UFC vs. Boxing Review - DECEMBER
Updated Monthly
By Joe Harrison
01-04-10
THE 2009 WINNER
Year 2009 certainly had its ups and downs for both the UFC and boxing. Brock Lesnar continued his rise with the destruction of Frank Mir at UFC 100 last July, but was suddenly sidelined with an intestinal infection, or possibly with mono depending on the source. In boxing, Manny Pacquiao set himself up for a bout with Floyd Mayweather Jr. after defeating Ricky Hatton and Miguel Cotto, but quickly found himself in limbo due to a disagreement with the type of drug testing that would be required for the mega bout.
Problems aside, let’s take a look at the final month of the year before we get to the winner of 2009.
At UFC 107, BJ Penn once again impressed MMA fans everywhere with his one-sided beating of Diego Sanchez. Also, Kenny Florian stopped Clay Guida and Jon Fitch decisioned Mike Pierce. Plus, Frank Mir destroyed Cheick Kongo inside one round. Overall, these may have been the highlights of the month in the world of fighting. Otherwise, there was another major UFC event earlier in the month.
The highly anticipated Ultimate Fighter Season 10 Finale featured Roy Nelson stopping Brendan Schaub in the first round. Also on the card, Kimbo Slice won by decision over Houston Alexander, and Frankie Edgar stopped Matt Veach in the second round.
In boxing, there were some intriguing match-ups such as Vitali Klitschko vs. Kevin Johnson, Paul Williams vs. Sergio Martinez and the Paulie Malignaggi-Juan Diaz rematch, but only two of the bouts provided real fireworks. Malignaggi and Diaz went to war as they exchanged frequently in a back and forth affair. Malignaggi came out victorious with a well-earned decision. In the Williams-Martinez bout, Williams surprisingly had much difficulty with his opponent. Martinez landed many clean punches as each man attempted to gain the upper hand through twelve exciting rounds. In the end, Williams got the nod, but many viewers had their doubts. On the other hand, in the Klitschko bout, Vitali failed to stop his over-matched opponent through twelve lop-sided rounds, making for a very dull scrap.
In addition, Roy Jones Jr. suffered a 1st-round stoppage against Danny Green while Bernard Hopkins won by a unanimous decision against Enrique Ornelas. Also, Timothy Bradley scored an easy decision over Lamont Peterson as Vic Darchinyan knocked out Tomas Rojas in the 2nd round. Plus, Kelly Pavlik scored a 5th-round stoppage over Miguel Espino while Humberto Soto won by decision over Jesus Chavez. Plus, Edwin Valero TKO’d Hector Velasquez in the 6th round.
So who had the better year, the UFC or boxing?
Overall, through twelve months, it appears that the UFC had the better year, winning at least 6 months while boxing was better in four and two months seemed about even.
The UFC took the first two months with quality cards involving fights such as St. Pierre-Penn and Sanchez-Stevenson. Naturally, with fights like Franklin-Silva, Lesnar-Mir and Penn-Florian, the UFC had the most popular events in June, July and August. As it was shown earlier, December was another great month for the UFC.
Boxing had the month of May with the Pacquiao-Hatton bout, September with Mayweather-Marquez, and November with Pacquiao-Cotto.
March and April were a little tougher to determine who had the better month. While the UFC provided great match-ups in Jackson-Jardine and Silva-Leitas, there were some impressive boxing matches featured on ESPN such as Chambers-Peter and Klitschko-Gomez. The momentum continued with more intriguing match-ups like Williams-Wright, Bradley-Holt and Froch-Taylor.
As we are now in 2010, the month of January is looking to have some interesting events. The UFC will rely on Rashad Evans vs. Thiago Silva for a big start in the new year. Also, UFC Fight Night takes place on January 11th on Spike featuring Nate Diaz vs. Gray Maynard.
In boxing, ESPN Friday Night Fights returns January 8th with Roman Karmazin vs. Dionisio Miranda. On January 23rd, on HBO, a doubleheader will take place featuring Juan Manuel Lopez and Yuriorkis Gamboa in separate bouts. A week later, also on HBO, Shane Mosley and Andre Berto will square off in a welterweight unification bout.
As always, you can go to www.konews.net for updates, reviews, and of course, the KOnews.net fight schedule on the home page.
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Some fight fans do not like to hear anything about a rivalry between the sports of MMA and boxing or even the UFC and boxing. These fans will say that you can be a fan of both or neither, and that they are totally different, hence making either comparison illogical.
Former Strikeforce middleweight champion Jake Shields will make his debut in the Ultimate Fighting Championship at UFC 121 on October 23rd. 
This Saturday, WBC junior flyweight champion Omar Nino Romero will defend his title against Ronald Barrera (27-7-2, 17 KOs). 
Bernard Hopkins has confirmed through a variety of sources that he will challenge WBC/IBO light heavyweight champion Jean Pascal on December 18 in Montreal, Canada. 
The World Boxing Organization (WBO) featherweight championship fight between undefeated titlist Juan Manuel “JuanMa” Lopez, of Caguas, Puerto Rico, and Rafael Marquez, of México City has been rescheduled for Saturday, Nov. 6, 
In the main event of UFC 118, lightweight champion Frankie Edgar defeated former champion BJ Penn for a second time by a unanimous decision. 
On Saturday night, at the Coliseo Mario “Quijote” Morales in Guaynabo, Puerto RicoIn, WBA jr. flyweight champion Giovanni Segura knocked out WBO champion Ivan Calderon to become the unified world champion. 
Bellator Fighting Championships officially announced that the promotion will bring the first Nationally televised, sanctioned MMA event to Wisconsin with Bellator 29, taking place in Milwaukee from the historic Rave-Eagles Ballroom on Sept. 26th. 
This Saturday, one of the most popular fighters in UFC history, Randy Couture, will face former boxing champion, James Toney, who will be making his MMA debut. 
Kimbo Slice (
COPENHAGEN, Denmark – Team Sauerland regrets to inform the boxing worldthat WBC Super Middleweight Champion 
CHICAGO, IL - 8 Count Productions, 
The STRIKEFORCE men’s and women’s Welterweight World Champions Nick Diaz (170-pounds) and Sarah Kaufman (135-pounds) will return to the cage on Saturday, Oct. 9 at HP Pavilion in San Jose, LIVE on SHOWTIME® (10 p.m. ET/PT, delayed on the west coast). 
Passaic, NJ (August 23, 2010) - Junior middleweight prospect Glen Tapia of Passaic, NJ hopes to continue his unbeaten ways as he faces Brazilian journeyman Edvan Dos Santos Barros on September 11 at the Palms Casino Resort in Las Vegas, Nevada. 
On Saturday night, at the Prudential Center in Newark, NJ, former light heavyweight and cruiserweight champion Tomasz Adamek earned a twelve-round unanimous decision over heavyweight Michael Grant. 
At UFC on Versus 2, Jon Jones stopped Vladimir Matyushenko just 1:52 into the first round. 
This Saturday, former lightweight champion Juan Diaz will take on world lightweight champion Juan Manuel Marquez (50-5-1, 37 KOs). 
Bob Arum of Top Rank revealed on Saturday night that pound-for-pound king Manny Pacquiao will fight Antonio Margarito in a junior middleweight bout on November 13th. 
At the Tachi Palace Hotel & Casino in Lemoore, CA on Friday night, WBA light heavyweight champion Beibut Shumenov defeated Vyacheslav Uzelkov by a one-sided twelve-round unanimous decision. 
For the first-time ever, Indianapolis will get a taste of the Ultimate Fighting Championship®. Former UFC® heavyweight champion Frank Mir and former interim UFC heavyweight champion and mixed martial arts legend Minotauro Nogueira will mix it up for an encore performance on Saturday, September 25 at UFC 119: MIR VS. NOGUEIRA 2, 
On Saturday night, WBO jr welterweight champion Timothy Bradley moved up to welterweight and defeated Luis Carlos Abregu by a twelve-round unaimous decision at the Agua Caliente Resort Rancho Mirage, California. 
Fernando Guerrero furthered his pursuit of middleweight stardom with a hard fought unanimous decision over veteran Ishe Smith in Friday’s ShoBox main event. Shawn Porter and Mike Dallas Jr. also took home unanimous decision victories at the DeSoto Civic Center in Southaven, Miss. to remain unbeaten. 
