How About Some Actual Numbers? Boxing vs. UFC in the U.S. 2012

mrsinister

Brown Belt
@Brown
Joined
May 29, 2012
Messages
4,202
Reaction score
0
Yay, another boxing vs. MMA thread. This topic has been hot today so I thought I'd post some stats with sauces I have lying around.

This is only for significant, large events held in the U.S.in 2012.
Boxing:

i) ESPN2 FNF averaged 409k over 26 telecasts. AFAIK most if not all were in the U.S.
http://www.sportsbusinessdaily.com/Daily/Issues/2012/08/30/Research-and-Ratings/FNF.aspx

ii) HBO: With this sauce, http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/boxin...-fights-lots-viewers-lots-210146022--box.html
we know how many the following did ratings-wise.
1 Julio Cesar Chavez Jr.-Marco Antonio Rubio, Feb. 4, HBO, 1.9 million
2 Bernard Hopkins-Chad Dawson, April 28, HBO, 1.6 million
3 Chavez Jr.-Andy Lee, June 16, HBO, 1.4 million
4 Adrien Broner-Vicente Escobedo, July 21, HBO, 1.4 million
5 Nonito Donaire-Jorge Arce, Dec. 15, HBO, 1.3 million
6 Andre Ward-Chad Dawson, Sept. 8, HBO, 1.3 million
7 Floyd Mayweather-Cotto PPV replay, May 12, HBO, 1.3 million
8 Manny Pacquiao-Juan Manuel Marquez PPV replay, Dec. 15, HBO, 1.3 million
9 Danny Garcia-Amir Khan, July 14, HBO, 1.3 million
10 Erik Morales-Garcia I, March 24, HBO, 1.2 million
11 Robert Guerrero-Andre Berto, Nov. 24, HBO, 1.1 million
12 Marcos Maidana-Devon Alexander, Feb. 25, HBO, 1.1 million
13 Broner-Antonio Demarco, Nov. 17, HBO, 1.1 million
14 Sergio Martinez-Matthew Macklin, March 17, HBO, 1.1 million
Average 1.4 mil.

Also, Nonito Donaire vs. Jeffrey Mathebula did about .8 mil:
http://www.thefutoncritic.com/ratings/2012/07/10/saturdays-cable-ratings-nascar-coke-zero-400-puts-tnt-on-top-435415/cable_20120707/

But I don
 
Last edited:
At least it's a very well done boxing vs. MMA thread. Thanks for the info.

The whole "controversy" drives me nuts. I'm an MMA fan. But I like boxing. I'll watch a good fight and I have a friend who is a fairly successful pro so I always catch his fights.

I don't for the life of me understand people who think they need to trash other sports to build up the one they are a fan of. If you like MMA like MMA. If you like boxing like boxing. Don't feel like your sport is superior/inferior based on how many people watched the last PPV.
 
Hopkins Dawson on PPV was 2011. Also, why only six of the UFCs PPVs?
 
iii) It hurts the UFC that GSP's fights are in Canada. I don't know of any big boxing events that took place in Canada, so my guess is that it's fair to say that in North American as a whole, UFC is bigger.
i

what are lucins bute or jean pascal numbers in canada?
 
Boxing Events watched by chamchamtrigger: 0
MMA Events watched by chamchamtrigger: uncountable.


Them's the only numbers what matter to me.
 
MMA fans are usually also fans of boxing. Boxing fans are usually asshurt, defensive threatened by MMA. Its obnoxious.
 
thanks for doing that research and putting it into a great format

what i think is most interesting, is that its UFC vs multiple boxing promotions

imo that's better for long term growth
 
You can't simply ignore UFC on Fuel because it shatters your argument
 
what are lucins bute or jean pascal numbers in canada?

Dunno. Numbers would be nice. I'd be surprised if GSP didn't get way more revenue, but I don't know much about boxing and could be wrong.
 
great numbers, research, thread.

Conclusions.

ii) They are pretty close. Neither fanbase should get cocky.

agreed

Conclusions.

iii) It hurts the UFC that GSP's fights are in Canada. I don't know of any big boxing events that took place in Canada, so my guess is that it's fair to say that in North American as a whole, UFC is bigger.

why? you need more of a base argument than "boxing doesn't do it" to convince me that GSP fighting in Canada hurts the UFC....or do you mean, it hurts Vegas #'s?

kudos, sir.
 
Why only count shows held in America?

If its on FX thats still the number being viewed by an American audience.

For example even though Belfort vs Bisping was in Brazil it was still watched by 2 million on FX.

And its not exactly just US, over here in the UK we have to pay for Pacquiao and Mayweather PPVs and Canada etc still have to buy cards that are not held in Canada.
 
You can't simply ignore UFC on Fuel because it shatters your argument

Fuel execs would sell their souls to the Devil to do what FNF does. But if you find a nice summary sauce I'll post it if it will make you happy.
 
Ill give you that. but as a whole. from personal expirence. Boxing fans ive met dont typically like MMA and trash on it.

you've been on these boards for mere days. stick around. you'll see it goes both ways.
 
why? you need more of a base argument than "boxing doesn't do it" to convince me that GSP fighting in Canada hurts the UFC....or do you mean, it hurts Vegas #'s?

kudos, sir.

I just mean that only talking about U.S. events relative to north American events decreases the UFC's relative performance because their biggest star doesn't like to leave Canada.
 
Unlike some people I do not care about who is beating who in the ratings. I'm a fan of both sports and kick boxing as well. The more the merrier I say.
 
Back
Top