First World Heavyweight boxing champion - John L Sullivan 1892

First $1m boxing bout - 1921 Dempsey v Carpentier (what would that be the equivalent to nowadays?)

A gap of 30 yrs between the first champion and the first $1m dollar bout, apprx 100 years ago.

MT in the UK started in 1978 going by the above, 30 yrs ago, and promoters are still losing money at shows, never mind taking gate receipts of a million even in this eras exchange rate.

Boxing is huge and to say otherwise is ridiculous. The purses are still massive as is the appeal. I am sure we have all had girlfriends/friends, who generally dont take much interest in sport, coming round at 4am to watch Tyson v Lewis etc. Would that ever happen if we told the same people it was Buakow v Dekkers? Not a chance, they would be sound asleep in bed and even us fans of the sport would have to watch it on Youtube a week later.

I love the sport but I think some people need a reality check. Its a martial art, a niche, and as long as it is seen in the same guise as karate and judo then it will remain like that and have very limited public appeal. This is fine if you want to keep teaching and fighting MT, just dont expect the situation to change because it wont matter what you do, simply because you need to attract people in the first place to be educated and the people will never be there.

MMA does well because it is simple, if its not a tap out or ko to win its simply the fighter who visually has won the fight, not a comparison of techniques.

Dave, get a none MT friend to read your post above and see if they understand what you mean because even your attempt at a simple rule explanation is going all around the houses and is confusing.