Mixed Martial Arts and boxing are different sports, comparable only in the fact that they’re both categorized as prize-fighting.

Hold on. Before you kick Capt. Obvious in his blatant ass, consider that his statement is needed, occasionally, as a simple reminder.

Fight fans, after all, are fond of putting the two sports side by side, looking for firm examples of how one trumps the other in necessary skill, entertainment value, superiority of athletes, etc.

Such conversations will forever end in draws.

Rather than clarifying a pecking order between MMA and boxing, the stark illustrations we receive for these discussions only pound home the explicit contrasts between them, such as the events that played out Saturday night in Las Vegas and Germany. Diego Sanchez, Clay Guida and Wladimir Klitschko made the points.

In Sin City, “The Ultimate Fighter” Finale 9 gave us, among several thrills, the super-charged main event between lightweights Sanchez and Guida.

From the moment the two met in the center of the Octagon for instructions, viewers experienced a spike in testosterone. Once they were released, a storm of activity ensued, with Sanchez looking to assert himself as a new contender in the weight class and Guida looking to use his unmatched stamina to grind out another fan-friendly resume-builder.
In the first round, Sanchez scowled, initiated and connected.

On everything.

Guida got knocked every which way but out, at one point eating the kind of nightmarish leg kick that leads to appearances on “Ultimate Knockouts.”

However, in addition to sporting a caveman hairdo, Guida’s head is apparently quite hard. Somehow, "The Carpenter" recuperated, retaliated and outwrestled Sanchez in a successful second round.

The third round was a battle of strategy. Guida needed a takedown and top control to clinch the decision. With under two minutes left, he got the former, but couldn’t complete the latter, as Sanchez worked for submissions from his back that rightfully swayed the judges and earned him a split decision.

The match could serve as a study in MMA’s appeal. Two men — small men, at that — put on a display that enthralled the audience. It encapsulated the reasons for MMA’s rise in popularity during this attention-deficit, Video Game Age: Bursts of action, intensity and versatility all wrapped in a neat, little, 15-minute package.

Meanwhile, in Germany, Klitschko provided a nutshell performance of his own. The 6-foot-6 Russian gained another heavyweight boxing belt (Ring Magazine) with a technical gem against Ruslan Chagaev, another completely overmatched challenger.

What Klitschko’s performance lacked in glitz was made up for with utter dominance. The fight was stopped by the referee before the 10th round.

It was kind of a drawn-out affair that went as scripted by boxing gurus. Klitschko cruised to another win and maintained his relative anonymity despite holding a title — heavyweight champion — that once was the most prestigious in all of sports.

Klitschko, through no fault of his own, exemplifies the reasons boxing has staggered off the map: He isn’t American. His best tool on Saturday was a jab. He doesn’t sizzle. He has little in the way of threatening competition.

He is a terrific boxer who happens to reign during a time when the sport has exited our consciousness, thanks to this attention-deficit, Video Game Age and the rise of another prize-fighting option.

MMA, in the form of the Ultimate Fighting Championship, probably came along at just the right time in 1993. Mike Tyson was in jail, his brutal knockouts a memory.