Last week, I was at a friend's house drinking beer and flipping through the channels, hoping to find something to satisfy our entertainment needs after the King of Queens rerun ended. We finally stumbled upon Spike TV, which was doing a two hour countdown to the latest UFC show from Germany with a countdown show of the best UFC knockouts.

     Now, we know I love boxing and I'll defend it to the end but at the same time, I can understand the UFC's growing popularity. Are there some things about it I wish they could do away with? You bet there are. But today, I'm going to give you a list of things that boxing can learn from the UFC.

 

1. Market these fights - It was only last week on CNN's website that I finally saw an advertisement for the Pacquiao/Margarito massacre-I mean, fight and aside from regular boxing websites I visit, that was it. I didn't see any commercials, any advertisements in newspapers, nothing.

On the other hand, I see ads for the UFC all the time on cable. It's nuts. Sometimes even a bit annoying; every other commercial is the one about the next pay-per-view. But the point is, if you don't go out of your way to promote a fight, then people aren't going to go out of their way to want to see it.

 

2. Location, location-Gee, another boxing PPV. I wonder if it's going to be in Vegas? If you told me I had five guesses for where the next big fight was going to be I would say, Las Vegas, Atlantic City, LA, New York and Texas. But UFC fights are going all over. Last week they were in Germany and there are talks that they might end up in Calgary some day.

This once again comes back to marketing. Bring the fights to the people. I mean, there is an arena in Detroit named after one of the greatest heavyweights ever and yet there are hardly any major boxing events that go on there. And if you have no idea what arena I'm talking about then please have somebody smack the stupid out of you.

 

3. Extra Incentive-Isn't it cool how the UFC gives cash bonuses for "Fight of the Night", "Knockout of the Night" and "Submission of the Night". Yeah...if boxing had something like that for knockouts...well Sergio Mora would be out of luck.

 

But that's something that I've never understood. Yes, I understand that the champion should be making more money than the challenger but at the same time, shouldn't the winner be getting some sort of bonus? After all, they did win. I don't know for sure, but I'm pretty sure Oscar de la Hoya made more money than Pacquiao when he agreed to be a human punching bag for the Filipino icon.

 

4. Make a Better Reality Show-You know, I'll be honest but I remember watching the first season of The Contender on NBC. And yeah, even back then when I was first getting into boxing, I thought it was incredibly cheesy. Sylvester Stallone there for...nostalgia, I guess. Sugar Ray Leonard there to amaze us with his blandness and the worst, fakest pre-fight press conferences ever. Note to reality TV producers: If you want to make your show seem less staged, no fake press conferences.

 

The Ultimate Fighter has none of that. It gets down to what the show is all about. A bunch of muscleheads, some of them idiots, on teams, living in a house, all hoping to beat the hell out of each other and land a contract that will change their lives and that of their family. Some of them don't like each other which adds tension to the fights, which means that the fight should be pretty damn interesting.

 

5. Give the People What They Want-If boxing was run the way UFC was, we wouldn't be talking about if Floyd Mayweather would ever face Manny Pacquiao; we'd already be talking about their upcoming rematch a few months from now. If there's a fight that the fans want, they usually get it. There are no painful negotiations where the most absurd demands are made. To put it simply: No bullsh-t.

 

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