Good SI article.
I was impressed by your skillfull syntactic jab of "temerity".

I think there was a small typo towards the end:

"But there's a distinct danger in allowing every big-name fighter become a promotion unto himself."

"to become a promotion"?

good point.

"I think they put it on uh, Versus, or...Spike TV, and uhh"

Mayweather you suck at acting.

It's safe to say Mayweather is a closet MMA fan and feels threatened by it. Im sure he saw WEC last week and was also there watching UFC Primetime with GSP getting a hard on wishing he could do sick takedowns and jiu jitsu.

"- Apparently there's some big boxing match this weekend."

Really? Who's fighting?

@ArmFarmer: Very well said, sir. I'd like to add to that the problem of douchebags like Mayweather, Arum, and Toney. They are either blithering idiots, attention whores, or both. They're not doing much of anything aside from making sure that we click on links to news stories that keep them relevant. I'm tired of their nonsense. Unless the next story with one of these fuckwits in it has a title like "Mayweather beaten unconscious by gay circus midgets before being used as an elephant shit broom," I'm going to ignore them altogether.

I've enjoyed watching boxing, and while I believe that MMA is far superior as a sport, I'm not going to get on a soapbox and take a big greasy shit on boxing and anyone who follows boxing regularly. That's just plain fucking retarded.

To be sure, any sport is going to have morons shooting their mouths off and acting like idiots. Melodrama is an unfortunate part of any sport, and Mayweather would do well to act more like a REAL gentleman like Sugar Ray Leonard. Behaving like Mayweather or Tito is bad for their respective sports.

I agree they are both unique and should both be respected for what they are, and I don't agree with all the trash talking that happens, but I just never understood the apples to oranges thing.

Dammit ArmFarmer... good point.

You know I really don't understand why every time boxing vs mma comes up, someone always says something like "can we please quit this debate, it's pointless to compare the two because they are two different sports it's apples to oranges". Why can't two different animals be compared? What's the point of comparing a bear to a bear.. or an apple to an apple.. how the fuck do you have a discussion about that. In order to compare two things and have a discussion it's pretty much essential that they be different. Comparing a bear to a lion offers plenty of discussion, comparing a bear to a bear.. not much to talk about.

The boxing and mma discussions are fine. They aren't two completely unrelated things, and to act like they are is rediculous. They are both combat sports, they both share many of the same techniques, it's common for competitors in each to migrate to the other.. I really never understood why it's so wrong to compare them. Yes, the debates get ugly when immature or ignorant members from either side start trash talking but that's the internet for you. The fact of the matter is comparing the two makes perfect sense.

Rearnakedpoke.... Not all boxers run their mouth.... don't just generalize. Mayweather is like a tougher Tito Ortiz of the boxing world so just because he said something doesn't make it so. The money statement is true.... I love both sports but if I could make 20 million or 20 thousand guess where my pride is? OUT the freakin window... I'm going with 20 million. That doesn't mean they would win or lose... it just means it isn't worth the try. As said a million times, two different animals can't be compared.

and in other news, war machine is trying to sell his organs over ebay.
seriously, check his twitter.

Hey Fowlkes,

Good SI article. Amen.

Listening to Mayweather's brainfarts is like getting running shoe recommendations from Stephen Hawking.

"Dont hate on Ubereem. He will smash any man, woman or child put before him."

who cares what boxers think? they run their mouth about how they could destroy all of the fighters in MMA but because of money they wont? well if i was at the top of the "boxing" world and thought i could beat any MMA talent...i would go prove it instead of running my mouth and hiding behind the skirt of boxing. yea they may win "boxing or stand up" but it is MMA...im a 4 time golden gloves boxer from the early 90's but MMA is a whole other world to me when i started. in 10years...boxing will fade away...MMA IS the future....IMO

Context is for suckers who want to find a reason not to blindly hate.