Michael Bisping claps back after Eddie Hearn downplays MMA

Michael Bisping has taken umbrage with Eddie Hearn after the boxing promoter called MMA boxing's 'poor relative' in an interview earlier this week.

Hearn told Ariel Helwani he couldn't name six UFC superstars and that boxing was leading the narrative in combat sports.

Bisping vehemently disagrees...

Michael Bisping slams Eddie Hearn over MMA comments

Bisping fired back at Hearn on his Youtube channel. 'The Count' sprinkled in some shade toward Ariel Helwani by referring to him as 'The MMA Guy.'

"You would have thought maybe the MMA guy [Ariel Helwani] would have said, 'Hold on, let me educate you,'" Bisping remarked. ". . . [Boxing] is not controlling the narrative, and it is not being searched way more by all the kids on social media...

"[...] It's a 'poor relative' . . . [Boxing] has literally been around for hundreds of years, it is an Olympic sport. . . MMA has only been around for thirty or so years. . ."

Truthfully, MMA was introduced into the Greek Olympic Games in 648 BC, then known as Pankration. Boxing at the Olympics predates Pankration (MMA) by forty years, but perhaps due to the violent nature, pugilism caught more mainstream appeal later on.

". . . It's a 'little bit tired,'" Bisping quotes Hearn. "Let's be honest, what are you talking about? The production levels at a UFC event compared to an average boxing event; it's day and night, and the focus is on the fight."

Pacing and overproduction in boxing are some of the largest complaints about boxing, but the silver lining is that they are a product of boxers having more leverage than professional MMA/UFC fighters. The UFC especially restricts fighters from wearing their own sponsored gear and discourages flashy walkouts.

UFC will get its chance at redemption in some form or another when Dana White launches his TKO boxing in tandem with Saudi Arabia.

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