Floyd Mayweather vs Conor McGregor Event An Evolutionary Innovation in Combat Sports

First, I would like to define Innovation based on Google.

Evolutionary innovations (continuous or dynamic evolutionary innovation) that are brought about by many incremental advances in technology or processes and revolutionary innovations (also called discontinuous innovations) which are often disruptive and new.

I also just want to briefly talk about the first recorded boxing event.

On 6 January 1681, the first recorded boxing match took place in Britain when Christopher Monck, 2nd Duke of Albemarle (and later Lieutenant Governor of Jamaica) engineered a bout between his butler and his butcher with the latter winning the prize. Early fighting had no written rules.

Actually, it could even be earlier as the ancient Greeks believed that the gods on Olympus play fist fighting and became part of Olympic Games in about 688 BC.

MMA, was the same thing. In Ancient Greece, there was a sport called pankration, which featured a combination of grappling and striking skills similar to those found in modern MMA. Pankration was formed by a combination of the already established wrestling and boxing traditions and, in Olympic terms, first featured in the 33rd Olympiad, 648 B.C.

That's a brief history lesson for you.

Fast forward today, these sports have evolved into what we call today modern boxing and MMA. Boxing has surfaced and had emerged to be combat sports of choice but MMA has caught up and has become the fastest growing sports in the world and for the simple reason that the people who were doing it are more flexible, technology savvy and probably open minded to change (I'm not saying boxing is not).

Yes, I am calling Dana White an innovator. He is one of the many people responsible for making MMA what it is today. I am also calling everyone that is part of the Floyd and Conor event genius and courageous. Even with all the backlash from the boxing community, they made it happen!

They answered to the call of the fans and delivered in a timely manner. Boxing of today is mostly unable to do that and has mostly procrastinated to the call of the fans. While Boxing is still the top combat sports in the world, MMA is slowly catching up.

People need to realize that the world has changed and that the fans of today are different. Everything has evolved. What you are eating, watching and using has changed to whatever the demand of today's hi-technology market. Those who failed to evolve will be left behind.

Boxing has done that but MMA is doing it faster. Although there are a lot of good boxing matchups, recently and on schedule, the boxing and MMA community still clamored for the Floyd and McGregor show.

Boxing purist and some people on the boxing community were against this, one of them is Oscar Dela Hoya who publicly denounced and has called the boxing communities to boycott the fight.

According to Dana White, however,  Oscar was merely sour graping because Conor chose to fight Floyd instead of Canelo who is under his promotion.

Anyway, the point here is that the sport is alive because of the paying fans and while the fans doesn't know everything about the sport, we all have got to remember that it is the biggest lifeline of any sports and is the main reason why the sport is alive, as well as why media, sponsors, and other partners are supporting the events. Do you think these giant companies would shell out millions for a fight that no one will watch?

It's a money fight, and Conor McGregor vs Floyd Mayweather is literally that and if the fans want to see that fight they should get it.  Yes, I know that it may not be as competitive as the casual fans think it will be but it is what they want and they are willing to pay for it.

Personally, I also believe that this would be far from being competitive as Floyd has been boxing for years and Conor has not. Floyd is one of the best defensive fighters and I know that he will use that skill against Conor McGregor who would realize that boxing is an entirely different animal than MMA. He probably needs to grab and take down Floyd to get a hold of him, unfortunately though he cannot do so because this is a boxing match.

Yes, Conor is a great MMA fighter and it will be a different story if they would meet in the cage.

We have seen boxers fight inside an MMA cage and now an MMA fighter battle in the boxing ring. Not that it has not been done before, but this is the first time someone will do it in this magnitude. In a way, these two fighters will be credited for innovating and disrupting the sport.  After a few more years, this type of event could become a norm. Fans will continue to call for dream fights like this and promoters should answer to the call. 

Floyd Mayweather vs Conor McGregor Event An Evolutionary Innovations Needed

A long time ago, Alexander Graham Bell was credited with inventing the telephone but the fact of the matter is, it wasn't just him who made it all possible.  The phone that he created then isn't exactly a part of our daily life nowadays, even the early mobile phones have been obsolete with the new modern smart phone.

There a lot of examples of how things have evolved to the call of the people.

When someone puts an ice cream on top of a soda, that was odd to start with, right? When you see young businessmen wear sneakers with their tie and coat while he is the CEO of the company. When Facebook put almost everything else you need in just one app that most people would think it's crazy but in fact, these people are just innovating and it's disrupting the traditional ways or business., improving the ways. 

Remember when Pacquiao fought Dela Hoya and everyone thought it was crazy because Oscar is too big? Hadn't they gotten a surprise of their lifetime?

The fact that you are still listening that means only one thing. You know I have a point.

Let's not talk about whether the fight will be good or not, because I know you will still watch it, regardless. It has the potential to surprise, too. Let's rather discuss how this event could change the course of combat sports.

What do you think?