Is/was MMA ever bigger than boxing?

[kflo]

Bro it took 2 title fights and a bare Diaz fight for the last UFC to touch 600K PPV buys.

Diaz is literally a top 5 UFC ppv seller.

If you could get Wilder vs Fury 3, and a Canelo fight on the same card it would break 2 mil easy.

But boxing would never do that. That’s not their model, whereas it is the ufc model. So popularity isn’t just about individual drawing power since it doesn’t happen in a vacuum.

The ufc will likely sell more ppv’s than all of boxing, and have more viewers overall for the year.

 

[MrFeeny]

Amongst the millennials mma is larger by a large portion at least on the west coast. Although with the celebrity boxing stuff now, maybe it will switch back.

 

[Street Samurai]

We also have to consider that a lot of boxing matches are now on platform such as Danz and ESPN+, and if I'm not mistaken, theu dont release the number of viewers

 

[kingJohn]

Bro it took 2 title fights and a bare Diaz fight for the last UFC to touch 600K PPV buys.

Diaz is literally a top 5 UFC ppv seller.

If you could get Wilder vs Fury 3, and a Canelo fight on the same card it would break 2 mil easy.

Ok, how does that negate what I said? There's 1 draw in boxing and a couple of guys who can sell 500k or more. Every one else doesn't break 300k.

 

[Bend NvR Break]

But boxing would never do that. That’s not their model, whereas it is the ufc model. So popularity isn’t just about individual drawing power since it doesn’t happen in a vacuum.

The ufc will likely sell more ppv’s than all of boxing, and have more viewers overall for the year.

Of course because there are A LOT more MMA ppv and opportunities to watch MMA then boxing.

Just like there's more opportunities to watch the MLB, NBA and NHL but the NFL but that doesn't mean the NFL isn't the god sport of the USA.

 

[kflo]

Of course because there are A LOT more MMA ppv and opportunities to watch MMA then boxing.

Just like there's more opportunities to watch the MLB, NBA and NHL but the NFL but that doesn't mean the NFL isn't the god sport of the USA.

but the nfl can point to ratings for their individual events and the television contracts they have in place. boxing can't do that relative to the ufc. just the fighter purses...

 

[Shaddows]

MMA fans are dishonest... or delusional.

Yes, in any MMA fan's mind, MMA is more popular than Boxing. But that's obviously not true.
If anything, due to the longevity of Boxing and how most casuals will know far more about Boxing than MMA. There are also plenty of Boxing movies (i.e. Rocky movies) and very few MMA ones.

Talking about the past, MMA was never bigger, and it will take a (very) long time to surpass Boxing, IF it will ever do.
Heh, the money discrepancy alone makes good fighters rather select Boxing than MMA.

 

[Dan Torrance]

MMA is more popular in the cultural zeitgeist than boxing right now in the United States.

It's just going to keep getting more popular now that they are on ESPN.

The UFC model is built around consistency of product and now on a weekly basis. There's a ton of room for growth in their business model. There's a lot of untapped potential there as the focus has been on expansion and getting to where it is. Part of that required them to dial in a recipe that proved successful.

I get the complaints people have against the UFC. I see them and I don't disagree but it's a timing thing. They paid the price for it so understandably they are upset.

 

[ookii]

MMA is more popular now but it will never reach the peak of boxing. I don't see them ever reaching the 300 million worldwide viewership of Fight of the Century Ali vs Frazier

 

[mjfan23]

In 1995 it was bigger than YouTube too

 

[TeenageMutantLesnarTurtle]

I don't see them ever reaching the 300 million worldwide viewership of Fight of the Century Ali vs Frazier

Part of that is that it'd be much harder to make up viewing figures now than it was in the 70s. The Rumble In The Jungle is claimed to have done a billion viewers which is obvious bullshit, thats like a quarter of the worlds population at the time. Even 300m sounds OTT.

I do agree that MMA wont ever be as big as boxing was up until the 80s/90s though. But boxing never will be again either, its a different world now thanks mainly to the internet.

 

[Naoya#1]

Lmfao at YouTube and Instagram followers

You guys would be suprised how fake all that shit is (my younger brother sells twitch views and Youtube subs and you would be suprised how many big streamers abused Amazon prime subs and/or buy views).

Part of that is that it'd be much harder to make up viewing figures now than it was in the 70s. The Rumble In The Jungle is claimed to have done a billion viewers which is obvious bullshit, thats like a quarter of the worlds population at the time. Even 300m sounds OTT.

I do agree that MMA wont ever be as big as boxing was up until the 80s/90s though. But boxing never will be again either, its a different world now thanks mainly to the internet.

So pretty much all the Olympics and soccer numbers are bullshit too. GG wp.

Ali was pretty much the only guy who could hold a candle VS Karelin in Russia (not even Fedor and khabib are close to that), pretty much all schools in Germany watched Ali and according to some family members in Italy, he was as popular as soccer + all the fucken Muslims.

A wwe/ufc model would be better for the sport, but it would be horrific for boxers and the talent in general. Boxing is pretty much the only sport where a no name midget can still make decent money. Do you think mighty mouse could make at least 2 million dollars against a top #150 guy? LMAO.

Ufc/WWE model is good for fans but shit for fighters. I don't give a shit about fans. First fighters, second fans (as long as we get good fights, lol)

 

[TeenageMutantLesnarTurtle]

So pretty much all the Olympics and soccer numbers are bullshit too. GG wp.

Yes because boxing is as big as the world cup or olympics. Lol please.

But yes, the reality is a lot of those numbers are an extremely rough estimate at best. Lol @ being able to pinpoint how many people on the planet tuned in to a boxing match in the 1970s for fucks sake. Its pure hyperbole.

 

[Naoya#1]

Yes because boxing is as big as the world cup or olympics. Lol please.

But yes, the reality is a lot of those numbers are an extremely rough estimate at best. Lol @ being able to pinpoint how many people on the planet tuned in to a boxing match in the 1970s for fucks sake. Its pure hyperbole.

Add all the anti hero stuff and then the transition to "omg we love Ali" and now add Africa + the Muslims and other countries, yeah I do think it's legit. Maybe a bit less but who knows.

The fight between Ali vs Frazier etc was soo big from a boxing perspective but from a political standpoint it was much much bigger than boxing.

Also, the amount of channels was less than today.

 

[The Chosen]

Even if you put all the youtube channels of the boxing promotions together they will still not match the number of followers in the UFC. You shouldn't because, most of those fans are repeteaded subscribers to all of them but even with that is not enough.

Just go to youtube and look for yourself the numbers of views of each video. Look at the number of views the press conference between Fury and Wilder did, posted last week. That is one of the biggest fights in the sport. Just 76.000 views. On the other hand the pre fight press conference for UFC last event last week did 1.6 million views.

The numbers don't lie, man. Same thing if you go looking at profiles of UFC stars and boxing stars in instagram and twittter. Numbers don't lie.

Well that’s objectively false, just a quick search disproves that


And I guarantee there will probably be more celebrities and more casuals watching this match than last UFC event

 

[The Chosen]

Yes because boxing is as big as the world cup or olympics. Lol please.

But yes, the reality is a lot of those numbers are an extremely rough estimate at best. Lol @ being able to pinpoint how many people on the planet tuned in to a boxing match in the 1970s for fucks sake. Its pure hyperbole.

Some of the biggest sporting events were boxing matches

 

[Street Samurai]

Yes because boxing is as big as the world cup or olympics. Lol please.

But yes, the reality is a lot of those numbers are an extremely rough estimate at best. Lol @ being able to pinpoint how many people on the planet tuned in to a boxing match in the 1970s for fucks sake. Its pure hyperbole.

I don't think you realise how big Ali was in that period. Supposedly, the Spinks rematch was watched by about 2 billions persons. Number might have been inflated a bit, but he was wildly popular

 

[Deleted member 465145]

I dunno man. But have you ever tried DMT?

 

[Cazador]

I don't think it is, I highly doubt it ever was, at least worldwide, and this is coming from a guy that watches more MMA than boxing these days.

 

[horseshoe_pass man]

Never and No. PPV buys don't lie.

what ppv buys? yeah the top ppv buys of all time are mostly boxing but i feel like ufc consistently does at least like 200k even for bottom of the barrel shitty cards. 500-700k for decent cards. then 1m+ for others. i dont keep up with boxing ppv buys so im legit curious what their numbers are like. i figure boxing has/had higher peaks but ufc seems healthier overall these days. cant seem to find the numbers for boxing but in this list frankie posted for 2018 it is dominated by mma:

The PPV buys for 2018 | Sherdog Forums | UFC, MMA & Boxing Discussion

and wilder-fury 2 only did 800k for example. you would expect more from one of the biggest fights in boxing. the first match was even worse with 325k. this is just north america of course and internationally boxing has a huge audience but seems like outside of the 2 big fights a year, the boxing PPV numbers arent great