Has the UFC/MMA reached the heights of boxing?

Bearknuckle

Bearknuckle

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MMA isn’t that young anymore. Its been roughly 3 decades. Have we has the biggest fights ever? Boxing arguably had its time, and its still around. But nowadays, when people say “professional fighter” its probably an mma fighter.

so has mma had its ali/frasier, mayweather/pacquiao? Do you put mma at its biggest as big as boxing?
 
Hard to tell because of streaming sites and pay per views. Back in the day it was harder to stream and a lot of fights would be televised so anybody watching would be accounted for.

But if you go off PPV buys the UFC does better than boxing and Youtube views especially. It's definitely up there. Everybody knows boxing, and MMA may not be as popular, but it's definitely viewed a lot more than boxing is.

I find it hard to believe that with social media and millions of followers with posts reaching millions of people, the publicity of Mcgregor main events, and him crossing over to Ali's sport and facing arguably the GOAT who holds the record for PPV buys, that Mcgregor isn't as popular as Ali was. That's crazy.
 
Its hard to compare because the most celebrated boxing matches happened so long ago that current measurements for PPV, money generation etc dont apply. Theres no real way of knowing how many people actually watched or knew about the Rumble, the Thrilla, Hagler/Hearns etc at the time, especially on a global level.

In terms of PPV numbers though the UFC is every bit on par with what boxing was doing in the 90s/00s, even with streaming being relatively rampant now.
 
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MMA isn't even close to being mainstream.

The sport of MMA is brand-new. Give it time.

The sport (and the discipline) of Boxing has existed for thousands of years.

Ok, maybe the sport of Boxing started in the 1800s in England. However, Boxing, Wrestling, and Pankration were always in the Ancient Olympics in Ancient Greece.

The sport of Boxing has been around way longer than the sport of MMA.

For Heaven's sake, there was even that douchebag (or douchebags) in EA Sports that told Dana White: "You're not a real sport. We will never create a video game about MMA fights."
 
gevoudane said:
No-one in MMA has compared to the popularity of Ali yet.
Click to expand...
No one ever will in any sport ever.

Sports in general will become less popular as we delve deeper into this digital age. Why watch sports when you can hook into VR and play the sport with your mind
 
PulsingJones said:
No one ever will in any sport ever.

Sports in general will become less popular as we delve deeper into this digital age. Why watch sports when you can hook into VR and play the sport with your mind
Click to expand...

Then you won't get any exercise..
 
Conor came close but that star faded quick. MMA continues to be relatively niche without any clear crossover stars on the horizon in the immediate future.

The sport is really missing an opportunity to blow up after the power vacuum left by Mayweather retiring and Pacquiao being 100.

That being said they're pretty firmly established as mainstream (compared to what it was anyways) but there's nobody generating the buzz like top boxers have historically.
 
Considering I got massive amounts of hate on this forum for simply suggesting Khabib coming out of retirement to eventually face Khamzat would be a massive fight I would say most MMA fans are close minded and can’t see the potential in the sport.
 
TeenageMutantLesnarTurtle said:
Its hard to compare because the most celebrated boxing matches happened so long ago that current measurements for PPV, money generation etc dont apply. Theres no real way of knowing how many people actually watched or knew about the Rumble, the Thrilla, Hagler/Hearns etc at the time, especially on a global level.

In terms of PPV numbers though the UFC is every bit on par with what boxing was doing in the 90s/00s, even with streaming being relatively rampant now.
Click to expand...

I'm super certain they had viewership metrics for literally all of those fights even back then it just wasn't the PPV format (Maybe Hagler-Hearns was cuz it was the 80s)

The shit was just on CBS and everyone watched lol I think people probably slept on the thrilla in manilla cuz everyone thought Joe was washed up and Ali handled him in the second fight.

Ali-Frazier 1 was probably huge tho.

*edit Ali-Frazier 1 estimated at 300 million views according the the googles

wiki says over a billion people world wide watched the thrilla in manilla
 
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Crash Lance said:
MMA isn't even close to being mainstream.

The sport of MMA is brand-new. Give it time.

The sport (and the discipline) of Boxing has existed for thousands of years.

Ok, maybe the sport of Boxing started in the 1800s in England. However, Boxing, Wrestling, and Pankration were always in the Ancient Olympics in Ancient Greece.

The sport of Boxing has been around way longer than the sport of MMA.

For Heaven's sake, there was even that douchebag (or douchebags) in EA Sports that told Dana White: "You're not a real sport. We will never create a video game about MMA fights."
Click to expand...
MMA may not be as mainstream as Football but some MMA personalities are most definitely mainstream.
 
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