Washed up UFC fighters keep pursuing lucrative boxing matches

I've kind of given up at this point of expecting anything good out of the fighting world because it has just become all too common. Guys we haven't thought about in a long time find out that there is a ton of money in boxing events and since most of them are broke or worth very little money after years (sometimes decades) of MMA, they look to use what little remains of their good name to make a quick million or two.

I guess I understand the financial incentives but none of these fights have been any good and in my mind, it destroys the legacy and memories of fighters that I have enjoyed over the past 15 years or so.

Add "Rampage" Jackson and Wanderlei Silva to the list of people that are chomping at the bit to make money while also making themselves look like fools in a boxing ring.

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If you were one of the few people that bothered to watch Anderson Silva's farewell boxing match in Brazil vs. Chael Sonnen, I feel sorry for you and you need to find other outlets and activities in life. I watched the highlights only and that must have been very difficult for them to actually make a highlight reel because it was a bunch of circling and sizing up your opponent for the most part. Very few actual punches were landed by either guy and as expected, it ended in a wonderfully exciting draw.

I am all of a sudden reminded of another fight that was tremendously more exciting than this, or almost any of these washed-up MMA fighter boxing matches.

at one point in that song they lyrics go like this "circling and circling and circling and circling and circling some more... circling and circling and circling still circling... checking out your opponent."

That's basically the entire Silva vs Sonnen fight. If you use your imagination to picture the fight it is actually considerably more entertaining than watching the actual boxing match.

The thing is, with these rubbish boxing matches, the fighters make a LOT more than they would have made from a UFC event even when they were in their prime and it all just doesn't make much sense to me.

Hall of Famers Wanderlei Silva and Rampage Jackson were quick to strike while the iron is hot and both of them have started to call out Chael Sonnen probably because they know he will do all the legwork to promote the event because he has a massive following on social media.

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Let's keep in mind that all of the guys in the equation are nearly 50 years old and many of them have stopped training and end up like most people near 50 do and that is a bit fat and unable to fight for 15 minutes in a row. Forget about 12 rounds, these guys line up for 3-5 round matches, often with heavier gloves to limit potential damage, and also shorter rounds to allow for maximum relaxation time in the round breaks that are 3 times as long as they would be in a real boxing match.

None of these guys want to fight actual boxers and I can't help but feel as though they are simply creating a side show in order to maybe get a shot at Jake Paul's domination of the retirement home.

It isn't just the truly forgotten MMA fighters that want a piece of the action though, we have Nate Diaz and Jorge Masvidal who are going to do 10 rounds in boxing in just a few hours. I wouldn't hold your breath on this being much more exciting than the aforementioned fighters, maybe just a bit. This is simply to help both of these guys break in their various promotions that don't stand a chance in hell of competing with actual promotions and while the two might pretend to hate one another, they really just enjoy making money and I guess I can't hold that against them.

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In my mind the only good thing that can really come out of all of this is to reopen the debate on UFC pay to fighters, which is something that a lot of people have rightfully been complaining about for quite some time. Despite the fact that I think he is one of the biggest douchebags on the planet, we have Jake Paul to thank for exposing a lot of this and bringing it to light. Dana White rarely talks about it, but there is no denying that UFC keeps most of the money that they bring in with events. Kudos to them for building a dynasty that the actual participants have almost no choice but to participate in it because the paydays are even smaller in lower promotions unless you are pretty like Paige Vanzant and don't mind getting absolutely slobberknocked in a bare-knuckle fight.

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She scored a cool $1 million from that one fight and then it was straight back to her OnlyFans where she gets her tits out and makes a ton of money or something. I don't know. I haven't bothered to look.

I'm frustrated I guess, because there was a time not that long ago that combat sports were actually about who the best fighters were and were going to put on the best show. These days it seems like fights are determined almost entirely by who can create the most hype even though time and time again the fights are dead-ass boring and stupid. Yet the masses just continue to line up to pay extortionate prices for the pay-per-views.

My hope is that since everyone is jumping on this bandwagon that the people will soon realize that none of these fights are actually good and the jig will be up and it will fade away. Maybe then we can get back to having the actual best fighters in the world have an actual fight with one another. I reckon it will take a year or two