelo” Alvarez, it’s Tyson Fury showing his willingness to fight just about everyone. Every day now seems to bring another cross-combat sport call out.
It’s tempting to blame Floyd Mayweather Jnr and Conor McGregor – their 2017 super fight started it all with UFC fighters wanting to get in the boxing ring.
It was referenced by Masvidal when he said he could take the UFC to 1-1 against boxing by beating Alvarez.
Then again we could blame that absolute sham where Muhammad Ali was kicked in the shins for a while by Antonio Inoki. That was a non-event, much like Mayweather’s own trip to Japan last year to take out kick-boxer Tenshin Nasukawa.
It’s time to call out each other. We should blame ourselves for this. It’s human nature after all.
Every one of us wants to know who is the best and it has been like that for as long as anyone has been able to record it. What were Ancient Rome’s gladiators if not pitting a mixture of martial arts styles against one another?
We might not stick heavyweight boxers in a pit with a lion anymore – although some promoter has probably pitched the idea – but we’re as guilty as those Romans.
We’ve all lived through our own version of the barbershop scene in Coming To America, arguing over the generations about the best boxer of all time. That was essentially the plot for the sixth Rocky film. Now our entertainment comes from wondering whether Mike Tyson or Bruce Lee would do well in the Octagon – something we can simulate ourselves on EA Sports series of UFC video games.
Now the real life fighters are all playing up to that.
Masvidal, fresh off his BMF title win over Nate Diaz, has called out Alvarez, whose own title fight on the same night had to wait for the UFC men to finish. “It’s just fate. I’m fighting today, he’s fighting today,” Masvidal said of a possible match-up. “I truly feel I could make it 1-1 MMA versus boxing. I could hurt him.”
Canelo said he would do it not because of the challenge but “if it represents good business”.
Stipe Miocic and Tyson Fury are also sending for one another, with both parties talking up the possibility of a fight and the UFC man saying “I think we’d put on a good show”.
Although “The Gypsy King” has also been mentioning Francis Ngannou, who also responded in kind. “I am down 200 per cent,” the UFC heavyweight told TMZ while saying he wants the first fight in the Octagon and then in the ring.
It’s a wonder that Fury has the time. He should be busy counting his money from his WWE debut, beating Braun Strowman at the company’s Crown Jewel event in Saudi Arabia, a trip which earned him a reported US$15 million. Little wonder that he has now called out Brock Lesnar for another dance in the WWE, potentially at WrestleMania.
Even YouTuber KSI, fresh off beating fellow viral video merchant Logan Paul at the Staples Centre last Saturday, was getting in on it. The Briton suggested his American rival should next step into the Octagon to fight CM Punk and Paul has taken the bait.
"I think I would destroy CM Punk if I'm being honest," Paul said. "I don't know if anyone would disagree with that”
We’re taking the bait, too. Greedily eating up every morsel of clickbait.
Is this what we really want, though? Mystic Mac was proved to be a charlatan when it came to his predictions for his fight with Mayweather.
However much anyone wanted to see “Money” get knocked out was kidding themselves. The smart money was always on the boxer dominating the UFC man, just as he had done 50 pro boxers before him, and so it was that Mayweather won barely breaking sweat.
Masvidal saw hope in McGregor’s performance though and thinks he has something to offer.
"Is Canelo a better boxer than me? Has he thrown 10,000 jabs more than me because that’s what he does morning and night? Yeah, he’s a better boxer.
"But can I bring some elements that boxers ain’t used to that are in the legal realm of boxing and throw Canelo completely off his game? F*** yes, man.”
It sounds good but whether the boxing ring or the cage, you’d have to fancy the fighter with home-field advantage. Mayweather was not daft. He was willing to hand out a boxing lesson but not damage his legacy.
Fair play to Fury if he is willing to go in with Miocic under MMA rules but that should level the scores at 1-1 between boxing and UFC.
But Fury might be on to something with his recent WWE debut. Maybe the way to sort this out once and for all is to get everyone in the squared circle for a Royal Rumble? Over to you, Vince McMahon.
