Joe Frazier's Death Shows MMA Has a Ways to Go

While mixed martial arts gets ready for one of the biggest events in its history (UFC on FOX this Saturday night), the boxing world sits in mourning of one of its greatest legends.

Smokin’ Joe Frazier, the first man to defeat the unsinkable Muhammad Ali, passed away Monday after a battle with liver cancer.

To the modern combat sports fan, the loss may seem less than what it is. Frazier, as a result of his victory over Ali and subsequent rematches—the second of which, the Thrilla in Manilla, was one of the most incredible displays of heart and athleticism the sport has ever seen—was inextricably linked to the man that most consider the greatest of all time.

However, he was much more than that.

He was an undersized heavyweight, an against-all-odds warrior who fought with such tenacity that he essentially forced himself into the conversation of best heavyweight boxers ever.

He never backed down, so much so that his trilogy with Ali took a permanent toll on both men that never allowed them to be the same in the ring again.

Those fights were cultural occurrences, personal battles as much as battles for sport, and Frazier fought them as such. It was the only way he knew how. Yes, he took on the likes of George Foreman and Buster Mathis, but it was the Ali trilogy that made him a legend.

And now he’s gone.

Sad, but how does that relate to MMA?

If one looks at mixed martial arts, the biggest heavyweight fight out there is happening on Saturday night. It’s happening on free television, the heavyweight championship of the world, just like it did when men like Ali and Frazier were stars.

Yet there is none of the transcendent feel of the glory days of heavyweight boxing. It’s not about culture, it’s not about beliefs, it’s not about a nation divided.  It’s purely about competition.

Not that there’s anything wrong with that. It simply shows how far mixed martial arts has to go, how much room there is for it to grow.

In fact, go beyond the heavyweights. What fight in MMA could transcend the sport and become a genuine cultural phenomenon? GSP-Silva? Silva-Jones? Edgar-Aldo?

No. None of them.

They’re all nice to think of as MMA fans, but they’re not fights that could literally divide a nation or divide the globe.

Furthermore, is there a realistic possibility that any mixed martial artist will cause grown men to shed tears upon news of his death 30 years from now, the way I’m sure Frazier’s death did over the past 24 hours?

Probably not.

This isn’t meant to romanticize boxing and pine for the good old days. I love boxing, but truthfully my love has come from watching tapes of fights that happened decades before I was born. It’s been dying as long as I’ve been living, and that saddens me.

What this is meant to do, though, is remind fans of mixed martial arts of where the sport can go and what the ceiling is. When Dana White says MMA hasn’t scratched the surface of going mainstream, this is what he’s talking about.

Joe Frazier hasn’t fought in 30 years, and got more press in a day with his death than Cain Velasquez and Junior Dos Santos have in a month—and they’re fighting this weekend.

That’s mainstream.

So today, and going into the weekend, remember two things—remember what men like Frazier did for combat sports, paving the way for men like Velasquez and Dos Santos to do their thing today.

And remember that regardless of where MMA can go, it sure isn’t there yet. Losing Smokin’ Joe has proved that.