10 Things Boxing Can Learn From UFC 121: Brock Lesnar vs Cain Velasquez

All the hype and excitement has finally come to an end as a new baddest man on the planet was born Saturday night at the ever brilliantly promoted, UFC 121, which took place at the Honda Center in Anaheim, California.

I had the honor to be part of this historical event of the crowning of the first-ever Mexican heavyweight champion in either MMA or boxing, for I was sitting cage side that night.

While I sat at the Honda Center, I began to notice all of the major things that UFC is doing that boxing should learn to do in order to really get the masses on fire for boxing once again. Unfortunately, I can't recall feeling such passion and energy from a boxing match as I did from the UFC 121 crowd that night. 

So here are 10 things boxing must learn from UFC 121:

1) Boxing must learn to produce the biggest boxing fight cards possible.

UFC 121: Brock Lesnar vs. Cain Velasquez was being promoted as the biggest UFC card of all time.

Wait a minute, wasn't UFC 116: Brock Lesnar vs Shane Carwin the biggest UFC card of all time?

I guess every five UFC cards or so, we are provided with the biggest UFC card of all-time and this is one of the major things that the sport of boxing must learn from the UFC.

If boxing produces the biggest boxing fight cards possible for the fans, then they can not lose. Let's face it—UFC 121 was so big that even non-UFC fans got excited and were dying to watch this fight.

But why? It's quite simple: You put the two baddest mofo's on the planet and have them fight each other in the main event to determine who is the one and only baddest mofo on the planet.

When was the last time boxing even came close to doing this? Must we go all the way back to a past prime Mike Tyson vs Lennox Lewis to even draw a comparison?

2) Boxing must learn how to properly market their fights the way UFC does.

We are now in the multimedia Internet age, where promotions and marketing can be done on so many various levels, from the Internet to the local bars, where you use your fight posters as wall paper.

UFC president Dana White has a very active Twitter account where he jokes, talks smack and gives away tickets and other great prizes, sometimes on a daily basis. White's Twitter account has over a million followers, who he often interacts with on an hourly basis.

A day before UFC 121, Dana invited all the fans to a meet and greet at the local Orange County hang out spot the Block and he was shocked as to how many UFC fans showed up to meet him.

Boxing does not have a president of a promotions company going this hard via the Internet as Dana White. Oscar De La Hoya, president of Golden Boy promotions, is just recently getting into the power of the Internet for interacting with fight fans.

Also this past weekend, virtually every single sports bar, chicken wing joint and strip club was showing the UFC 121 in the Orange County area. If you opened up a local Orange County paper, such as the OC Weekly, you saw on every other page "UFC 121: Watch it Here." These same sports bars had their walls covered with Brock and Cain's faces like it was an election.

After UFC 121, we decided to eat at a Buffalo Wild Wings and there was a big sign that read: "Sorry We Are Not Showing the UFC 121 Fight Here." This sign needed to go up because this location was bombarded with phone calls and fight fans taking up way too much space and time only to find out that this was one of the very few places that was not showing the fight.

When was the last time you saw your favorite boxers' faces plastered everywhere you went to eat and drink? When was the last time you could step into any sports bar knowing your favorite fighters would be on their big screen that night?

3) Boxing must get hotter ring card girls like the UFC ring card girls.

Take a look at these ring card girls in the photo of the article. I can say, "enough said," but I will elaborate. The average UFC ring card girl is not only hot with curves, a pretty face and able to claim youth on their side, but they are actually fit. Most of them look athletic as well as if they may actually train in MMA. They are also often celebrities in their own right.

These days, the average boxing ring card girl looks like a single mother of three who works the day shift at Jigglez strip club.

4) Boxing must learn to get the crowd on their feet.

Sitting cage side, I noticed something very odd; I was one of the few fight fans who was actually sitting. For extended periods of times, the majority of the sold out crowd was on its feet.

This was not just during the moments when the fights really started to get good, but even just at random times, when there was climatic music blasting throughout the stadium and also when a crazy laser light show started, which really moved the crowd. Hundreds of fans stood up and looked at the jumbo-trons as if they were doing the pledge of allegiance.

Yes, this may seem more like something WWE would do than real combat fight sports, but WWE is in the end entertaining and that's what UFC focuses on even between under card fights.

5) Boxing must learn to combine old school with new school.

With so many diverse fans who love so many different things in life, how do you satisfy everyone?

The answer is simple: UFC knows to combine old school with new school.

Take music for one. Unlike boxing, where there is extended periods of dead time between under card fights, UFC has a stadium DJ who is mashing up both rock and rap. As soon as I got to my seat, the DJ was spinning rapper Drake's Forever with Black Sabbath's Iron Man. It was genius because you are satisfying both the rock and rap heads, as well as, the old school and new school guys all at once.

Oftentimes between crappy under card fights there is nothing going on and there is not even any background music where the chilling silence makes you beg for even Kenny G to start playing.

6) Boxing must learn to make their fights a fashion show.

Believe it or not, UFC fights are also a fashion show, which is a genius way for people to market and promote the fight all on their own without any real effort at all. When you step into a UFC fight, everyone is rocking either a UFC, Tap Out or Affliction shirt. This fashion show is nothing more than an excellent way to advertise, promote and market the UFC fights. People on the street see these shirts and they think, "These guys are so cool, I want to be cool too. Oh hey, that reminds me, I need to order tonight's PPV."

Yes it works. But how come boxing is not smart enough to do this as well? Do you see thousands of fans rocking Golden Boy shirts? Top Rank shirts?

No. You will probably find Where's Waldo before you find someone wearing one of those.

7)Boxing must learn to stack their cards.

Dana White has always said that you must stack the PPV cards with the most exciting and meaningful fights possible, because if you do, the fans will buy the PPV's. This is plain and simple, but why boxing still does not do this is beyond me.

Even when boxing attempted to have their biggest super mega fights of the year, such as Oscar De La Hoya vs. Floyd Mayweather, Oscar De La Hoya vs. Manny Pacquiao, Floyd Mayweather vs. Ricky Hatton, etc., all of these had probably some of the weakest under card fights ever.

8) Boxing must learn not to value an undefeated record more than a crowd pleasing performance.

Dana White also said it best that boxers must learn to not be so protective of their "O"'s and be more concerned with leaving it all in the ring. Perhaps the sport of boxing values too highly an undefeated record over a fan friendly fight. UFC even highlights and determines who had the fight of the night and knockout of the night and so on. Boxing should start doing this too.

Many UFC superstars are where they are because they won the crowd over, not necessarily the fight that night. If you recall how Rocky originally became famous and loved, it was because he won over the crowd not the actual fight.

Yes, some of us do love a superior fighter who can gracefully outbox his opponent in such a clear clinic fashion, but we are not the majority of the masses out there. The masses want to be entertained!

9) Boxing must learn to make their commentators more 'new school' and real.

First off, the UFC has great commentators like Joe Rogan, who not only knows his stuff, but is also never a dull commentator. Plus, when you add the fact that he is an excellent comedian, you have the best possible type of commentator.

Boxing tends to have the more old-fashioned, conservative commentators who wear tuxedos and seem to follow their corporate-like script to a tee.

Sometimes, the fans prefer a Joe Rogan type, who is just plain REAL, which is more appealing to the key demographics. I remember when Joe Rogan was trying to hype up the Machida vs. Rua fight, he said, "Come on you LA douche bags, either come out or buy the PPV." 

This was funny, real and straight to the point, and I bet you by being this way, he got a lot more people to actually come out or buy the PPV that night.

10) Boxing must learn to adapt.

Look, this whole article can be summed up by this No. 10 pont, which is that boxing must learn how to adapt. Just as any great fighter must do when fighting a great opponent, you must learn to adapt.

It is now 2010, so boxing must acknowledge this. Due to the changing times, advanced technology and the rise of popularity of the UFC and MMA, boxing should take a look and see what they are doing and take what works or what can be improved and adapt it for boxing.

Just like when we love when a fighter who is getting killed in the beginning of a fight figures out what he is doing wrong and what he needs to do to come back strong and win the fight; that is what boxing needs to do. Just like when Floyd Mayweather may have trouble in the first round or two of his fight, he adapts and makes the changes necessary to school his opponents with ease by adapting and figuring out his opponent into a unanimous decision.

Boxing must understand who its key demographics are and capitalize on them in order to grab all the rest of the casual fans once again.

As a true fight fan, I love both MMA and Boxing. I think and hope they are both here to stay. They can coexist, just as long as the true fans keep supporting them and more importantly, the promoters keep giving the fans what we want, and that's a great fight.

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