Who is More Guilty of Hype? UFC or Boxing?

It seems for fight fans that last night was a rather polarizing night; you were either with the UFC or you were with Golden Boy's Floyd Mayweather, Jr. fight. Each event had their own merits, both featuring a successful comeback of sorts; Vitor Belfort returning to the UFC to smash Rich Franklin into the mat and Floyd Mayweather, Jr. making his return to the boxing ring to smash Juan Manuel Marquez into a humbling 12-round decision.

Fans of each haven't really been too pleasant when it comes to the other event, with MMA fans proclaiming Floyd's fight against Marquez as "too easy" and overhyped, and boxing fans pulling the usual spiel that MMA is less civilized and contains less talent. As pointed out on Total MMA, everybody seems to be guilty of overhyping mismatched fights.

What is sort of humorous is that those calling this fight a sham are staunch supporters of the UFC, who have been known for questionable match-making in the past to rake in the cash. How many times did they sell fans on Tito Ortiz vs. Ken Shamrock? Or how they sold fans on Matt Hughes vs. Royce Gracie, the former "king" of the UFC? How about Brock Lesnar against "top heavyweight" Frank Mir? If you aren’t buying those, how does this stack up for a parallel to Mayweather/Marquez; top fighter from a lower weight class calls out the highest ranked fighter in a higher weight class, the fight is accepted, there is a multi-part hype show and months of media buildup with the words "pound-for-pound" being tossed around. The fight happens and the smaller man simply stood no chance against the bigger, more skilled fighter. Except you ate it up.

BJ Penn vs. Georges St. Pierre.

 

BJ Penn had very little chance of actually winning in this fight, but showed he was serious about it and people were sold on this fight by Dana White and the UFC. The fight itself was an annihilation by a virtuoso at his weight class, but when BJ goes back down to his true weight class he continues to dominate and will continue to be the best there for quite a while. Much in the same vein, Juan Manuel Marquez will go back to his native weight class and most likely continue to be one of the absolute best at it.