Has the UFC/MMA reached the heights of boxing?

[gevoudane]

No they didnt, thats blatant hyperbolic bullshit and you're very gullible if you believe it. Lol @ fucking CCTV views, like that can reliably be tracked. Not to mention the wiki link claims only 3% of that 100 million viewers were in the US, sure bro 97 million people outside of America paid to watch two Americans punch each other in the face back in 1975. And dont forget a BILLION people total (ie 1 in 4 people on the planet back then) watched in some capacity. Oh and 300-500 million people on averaged watched Wladimir Klitschkos fights too, because Wikipedia says so so it must be true.

It was aired for the world, not the USA Id believe more people outside the US watched it over the USA. Ferdinand Marcos personally sponsored the fight and had it in the Philippines because the world was going to watch it.

 

[John Black]

Boxing at its peak was a cultural and social phenomenon.
In 20s and 30s it was a part of the life, MMA is not even close to be a social norm.

 

[Dana's Moonface]

It has surpassed current boxing (in the states), but it will never come close to boxing's popularity in history

All eras from john l Sullivan right up to the 90s boxing was much more mainstream than karate/wrestling in a cage

 

[Franklin U.]

That's crazy talk. People have to understand the nature of the sport . It's not for everyone.....yes,I love it and as does everyone on sherdog. It's even global but the true height of mma was back in 16' or 17'. The sports top promotion s classes from 170 and up have thinned out. Financially- Dana/wme are now in a position where they have to commit to a structure . Its cage fighting at the end of the day and we love it but itll never be an Olympic sport .....no gold gloves......no college draft.

Have alot of mma gyms opened around the world ? Yes - talent is one thing but the money it takes to evolve that talent and as a complete fighter and then make it to UFC or Bellator and make the kind of money needed to support a family - hell, yourself and a significant other----- that's a whole different level.
People may not like him but Dana White is the best asset that this sport has going for it. Hes hard nosed and if there is a vision that can possibly be realized, he'll do the neccessary things to make it happen.

I'm not even going to get into the downstream health of an individual.

 

[MCS]

How long MMA has been around compared the boxing isn't the most accurate measuring stick, as the broadcasting is modern. It can depend on stars. Unlike boxing in the 40's.

The UFC without stars grows slowly now, not at the rate of 15 years ago. So the growth depends on stars, not the brand anymore.

The biggest difference is number of cards and fighters compared to a single boxing promotion. Meaning the UFC will have a steady stream of viewers, will have like 20 title fights a year, while boxing depends on big events. But the big events in boxing are still bigger than the big events in MMA, mostly.

 

[Epicman1324]

Boxing is more mainstream and universally accepted because it's been around longer and people are more familiar with it. Plus it's become embedded with hip-hop culture, plus all the classic movies from over the years about boxing.

MMA will get there eventually but it'll need more cross over stars like McGregor. Most boxing stars tend to be crossover stars and in mma there are only a few cross over stars. You always see boxers with hip-hop stars, movie stars etc. In MMA it was only McGregor, Ronda, and Brock. Khabib also but in a different type of cross over star, the non Hollywood type.

MMA needs stars that can generate interest in more ways than just MMA fights. That's why Tyson is still drawing more interest currently than active fighters and he's set to have more fights soon that's probably going to have high ppv numbers just like his last fight. Also probably why mma fans were confused by the way the PPV was set up with Tyson's last fight. A different culture and target group that boxing has compared to mma.

"I'm a heavy hitter like Gervonta Davis" - Lil Baby
Nobody ever wrote a bar referencing McGregor, Masvidal, or Liddell.

 

[Tito Tapped]

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

Is that why the next round of NFL media deals is expected to pay out $15 BILLION dollars annually? What number would be considered proof of being "less popular"?

 

[TeenageMutantLesnarTurtle]

I
All eras from john l Sullivan right up to the 90s boxing was much more mainstream than karate/wrestling in a cage

PPV numbers wise the UFC of the last decade or so is very comparable to boxing PPV from the 90s, if not slightly ahead even. With the fragmented nature of boxing, the UFCs brand strength and modern day ease of access it wouldnt be all that surprising if more people globally are watching UFC cards today on average than were watching none Tyson boxing cards in the 90s too.

 

[TeenageMutantLesnarTurtle]

"I'm a heavy hitter like Gervonta Davis" - Lil Baby
Nobody ever wrote a bar referencing McGregor, Masvidal, or Liddell.

Dunno who Lil Baby is but Tank/LSC did 225k buys lol. The three names you mentioned are far bigger stars and draws than Tank.

 

[SharpasaRazor]

So many facets to this that it is hard to properly quantify - Boxing isn't what it was and when it was what it was the world was a seriously different place.

MMA isn't quite a mainstream cultural thing, it has wandered near that line and when Conor/Ronda were at there peak it was getting very close.

It is hard to see how anything that could happen in MMA, with the possible exception of Khabib v Conor 2, could even touch the size of AJ vs Fury as an event. That demonstrates the enduring power of Boxing even though its definitely fully in the descent while MMA continues up.

 

[FIghtxIQ]

"I'm a heavy hitter like Gervonta Davis" - Lil Baby
Nobody ever wrote a bar referencing McGregor, Masvidal, or Liddell.

Yeah lots of rappers write verses with boxers like PAC, Tyson, Floyd, etc. None yet from mma. McGregor had a song from someone the UK I think but wasn't a big name artist like the other ones. Boxing is just more embedded in hip-hop culture compared to mma because there aren't any cross over stars yet, or mma fighters that they can really relate to. Boxers they can because most boxers grew up in the same environment and culture. Diaz is one of the few they can relate to, Masvidal too but I don't think anyone has wrote a verse with his name in it yet.

Woodley tried hard to get that demographic and market, but he just wasn't believable to them that's why he isn't popular like Diaz and Masvidal, even with all the movies, tv time, and rap career. Woodley comes off very fake and it's easy for those type of people to see compared to Diaz and Masvidal. They seem more genuine and not playing a roll. Masvidal started overdoing it so it comes off a bit faker now, but that was just him trying to do extra to try and help build his name more. He should just go back to being natural, it worked better when he wasn't trying too hard to have quotable one liners and trying to dress like McGregor. Also wearing the exact same outfit as McGregor was the wrong move.

 

[WOLVERINEKILLS]

MMA has not been around long enough to grow the fan base that boxing has. There are no MMA equivalents to Ali, Tyson, Mayweather, De La Hoya yet. But I do think there are MMA fighters who have similarities to some of the earlier boxing counterparts:

Jon Jones & Sugar Ray Robinson. Both are considered by most to be the P4P best throughout their careers through their sport during their careers.

Fedor & Rocky Marciano. Both were small heavyweight champions defying the odds by beating the best of era their during career defining unbeaten streaks. Both are generally beloved by fans and brought up as being one of the best of all time.

GSP & Henry Armstrong. Both were multiple weight class champions, with numerous title defenses.

Khabib / Ferguson / McGregor / Aldo + Hagler / Hearns / Leonard / Aldo. Although the current guys haven’t all fought each other like the boxers in the 80’s, they are all legendary, important, and will be remembered as the greats of their era.

Mighty Mouse + Pernell Whitaker. A lot of skill, speed and defensive mastery combined with unique offense made both difficult to beat. Both could be boring to watch but when they had a legitimate challenge that could push the pace all of those fights were exciting.

Anderson Silva + Julio Cesar Chavez. Both fighters went on crazy unbeaten streaks where sometimes they were boring when they should have finished the fight while at other times they were finishing off top level competition. Both fighters coukd have arguably lost a fight during their streak (Sonnen & Meldrick Taylor respectively) but managed to pull out last second victories.

As far selling PPV, etc., there are a lot more people on the planet, different business models and ways to sell / view the events, technology has dramatically improved and even been manipulated so that #’s aren’t always accurate - it is really undetermined that something is more successful now than it was back then, but some of the great fighters from both sports are comparable.

 

[jeff7b9]

I think it is unlikely that mma will EVER eclipse boxing at its peak, when champs like Ali or Tyson were literally the most recognizable man on earth.


But currently, in certain areas of the world I think it is fair to say that MMA has eclipsed the current boxing scene.

Numbers wise I think it is possible that UFC is outselling boxing overall, maybe someone can verify, but the UFC are doing so many more higher profile fights and they have brand recognition that gives a baseline viewership where Boxing is a goddamn clustfuck of corrupt alphabet bodies and while the BIG events are huge, most of the in between stuff is not getting UFC level views; at least that is how it seems from the US, maybe international views balance it out.


Boxing is extremely too heavy, so like 6 guys at any given time are a “big draw” and make absurd money, but I don’t see many non champ- Masvidal or Conor types selling 1-2 million PPVs without a title/belt.

 

[jeff7b9]

Woodley tried hard to get that demographic and market, but he just wasn't believable to them that's why he isn't popular like Diaz and Masvidal, even with all the movies, tv time, and rap career. Woodley comes off very fake and it's easy for those type of people to see compared to Diaz and Masvidal. They seem more genuine and not playing a roll. Masvidal started overdoing it so it comes off a bit faker now, but that was just him trying to do extra to try and help build his name more. He should just go back to being natural, it worked better when he wasn't trying too hard to have quotable one liners and trying to dress like McGregor. Also wearing the exact same outfit as McGregor was the wrong move.

Woodley also sucks at rapping.

Let’s not leave that out of the equation, I have heard a bit of his stuff and it is kindergarten level rhymes and rhyming patterns, cadences, etc, shit flow and not deep or thought provoking (at least what I heard)

 

[wolfss]

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?

It’s weird. They haven’t gotten the sponsors, I believe because most companies are run by old folks. But mma has surpassed in popularity. Ufc specifically has 20 plus ppv events a year in the USA. Boxing only has 2 or 3!!

 

[jeff7b9]

PPV numbers wise the UFC of the last decade or so is very comparable to boxing PPV from the 90s, if not slightly ahead even. With the fragmented nature of boxing, the UFCs brand strength and modern day ease of access it wouldnt be all that surprising if more people globally are watching UFC cards today on average than were watching none Tyson boxing cards in the 90s too.

Sounds about right.

the top 20 PPVs all time is fairly evenly distributed between


Tyson,
Floyd,
Conor
other big UFC fights (usually championship rivalries, Brock/Mir, Jones/DC, GSP +stacked card)

 

[FIghtxIQ]

Woodley also sucks at rapping.

Let’s not leave that out of the equation, I have heard a bit of his stuff and it is kindergarten level rhymes and rhyming patterns, cadences, etc, shit flow and not deep or thought provoking (at least what I heard)

That too, but he's just not believable. He just seems uncomfortable and acting. He looks like someone trying too hard to play a role and it's just awkward. That's why that culture never really embraced him even though he was champion and paying for features with Wiz Khalifa, etc. That's why Diaz has more fans in that culture even though he has more losses and never won the belt. People can see through the fake easily in that culture.

 

[BJJ_Rage]

Aoccer

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

soccer players are way bigger stars than Ali was, Jordan also probably was more famoous

 

[MEAN357]

Do you really believe that though? thats roughly 1 in 4 people on the planet at that time, and global poverty rates were much higher back then plus theres the time zone factor etc. Its much easier to make up insanely exaggerated unprovable numbers for something from the 70s or 80s than it would be today. And boxing is very prone to hyperbole and romanticization of its past. I doubt even soccer world cup games get anywhere near that kind of viewership even today with twice the global population and more ways to watch.

Yeah obviously I can't validate that AT ALL so I would take it with a grain of salt but it is definitely an indication that it was a huge fight - like a globally massive fight.

I think those fights were like the world cup super bowl and Olympics rolled up into one as far as popularity and global appeal. Really was the only show in town and it was a big ass show at that, couple that with easier access on cable TV or attendance to a closed circuit showing at a ton of theaters the world over and you got THE place to be on a Saturday night.

5 cents to go watch in a theater or crowd 30 deep in your cousins apartment kinda takes away the ppv paywall. It's worth remembering boxing had a global appeal back then, it wasn't just two Americans punching it out it was the best in the WORLD punching it out.

Ali alone trekked all over the globe during his career and had legions of people shutting down traffic just to catch a glimpse dude was huge back in the day.

That said I still don't doubt hyperbolic bullshit or outright fudging the numbers the only take away is that they were huge fights and apparently some of the biggest in history.

 

[ZOD66]

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

You are dam right