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Is/was MMA ever bigger than boxing?

It does feel like the biggest MMA stars (Conor, Khabib, Jorge, Nate, Izzy, Francis etc) are bigger and more known than most of the current top/biggest boxers. They seem to get more coverage then boxers as well.

Canelo, whom is one of the biggest stars in boxing and one of the best boxers of this era, had to take a back seat to Diaz and Masvidal, whom while popular are not seen as great fighters in MMA like Canelo is in boxing.

Conor remains a huge star, bigger than pretty much all the boxers, despite having multiple losses and being finished by his opponents. IDT another loss to Dustin will change much, fans will still pay to see him as he is entertaining and his fight style is entertaining.

Whether you like them or not, These Youtubers are bringing back eyes on boxing. Just look at how Askren vs Paul did lol.
 
JonJonesNeedle said:
Canelo, whom is one of the biggest stars in boxing and one of the best boxers of this era, had to take a back seat to Diaz and Masvidal, whom while popular are not seen as great fighters in MMA like Canelo is in boxing
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This is a dumb point. When's the last time you saw the UFC run a PPV on Cinco de Mayo or Mexican Independence day? It cuts both ways and doesn't really show much about which sport is bigger
 
BooBoyMan said:
MMA is bigger than boxing right now.
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In some countries it probably is (in North America probably Canada and the United States, though not Mexico). But its nowhere near as big as boxing used to be. The boxing HW champion used to be the most prestigious title in sport (in the 50's and 60's for instance). That's no longer true, but MMA has never had that kind of popularity.

There's simply no MMA fighter anywhere close to as well known as say Muhamad Ali or Mike Tyson were -- and actually I suspect Mike Tyson (though he's been retired for decades except for an exhibition fight) is still better known than any MMA fighter ever has been. And Muhammad Ali was a cultural icon the way no MMA fighter has come close to being.
 
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codfather said:
Take the US and UK out of the picture and who does boxing have?
Pacquiao and Golovkin are on the verge of retirement.
Chavez Jr, Usyk and Loma might be reasonably young, but they're shopworn.
Is international boxing just going to rely on Canelo + meme fights?
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????

Japan is probably at the best in terms of total its ever seen in boxing. The Philippines and Thailand continue to churn out top talent. Latin America is dominated by local stars that are all well known in hteir home countries. Boxing is 100% better established in the world outside than MMA. In fact, I'd argue that the US is one of the few countries where the popularity of MMA is fairly comparable to the popularity of boxing.

If you're talking specific names, I'd expect Teofimo, Tank, Haney, JC Martinez, Chris Colbert, Boots Ennis, Vergil Ortiz, Inoue, Ken Shiro and a bunch of other big names can take off and become stars. That's just off the top of my head too. Plus there are tons of guys (like Knockout CP Freshmart and Srisaket Sor Rungvisai) who are big names in their home countries but not necessarily in the US.
 
In North America, the UFC does better ratings and PPV buys than boxing on average.

Globally, it's not even close to boxing.
 
Vegeta said:
Because it is easier??
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I don't know about easier (the money is better in boxing than MMA, so if it was easier you'd expect all the MMA guys to win easy boxing championships just for the extra money), but if it was about easier and not popularity they'd do tae-kwon-do fights, where you don't actually get hit in the head.
 
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Boxing is more popular . Mma got big 2008-2016 but no one really watches or cares about it anymore ...

boxing has the Joshua fury fight to look
Forward too and mayweather still putting on “fights”

so mma was popular about 8-9 years,
 
So the reality is that fighting sports in general just aren't particularly popular now, and likely will never reach the peaks that Boxing achieved back in the day when Boxing and MLB had a virtual monopoly on the sports market.

MMA and boxing have their different audiences. MMA has a much more diverse audience from a discipline perspective because if you are a wrestler or a jiu jitsu guy, a judoka, a kickboxer, taekwondo artist, all of these people follow primarily the UFC, only boxers follow boxing. However, boxing has deep and entrenched community roots in many areas and long traditions and histories as well. The UFC has tended to outsell boxing in ppvs in the past couple years.

I think something that's also grossly overestimated is the impact that celebrity boxing will have on the business of boxing. In a nutshell, celebrity boxing benefits the celebrities. There's no palpable impact on the business of professional fight because the interest people have isn't in the activity, it's in the participants involved.

And finally, the question is really unsettled because the largest markets have no interest in combat sports at this point. Combat sports are wildly unpopular in China and India, which by themselves almost represent 40% of the global population. And many countries have some cursory interest in either sport, but it would be like the 4th or 5th most popular sport even in that country.

The reality is that boxing and mma are pretty close in size right now, there may be some margin one way or the other, but nothing like the lead that fans of either think they have. If the UFC or boxing promotions made an unprecedented push into say China or India, THAT would actually give one sport a significant lead over the other and seize the market.
 
TeenageMutantLesnarTurtle said:
The UFC has been hitting 500+k more often than boxing since like 2008.
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Ok. Say mma is more popular. They sell more. Why do the top guys make a fraction of guys who are boxing?

is the ufc more corrupt than boxing. Can you name any any combat sport where you can’t wear sponsors and wear what you want in a fight

man boxing is corrupt. I’ve followed since the mid 80s as per live fights. Then mma in maybe 96 as the first couple were impossible to see live.

I love both sports.

so how could such a popular sport where you have job jones who’s been a champ since he was 21 and approaching mid 30s. And the fan base laughs at him wanting 15 million a fight.

there are very few who sell more than him. He’s on par with gsp. Ahead of Anderson.

behind Brock lesnar and Ronda and Connor.

you have a strong stance on mma is better. I like them both and would watch a. If boxing event live and watch mma after.

so why does only ufc guys hate it when they’re succesful outside of Connor as he got to box Floyd. Why would a destructive champ like nganou be stripped for wanting more money?

i
 
Boxing still has more global penetration, due to being a legacy sport.

But give it time. MMA has far more fuel in it.
 
chiefwiggum said:
Ok. Say mma is more popular. They sell more. Why do the top guys make a fraction of guys who are boxing?
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Because its only existed since the 90s and one company monopolizes it.

I expect the pay to catch up in the 2030s tbh. Just look at the kind of money guys are making in MMA now compared to 15-20 years ago.
 
TeenageMutantLesnarTurtle said:
Because its only existed since the 90s and one company monopolizes it.

I expect the pay to catch up in the 2030s tbh. Just look at the kind of money guys are making in MMA now compared to 15-20 years ago.
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How are you expecting pay to catch up to boxing in 10 years?
 
Rousey temporarily crossed into the mainstream, as did Conor, but Ali, Floyd, Tyson, have stayed there for years.
 
AnotherOldGuy said:
The boxing HW champion used to be the most prestigious title in sport (in the 50's and 60's for instance).
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I wasnt around back then, but I suspect this is an America-centric rose tinted glasses narrative and not really true. The HW scene was practically an American domestic thing for many decades, I have a hard time believing it ever held more importance around the world than something like the World Cup.

AnotherOldGuy said:
There's simply no MMA fighter anywhere close to as well known as say Muhamad Ali or Mike Tyson were -- and actually I suspect Mike Tyson (though he's been retired for decades except for an exhibition fight) is still better known than any MMA fighter ever has been. And Muhammad Ali was a cultural icon the way no MMA fighter has come close to being.
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I honestly think this is rose tinted glasses to some degree too. I do FEEL that Tyson was bigger when he was active than Conor is, but if you look at the actual PPV numbers. Mike generated 14.3m total buys across 14 fights/17 years, Conor 11.2m across 8 MMA fights/6 years, and then his boxing match with Floyd did like 5 million which is more than double the buys that Mikes biggest fight did. Conor/Khabib also did more than any of Mikes fights. And back then the PPVs were cheaper and it was much harder to get them for free. Mikes name/face was likely more known due to stuff like the Holyfield bite and going to jail, but as an actual draw there doesnt seem to be much in it. In the last 5 years of his career Mikes numbers were mostly pretty shitty too, like sub 500k.

When Ali was an active fighter the global population was like half what it is today, a much bigger % of people were living in poverty, less people had access to tv, no internet etc. I dont doubt that he was very famous at the time but its a safe bet 90% of the people that know his name/face today learned about him long after he retired.
 
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TeenageMutantLesnarTurtle said:
Because of the massive growth thats already happened, combined with the very public push for it to grow even more. Getting Conor money was inconceivable in the 00s.
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It'll increase but I doubt you're going to see more common Conor paydays. The UFC has all the leverage and they're going to keep fighter wage share under 20 percent while likely putting on the same number or more fights.

Compare how quick boxing got its first Conor payday to how quick the UFC got its, and you'll see the issue
 
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