HOME AND AWAY MARCUS DAVIS: Gavin Cummiskeytalks to a former Irish boxer about the rapid rise of the Ultimate Fighting Championship or MMA (Mixed Martial Arts)
"BOXING IS a dying sport. It's unfortunate and no one wants to hear that but it's not as entertaining (anymore). People are sick and tired. They are still watching the big fights. Sure, I mean everybody loves - like I do - watching Ricky Hatton or (Floyd) Mayweather fighting.
"But there are not enough Ricky Hattons or Mayweathers out there to sustain the sport."
Has it got too greedy?
"Ah, it is ridiculous," claims professional boxer-turned-UFC fighter, Marcus Davis, aka 'The Irish Hand Grenade'.
Earlier this year, veteran boxing scribe George Kimball's riveting book Four Kings hit bookshelves worldwide. It was an insight into a golden era of the sweet science when "Sugar" Ray Leonard, "Marvelous" Marvin Hagler, Roberto "No Mas" Duran and Thomas "The Hitman" Hearns duelled to become, pound-for-pound, the best boxer on the planet.
The names just rolled off your tongue.
That debate continues to rage to this day but Kimball's book merely removed the scab on a corpse. The body has long been identified as professional boxing.
The best you can see these days is has-beens like Roy Jones Jnr or Oscar De La Hoya showing up for another pay day.
Granted, a 43-year-old Bernard Hopkins shocked those who bothered to tune in when beating up the smaller, undefeated Kelly Pavlik last month. Not many people noticed because not many people have heard of the middleweight champion; that's Pavlik by the way.
Let's not even get started on the decrepit heavyweight division.
A resurrection is not out of the question but, like everything in life, boxing appears to be replaceable. Rising from the ashes of pay-per-view catastrophes is the UFC (Ultimate Fighting Championship), also known as MMA (Mixed Martial Arts).
Everyone has seen snippets, be it on television shows like Friends or Entourage, while names like Randy Couture and Chuck Liddell are slowly seeping into society's consciousness.
The Setanta Sports package, forced upon me by a Jiu-Jitsu -obsessed roommate (careful, this man is dangerous), constantly shows reruns of past fights and the hugely popular reality TV show The Ultimate Fighter - think Big Brother with a weekly fight to decide the evictee.
The UFC or MMA is basically what it says on the tin. There are former professional boxers like the "Irish Hand Grenade" Marcus Davis — whose grandfather Kenneth MacKinnon-Thayer hails from Waterford (think John Mullane after 25 years in the gym, scary I know) - and even a former member of the pantomime that is WWE. But after probably finishing off the legendary career of Couture recently, the gigantic Brock Lesnar is not to be sneered at.
That Ireland's own Wayne McCullough and Hatton are regular figures on the edge of the Octagon is hardly a ringing endorsement of their own trade.
"People have got a little sick of the fights," said Davis this week from his base in Bangor, Maine.
"In boxing you've got so many guys who end up getting to 30-0 and never getting really tested."
Like a few Irish boxers currently plying their trade? "Yeah. If you go and watch a live boxing card, before you sit down in that seat, you already know who is going to win or who is supposed to win because they are so miss-matched.
"People used to always pay to see Mike Tyson, even though they knew he was going to win, but they paid for it because he was just a freak.
"With UFC every single fight is competitive. There are no 'upsets' really. Anybody can beat anybody because there are too many variables. If someone is good with their hands, you got feet, you got knees, you got take downs. You got the clench. You've got elbows (a Davis speciality). There are too many weapons so anybody can beat anybody on any given day in mixed martial arts.
"Boxing has always been a sport passed down the generations. When I was a kid I would sit with my grandfather and watch Sugar Ray Leonard and Marvin Hagler fight. The next generation will be sitting there watching mixed martial arts. They are not going to watch boxing."
The UFC is coming to Dublin, at the formerly known Point Depot (now the O2 arena) on January 17th. Davis is currently in training for this "homecoming of sorts" against fellow veteran Chris Lytle.
Ever since the UFC went global, Davis has sought to fight abroad with his last five fights in England and one first-round knockout against Jason Tan in Belfast. For that fight the UFC changed his name to 'The Celtic Warrior', presumably to avoid creating unnecessary tension, but this incensed Davis due to his boxing knowledge.
"I didn't change it. The UFC made me use Stephen Collins's name, which I didn't like because that's him. I wouldn't want to steal his name.
"Not this time. This time I'm going to be the 'Irish Hand Grenade' or, I told them, I just want to be Marcus Davis."
Now 35, he only made his UFC debut in 2003 after a respectable 17-1-2 record as a super middleweight. Davis is quick to note his only loss came off a technical knockout after Ed Bryant opened a still troublesome cut above his eye back in 2000.
The switch into MMA proved a long, arduous process that saw him lose three of his first six fights as he struggled to keep the wrestlers and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu experts off the deck. Once on the ground he was pretty much screwed.
That has since changed. Winning 13 of his last 14 fights, he no longer requires his southpaw stance or vicious left hook to survive. He can take an opponent out with a guillotine choke, an armbar or an Achilles lock.
"Originally when I started, I tried to learn how not to go to ground and then once that didn't work out I started learning, if I did get taken down, how to get back on my feet without getting submitted. When that didn't work I got to the point where I understood if I was going to be a mixed martial artist I had to become one - not a boxer in a mixed martial art sport.
"I just buckled down and became totally obsessed with working on the ground. I didn't throw one punch for six months. When I came back and started fighting again, my manager and trainers (Mark DellaGrotte and the late Grand Master Seung O Choi) set me up with strikers so I would get comfortable taking them down to the ground and submitting them.
"The biggest thing about being able to learn quickly and pick that up is that you've got to be able to move on your back. For a striker, guys just learn how to throw punches and kicks. They don't really learn the footwork but this is key as it will put you where you need to be to throw the punch or kick or it can get you out of the way.
"Jiu-Jitsu is the same. On the ground you might be able to submit somebody or whatever or hold somebody down but if you are on your back you can't move fluently. You can't move yourself out of positions and be able to hold positions directly.
"It comes down to movement again. I learned how to become squirmy and move on my back."
Still consider it barbaric? Then stop reading. We're finished anyway. Make your own mind up when the latest craze to grip hold of both North and South America (it is huge in Brazil, Japan too) lands in Dublin in 2009.
What you need to know about the UFC
ACCORDING to Wikipedia: "The concept for a tournament to discover the world's best fighting style was the brainchild of Art Davie, a southern California-based advertising executive. Davie met Rorion Gracie in 1991 while researching martial arts for a marketing client. Gracie operated a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu school in Torrance, California and the Gracie family had a long history of vale-tudo matches - a precursor of mixed martial arts - in Brazil. Davie became Gracie's student."
Initially termed "human cockfighting" by Senator John McCain, the MMA title replaced 'no holds barred' as the sport regulated itself to become acceptable for primetime television. It is now available in 36 countries worldwide.
The UFC was initially flooded by street brawlers, the most famous Hall Of Famer being Ken Shamrock but the arrival of Jiu Jitsu experts like Anderson Silva ("The Spider") and wrestlers like Matt Hughes has seen it dramatically evolve.
The current rules for the Ultimate Fighting Championship were originally established by the New Jersey Athletic Control Board. There are now 31 fouls that can lead to disqualification.
Every round in UFC competition is five minutes in duration. Title matches have five such rounds, and non-title matches have three. There is a one minute rest period between rounds.
There are five weight divisions between 145 to 265 pounds. All fights take place in an octagonal caged enclosure, The Octagon.
The current heavyweight champion is former WWE wrestler Brock Lesnar, after he took the tile last month from the great, but 45-year-old, Randy "the Natural" Couture.
Touts on the Las Vegas strip were charging up to $1,000 for tickets into the MGM Garden Arena while the Ricky Hatton fight against Paulie Malignaggi a week later, at the same venue, was only a sell-out due to complimentary seating.
The UFC is owned and operated by Zuffa, LLC with headquarters in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Irish Olympic silver medallist in Barcelona, Belfast-born boxer Wayne McCullough, who has been based in Vegas for the past 16 years, is an official UFC ambassador.
