I find boxing boring. 12 three-minute rounds? To *maybe* see someone get their bell rung? Bo-ring.
MMA is much more dynamic and exciting.
The one thing that I do find fascinating, however, is the difference in payouts. You get a big fight like a Pacquiao/Mayweather, where Mayweather will pocket $100 million and Pacquiao will walk (stumble?) away with $60 million. Regardless of the outcome. It doesn't matter who wins; their payouts have already been decided. Kind of takes away a bit of the drama, doesn't it?
But my point is, while that's a big purse, it's not unfathomable for boxing. Even back in the 80's and 90's, the main event fighters were being paid in the tens of millions of dollars. Contrast that with UFC, which is vastly more popular now than boxing ever was. In Febraury, Anderson Silva fought Nick Diaz and one of the most highly-anticipated fights in recent memory. Silva, a polarizing and entertaining fighter, was coming back from a devastating leg injury. Everyone wanted to know if he still had what it took to dominate the UFC's middleweight division. They were the main event of UFC 183.
Silva was paid $800,000.
Now, that sounds like a lot. But he's a bonafide superstar, and this was the main fight of the event. A boxing superstar in a similar fight would've been paid tens of millions.
So who's keeping all that money? If Silva didn't even get a million, what are the undercard fighters paid?
In other news, Dana White's net worth is $300 million.