(AUG 24) Watching a tape of the recent Strike Force MMA bout between Gina Carano and Cristiane Santos (nee Cyborg), I was reminded of a soccer game. I don't really understand soccer, either. I'm sure soccer players and female MMA fighters are gifted athletes and their sports require a good deal of skill, but when announcers talk of "game plans" and "strategy," I'm at a loss, particularly with MMA; it only recalls, for me, long ago, 4 AM "last calls" and parking lots behind gin mills. But just as I know there is much more to soccer than ninety minutes of running, kicking and very little scoring, I also know there has to be more to MMA than kicking, gouging, hitting your opponent when their back is turned or when they're flat on the ring surface. I just don't get it and that's, probably, on me.

What I did get as I watched the Carano/Santos tape is why the MMA, as a sport, is making progress, from the near obscurity and disdain the sport engendered only a few years ago: MMA has leadership, it has disciplined leadership whose goal is to continue to build the sport through a clearly defined communication plan. Go back and watch the Carano/Santos tape and notice how often the fighters, the trainers, even the announcers talk, generically, about the sport, about the athleticism of the athletes, the training discipline they endure and, in general, sell the sport of mixed martial arts. This is not done haphazardly, it is done with the discipline and direction often associated with a well oiled political machine. And that leadership and that communication plan has been effective in propelling MMA to it's current, improved position on the food chain of ring sports. It is exactly what the sport of Women's boxing needs, and at present does not have: a communication process that extols the sport and it's athletes. At present, there exists only sporadic news of the sport which consists, largely, of material about individual fighters or bouts. While that is fine in a news gathering sense, it conveys little about a sport that has not only survived, viably, for over two decades but has increased the number of talented boxers in it's ranks by quantum leaps. But the fact is that if Women's boxing is to remain a productive sport, in the face of competition such as MMA, the sport has to do a much better job of selling itself, not only individual boxers, not only the rare, high profile bout, but the sport itself and the skill level within that sport that those two decades ago, would have been dismissed as wishful thinking. That's the message that Women's boxing must get across to the mainstream sports fan and, at this point in time, Women's boxing lacks a primary ingredient for accomplishing that task: leadership. Women's boxing has none.

Make no mistake, the top level athletes who populate the sport of Women's boxing are every bit as talented in their sport as Gina Carano and Cris Santos, probably more so. However, the sport of Women's boxing lags far behind when it comes to generic support, from within the sport. There is a distinct lack of communication about the skill, ability, training, discipline and dedication it takes to compete at the highest level of female boxing. Listen to Women's boxing interviews, read the pr releases, endure the innane "call outs," each seems to concentrate on the self interested agenda of a manager, trainer, sanctioning body or boxer who is doing the talking or issuing the press release. While there is certainly a surfeit of that kind of publicity in the MMA, it is, almost always, accompanied by at least a fair share of words and pictures talking up the virtues of the mixed martial arts sport, generically selling the sport at every possible opportunity. Women's boxing has to begin doing more of that type of promoting. The sport is stocked with talented professional female boxers as never before in history. And yet, a "civilian" asked me the other day, "when is Laila Ali's next fight." Laila Ali is gone and she's probably not coming back. The other "well known face" of the sport, Christy Martin, is on her "farewell tour," seeking a fifty win plateau. The names of Ali and Martin and their careers in Women's boxing continue to be recognized, rightfully so, but, in reality, the sport cannot count on nostalgia to sell female boxing in the face of, present day, increased competition from the likes of MMA. The fact is, by comparison, the sport of Women's boxing has more skilled boxers and talent, than existed during the best days of Ali and certainly the early days of Martin. But that fact has not reached the sports fan, it has not even reached some boxing fans. The sport of Women's boxing, throughout it's modern existence, has never, effectively, sold the sport as a compelling competition between two highly skilled athletes. MMA is doing exactly that now and, as a result, continues to pose an increasingly larger threat to Women's boxing, a sport I feel is far superior.

Can Women's boxing be successfully sold on a generic basis? One answer, of course, is the 2012 Olympics. Dr. Chiang-Kuo Wu sold the previously ignored sport of amateur female boxing to the Olympic committee based on the increasing level of skill in the sport and the burgeoning number of talented amateur female fighters around the globe. This was, virtually, an unknown element, certainly to those who were making Olympic inclusion decisions until the selling job Dr. Wu and his team accomplished, based solely on the appeal of the sport. There were no "famous" names for Dr. Wu to talk about only the skill of the amateur fighters around the world and the compatibility of those fighters and their sport to the Olympics . In this country, Bonnie Canino, whose name belongs in the lead graph of any story of US amateur female boxing, continues to grow her gold standard program in Florida without the aid of big name boxers. Canino, rather, sells the sport and the athletes based on the skill displayed in the ring and the excitement that skill engenders. It's exactly the type of selling job the sport of Women's boxing, on a professional level, needs to initiate. The sport and it's athletes need to be sold as an attraction, not just separately as boxers, or personalities but as a sport that combines all the elements that appeal to an ever younger, ever growing base of sports fan. Then and only then can the sport hope to regain the type of niche in the television landscape that it once enjoyed, a niche currently occupied by MMA.

Who's going to sell Women's boxing? It would be comfortable to envision a utopian concept, whereby a consortium of managers, former fighters, trainers, commission officials, sanctioning body personnel and others in the female "boxing community" come together to jointly conceptualize and lead such an effort. In reality, putting together such a diverse group of strong willed personalities such as these, all with different agendas and ideas as to what the future of the sport of Women's boxing needs to be successful is probably fanciful, at best. It seems obvious, to me, if any group is in a position to sell the sport of Women's boxing, it is the sport's sanctioning bodies. They are, by their nature, in competition with each other, they have varying levels of personnel and resources, but they have one thing in common, their future success depends on the success of the sport of Women's boxing. If, as is entirely possible, these groups cannot come together in any kind of joint effort, the alternative would be for each Women's boxing sanctioning body, at the very least, to allocate some time, effort and, yes, resources to selling the sport, along with their individual bouts, championship belts and programs. The MMA, as a sport, is doing it and doing it well. Women's boxing has to begin to match that competition, selling point for selling point.

Nearly fifty years ago, a good man implored his fellow citizens to "ask not" what their country could do for them, and urged them, instead, to look beyond individual agendas and contribute to the betterment of the whole. A paraphrase of his words might have application, today, to everyone with a vested interest in the future betterment of the sport of Women's boxing, "....ask what you can do for the sport."

Bernie McCoy