Boxing's US fan base has increased significantly this decade

ZroC · 11-20-2012, 05:42 PM

Meltzer is of course assuming this is due to the influence of Mexicans. I don't think he backs up this claim but I don't agree anyway. He also seems to contradict himself immediately after by assuming boxing has grown due to Mexicans, where boxing is the second biggest sport then immediately notes that a sport of similar significance to Mexicans, pro-wrestling, has declined in the same period, which leads me to believe he has nothing to support that end of the claim.

He says boxing's fan base has risen from 37 million to 50 million. What Meltzer doesn't mention is that MMA payout did a study on MMA's fan base and worked it out it to be in the 31 million range in 2010. Likely a bit lower now.

http://www.bloodyelbow.com/2012/10/4...-combat-sports

As far as boxing, which has also seen an increase in fans over the last 10 years, Dave Meltzer in the latest Wrestling Observer states (subscription required) that this is primarily down to the Hispanic market.

"A big key is the emergence in numbers of the Hispanic audience, where boxing is the second biggest sport next to soccer. Those numbers have increased over the past decade from 37.4 million to 50.7 million, and will continue to increase over the next decade. What makes that strange is that pro wrestling is twice as popular with the Hispanic audience in the U.S. than the white audience, so whatever growth boxing should have because of it should be mirrored by wrestling. It’s hard to say why that isn’t the case. Boxing hasn’t had that superstar Hispanic since Oscar De La Hoya, and wrestling really hasn’t had one in decades. Eddy Guerrero was close before his death and was the biggest since the heyday of Mil Mascaras (who was a superstar only regionally in the U.S.), but to really draw from that type of audience, the guy has to be No. 1, not No. 5 when it comes to being pushed as the serious top star of the brand."

Riotmaker14 · 11-20-2012, 05:47 PM

There was a time where I seemed to watch more MMA than boxing but the last few years MMA has really fell flat while Boxing has risen.

XCuTioNeR · 11-20-2012, 05:51 PM

Hispanics and Boxing, Interesting.

ZroC · 11-21-2012, 10:32 AM

Way this might be worked out is if you assume Manny and May reach two largely seperate demographics then consider the likliness that HBO and Showtime are aimed at two seperate boxing audiences, like the previous TR vs GB cards suggest. You could add up a lot of people who would consider themselves boxing fans. To be fair I don't think most people really even follow ten sports so they probably throw down boxing somewhere just to pad the numbers. I watched Mayweather fight last year therefore I boxing fan.

ZroC · 11-21-2012, 10:52 AM

Had another look around and found an MMA Payout article saying MMA's US fan base was around 31 million in 2010. That could be considered the end of the peak.

http://mmapayout.com/2010/11/the-ufc-fan-base/

The size of the UFC fan base in the United States is estimated to be approximately 31 million people. You can see below how this compares to the size of the general fan base of the other major sports played in the US over the last three years. Note that the UFC was the only property to experience growth in its fan base of the last three years.

according to this chart Boxing's fan base is around the same size as Nascar's. NFL is obviously the biggest with about 100 million.

MC Paul Barman · 11-21-2012, 10:55 AM

I was a bit shocked when I first saw how popular NASCAR was/is.
I always thought it was some niche sport that just seemed to be on tv from time to time.
Then I read something comparing how much money it makes compared to the NFL.... the NFL still was making more, but NASCAR was doing pretty good itself.

slimpickenz84 · 11-21-2012, 10:56 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Riotmaker14

There was a time where I seemed to watch more MMA than boxing but the last few years MMA has really fell flat while Boxing has risen.

Pretty much what I came here to say. Boxing has increased the level of matchmaking and promotion, whereas UFC's hasn't changed much in years.

ZroC · 11-21-2012, 10:57 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ZroC

Had another look around and found an MMA Payout article saying MMA's US fan base was around 31 million in 2010. That could be considered the end of the peak.

http://mmapayout.com/2010/11/the-ufc-fan-base/

The size of the UFC fan base in the United States is estimated to be approximately 31 million people. You can see below how this compares to the size of the general fan base of the other major sports played in the US over the last three years. Note that the UFC was the only property to experience growth in its fan base of the last three years.

according to this chart Boxing's fan base is around the same size as Nascar's. NFL is obviously the biggest with about 100 million.

Oh yeah and it's worth noting there has been a 25% drop off in the UFC in 2011, and likely another slight drop in 2012. Basically you could probably chop 25% of that 31 million number.

Sunfish · 11-21-2012, 12:29 PM

http://i.imgur.com/2s84x.png

This is the kind of thing that tends to interest you Z?

ZroC · 11-21-2012, 12:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sunfish

http://i.imgur.com/2s84x.png

This is the kind of thing that tends to interest you Z?

boxing loses out since its not a national sport anywhere.

Kickboxing and Ice hockey are practically the same colour so that's pretty confusing. I'm not sure if they have Finland down for hockey or kickboxing. Regardless of that I'm pretty sure most Thai's don't consider Muay Thai and kickboxing to be the same thing.