MMA vs Boxing Popularity - Unknowable Mystery?

chinarice said:
I get pro-wrestling and MMA. Been a fan of both for several decades. There is a huge connection between the two that anyone who watches both, can see it's plain as day.

Anyone who doesn't watch MMA find it stupid so what is your point?
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Its funny how offended they get but the parallels in the way the industries are structured as well as historical links between pro wrestling & MMA (e. g. Pancrase) are plain as day. UFC was happy to cash in on pro wrestling fanbase through Lesnar, CM Punk etc

I don't follow pro wrestling but I can tell you that if forum experience is anything to go by, not a whole lot of boxing fans watch MMA. You will almost never see an MMA related thread on boxing forums unless its in the dedicated MMA subforum for the few who follow both. Here otoh you get a monthly thread about how now finally boxing is dead & MMA will finally take over. I have been hearing this same song on sherdog since Oscar de la hoya was set to retire, damn near 15 years now & 15 years from now they will still be singing the same song like a broken record
 
Fisticuffa said:
Its funny how offended they get but the parallels in the way the industries are structured as well as historical links between pro wrestling & MMA (e. g. Pancrase) are plain as day. UFC was happy to cash in on pro wrestling fanbase through Lesnar, CM Punk etc

I don't follow pro wrestling but I can tell you that if forum experience is anything to go by, not a whole lot of boxing fans watch MMA. You will almost never see an MMA related thread on boxing forums unless its in the dedicated MMA subforum for the few who follow both. Here otoh you get a monthly thread about how now finally boxing is dead & MMA will finally take over. I have been hearing this same song on sherdog since Oscar de la hoya was set to retire, damn near 15 years now & 15 years from now they will still be singing the same song like a broken record
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Especially with the biggest stars and much younger stars being in boxing (proven through PPV buys, gates, engagement and mainstream appeal), that is a super difficult combination to surpass.
 
duke_droese said:
I can't watch a boxer train anymore without thinking I'd tear that front leg to shreds lol.

MMA is on the up. Boxing is going down slowly.

This Saudi autism gave boxing a good injection. But it won't be good for the sport long term. They're all converting at this point for the daddy alashaykh stimulus package.
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Are we just going to pretend that the biggest PPVs and mainstream events in 2023 weren’t boxing? None of these had anything to do with Saudi or Jake Paul.

I hate to admit this but there is no one in MMA touching the likes of Gervonta, Ryan Garcia and Canelo.
 
blaseblase said:
The biggest fights in boxing are more popular than the biggest fights in mma. But your average UFC card is more popular than your average boxing card.
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I will probably disagree with this as well. The UFC would not be hosting 1/2 of the 2024 first half schedule at the Apex facility if those cards had the potential to push tickets, they don’t sadly.
 
My guess is that globally there are some huge boxing nations that bring up the average. I if had to guess I'd say USA, Mexico, maybe the UK. In Sweden and I'd wager most of northern/central europe it's not even close. I've never met anyone who regularly watches boxing and among the people I know only the ones with the biggest martial arts interest will occasionally watch big fights like Alvarez, Mayweather, Fury.
 
Boxing is more top heavy with 6-7 ppv draws.

Mma has like 30-40 big names with 2-3 ppv draws.
 
Boxing potentially has a much greater reach but struggles more with week in week out popularity.
 
JudoJabs said:
I will probably disagree with this as well. The UFC would not be hosting 1/2 of the 2024 first half schedule at the Apex facility if those cards had the potential to push tickets, they don’t sadly.
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Outside of the top few boxing matches each year, boxing struggles to break 200k.
 
ticho123 said:
My guess is that globally there are some huge boxing nations that bring up the average. I if had to guess I'd say USA, Mexico, maybe the UK. In Sweden and I'd wager most of northern/central europe it's not even close. I've never met anyone who regularly watches boxing and among the people I know only the ones with the biggest martial arts interest will occasionally watch big fights like Alvarez, Mayweather, Fury.
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In the US it's probably pretty comparable from what I have seen. I think with Latinos, blacks and maybe older white guys boxing is more popular. With younger white guys MMA seems to be more popular. Pretty much all of Latin America is more into boxing by a large amount other than brazil. Lots of small poor countries also tend to at least know about boxing a little but they won't hardly know anything about MMA. MMA is more global
 
GSPenn1991 said:
Boxing is more top heavy with 6-7 ppv draws.

Mma has like 30-40 big names with 2-3 ppv draws.
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If those names were actually big enough they wouldn’t be housing half the events in 2024 at the Apex facility.

That is the most telling thing.
 
Boxing has much bigger stars. Conor is the only true MMA fighter who was on par with the big names in boxing. Lesnar and Ronda were big in other sports before their MMA careers.

UFC (not the general MMA) is now more profitable than boxing. This is purely a result of promotion.
 
It totally depends on the demographic. In the U.S., boxing is way more popular than MMA when it comes to Blacks and Hispanics. When it comes to Whites though, MMA is much more popular.
 
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