Bob Arum, famed boxing promoter and MMA hater, recently expressed some of his views on, MMA and the impact that the Pavlik-Taylor fight will have on it's future. Check out the following comments from Arum speaking about Kelly Pavlik according to boxingscene.com:

"The way he fights. People love to see his fights, the heart that he shows. The whole package. He's very articulate and he comes from an area that has been depressed and it's going to be elevated I think because of him," Arum said. "I just think that he's going to revive boxing in the Midwest and it's going to spread to the rest of the country. I'll tell you, this was the biggest blow to the UFC since the sort of competition began because all the young kids are going to come back to boxing. There is nothing in UFC or any of this martial arts bullsh*t that compares to this."

It appears obvious that Arum feels extremely threatened by the rise of MMA and the corresponding drop in the popularity of boxing. While there is room in America for both sports, the air of desperation in Arums comments and the fact that he mentions MMA at all, seems very telling of the state of both sports. MMA has surpassed boxing in popularity and boxing is trying to catch up.