Ok.
Have it your way.
Answer this genuis.
Out of this list of MMA fighters how would you rank them based on popularity.
Conor Mcgregor
Fedor Emelianenko
George Saint Pierre
Jon Jones
Aung La Nsang
Brock Lesnar
Just put those in order for me please. Thanks.
As I mentioned, for now we cannot be sure, since Nsang receiving current support mixes these cards.
It might be slightly more or slightly less between Nsang and Mcgregor, or Nsang may be MUCH more popular. Definitely not vise versa though.
As of the others, we can actually measure them indeed by ratings, PPV buys, and overall fanbase, since neither of them gained national hero status.
So McGregor stands above all them, as breaking the whole MMA records of being watched on TV.
Then goes Lesnar: both of them are the only fighters for now who actually broke MMA niche.
After them goes the most GSP, with huge , loving and faithful fanbase that will buy his fights in any case.
Fedor and Jones - both are not in the same league.
Jones does not have a big fanbase. People tuned to watch him fights for curiosity, controversy (the "feud" with Cormier was his most prosperous era PPV-vise) and sometimes to wish he would lose. But he doesn't have a dedicated fanbase.
Fedor's fanbase is much smaller considering to his achievements in MMA, unfortunately. Hardcore MMA fans are his biggest fans, the older the better. He was not that appealing to Japanese crowd as it seemed, there were always other celebrities closer to their hearts- like Wanderlei, Hidehiko Yoshida etc. He was not a center of their attention. Russians are also not a good fanbase for Fedor - recent generation of Russian fans proved to be jackals, that do not support his fighters when they lose. Unfortunately.
Hope that this made you some order in your perception of MMA fighters' popularity.
As you can see, the answer isn't simple, because it's not exact sciences as well (even though the answer in exact sciences is not always simple).
But I did like to have an opportunity to make someone smarter.
