How popular is MMA?

Y

Y0cc3

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There are usually two criterias:

1. How many people are doing the sport?
2. How many fans around the globe?


I would like to get some kind of answer. For example soccer supposedly has 250 million players and 3 billion fans.
 
EU here. 2 friends who still follow mma (after the over exposure happened and the "hype" died out). 1 of them every event.


...Everyone I know watches "soccer".
 
CarbonIsotope said:
EU here. 2 friends who still follow mma (after the over exposure happened and the "hype" died out). 1 of them every event.


...Everyone I know watches "soccer".
Click to expand...

I'm from EU too, in Finland not even close to everyone watches soccer but MMA, I know none who actually cares about it. I know few who might know Fedor, Jones, Lesnar or Overeem, then little bit more knows of Niinim
 
CarbonIsotope said:
EU here. 2 friends who still follow mma (after the over exposure happened and the "hype" died out). 1 of them every event.


...Everyone I know watches "soccer".
Click to expand...

Soccer... Is that sport they bounce the ball on their heads?
 
Canada here. I live about 15 minutes away from the late Shawn Tompkins' gym and my wife works in a sports bar. We used to hear people talk about MMA occasionally. Usually right before or after a GSP fight.

99% of the people in this city don't even know who Sam Stout is. An occasional person might remember Mark Hominick is from our city because of that nasty hematoma Aldo gave him at the Toronto event, got him a picture in the local sports section.

Now that GSP retired, MMA's popularity has declined greatly. GSP retiring made the front page of many newspapers. Since then, MMA is lucky to get a mention in the back pages of the sports section.
 
It's a fringe sport. Like that one thing, or you know, the other thing, that are also fringe sports. Those things. Just like those.
 
Seemed more popular with people I know ~5 years ago. They've all been losing interest
 
MMA in general has probably stagnated. No, it isn't dying, as a lot of posts would have you believe, but I don't think it's growing rapidly, as it was supposed to be just a couple of years ago.

One of the things I've noticed is the phrase "mma is the fastest growing sport in the world" has now become "mma is one of the fastest growing sports in the world".


I'm danish, and maybe two-three years ago there was this feeling mma was gonna take over, the (danish) media started talking about it, it was growing.

Not so anymore.
 
EU (mediterrean zone)

most of the people don't know what MMA are, despite sometimes there r TV specials about the sport, but has no exposure at all, and there isn't a "big" league like Cage Warriors, M-1 Global and KSW are in the rest of the continent.
Combat sports in general are in crisis, Giorgio Petrosyan is one of the best LW in all history of combat sports but nobody in Italy know who he his.

Everybody watch Soccer and play Futsal
A lot of people are interested into Formula1 and MotoGP too
Voilleyball is probably the second sport and the first team sport for girls
Rugby is growing a lot, I dream that MMA could has the same exposure and help that Rugby has right now in Europe
 
I'm glad it's dying down finally. I remember in the 9th grade (over a decade ago now) i did a presentation on the UFC for a business class and NO ONE knew what it was lol. Then **** Lesnar came around and everyone watched it. Fake fans, stupid comments, the whole 9 yards lol. Now I can go back to enjoying it in peace.
 
Southern California here a.k.a. mecca of MMA/BJJ

Seems like a lot of people lose interest in MMA when Brock Lesnar, Chuck Liddell, GSP, and Anderson Silva retired.

One thing I know for certain is BJJ has way way more practitioners than MMA. MMA is more of a spectator sport, but not something everyone wants to do.
 
Sad to say, but it's completely non existent. Even where I live in New York. Yes, if you went around NYC for hours, you'd run into a few dudes that knew a couple names (Silva, GSP), but its sad no one knows who Weidman is and what an amazing fighter he has become. If it were to become legalized and Chris fought Vitor at MSG, it could start the growth process. But for now, its DOA
 
Shogun_ said:
I'm glad it's dying down finally. I remember in the 9th grade (over a decade ago now) i did a presentation on the UFC for a business class and NO ONE knew what it was lol. Then **** Lesnar came around and everyone watched it. Fake fans, stupid comments, the whole 9 yards lol. Now I can go back to enjoying it in peace.
Click to expand...

Lesnar was good for MMA because he brought a lot of WWF just-bleed fan over to MMA.
 
Despite what Uncle Dana is telling you, MMA and BJJ will never surpass mainstream sports such as basketball, baseball, football, and soccer.

Why? BJJ is a fun sport to participate, but it's a total snoozefest for spectators. MMA is a spectator sport, but it's not something everyone wants to do because nobody wants to get punched in the face.
 
I live 5 minutes away from Tristar gym in Montreal and no one really gives a fck about MMA especially this time of the year. Only a bunch of casual watchers here and there. There's still too much "trash" surrounding MMA in its current form that is just unappealing to outside viewers. Even Boxing has a more polished, classy packaging and mma will have to move in that direction if it ever hopes to really break through (not that I care if it does).
 
Rampage_Jackson said:
Seemed more popular with people I know ~5 years ago. They've all been losing interest
Click to expand...

This. I used to have 5-6 friends that would get together and watch every UFC ppv. Seriously from like the UFC 40 range to UFC 120 we might have missed 4 or 5 events.

Now I'm the only one that still keeps up anymore.

I look at it kinda like the WWE. You have a certain core fan base. Then you have an age group that it appeals to (16-24) and as those get older they lose interest. Just like wrestling except their age group is a little younger. That same group probably gets older and becomes interested in MMA.

Its a niche sport. Like Poker, X-Games etc.
 
SenseSeparator said:
I live 5 minutes away from Tristar gym in Montreal and no one really gives a fck about MMA especially this time of the year. Only a bunch of casual watchers here and there. There's still too much "trash" surrounding MMA in its current form that is just unappealing to outside viewers. Even Boxing has a more polished, classy packaging and mma will have to move in that direction if it ever hopes to really break through (not that I care if it does).
Click to expand...

You mean classy people like Adrien Broner?
 
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