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“UFC Has Hurt Boxing a Lot”- After Dana White’s Take on Floyd Mayweather, Manny Pacquiao, and Oscar de la Hoya, Donald Trump Makes Massive Claim on the Two Combat Sports

Published 07/24/2023, 4:15 PM EDT

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The Boxing vs. UFC debate is a perennial one in combat sports, which has been going on since the sport started gaining popularity around two decades ago. Initially, the promotion was dismissed as too crude and violent—“human cockfighting,” as one senator described it. 

But, the sport has become increasingly popular and become a respectable, mainstream sport, perhaps more popular in the United States than boxing, which has not had any stars over the past two decades who have the popularity and recognition of a Conor McGregor or a Ronda Rousey.

Former President and current presidential candidate Donald Trump was joined by one of the few men to beat Georges St-Pierre, Matt Serra, and comedian Jim Norton to discuss the effect the UFC has had on boxing and had some interesting things to say on the subject. 

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Donald Trump talks UFC’s effect on Boxing

Trump joined the hosts on the UFC Uncensored show on Youtube for a chat. During their talk, Trump remarked that the UFC had hurt boxing a lot, as boxing matches, except the biggest ones, do not have the same draw as a UFC event. 

“It’s an interesting business. I think the UFC has hurt boxing a lot, yeah. But, when you have a big boxing match, it still does great, a big one, because the medium matches, the smaller matches, I don’t think they’re very exciting anymore. I don’t think they do very well anymore, but I notice when there is a good match. When you have a big match and a good match, they do pretty well,” Trump remarked.

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Interestingly, this echoed something that Dana White had talked about previously. In an interview with Youtuber Grant Cardonethe UFC boss talked about how he saw the decline of boxing in the nineties and two thousands, with Floyd Mayweather, Manny Pacquiao, and Oscar De La Hoya being the last superstars of boxing.

“I saw it started to fall apart at the amateur level… All the big amateur box-offs were on NBC. NBC had just gotten rid of them… The last guy to fight on NBC was Floyd Mayweather,” White said. “When you really look at it, it was Floyd and Oscar and a couple of other Big Stuff Manny Pacquiao were the last of the real big stars of boxing,” he added.

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Donald Trump has put into words something that fight fans have been observing for the past two decades. The slow decline of boxing and the steady rise of UFC has been the norm since. And the trend only seems to be continuing. What do you think about Donald Trump’s views on the UFC hurting boxing? Tell us in the comment section below.

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Written by:

Kanishk Thakur

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Kanishk Thakur is an MMA writer at EssentiallySports. A graduate in political science from Delhi University, his love for writing and MMA made him want to be part of telling the story of the sport. His journalist mother and love for philosophy and research inculcated a staunch rationalism in him, and the need to substantiate every statement he makes with good evidence.
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Edited by:

Anuj Jacob