Help with my university project

[Jeff Thomas]

Hello folks,

I trust your all having a smashing day (its always best to start with something nice when your asking for something!!!). I'm in the final year of my degree in business management and rather then write about Maslow and his hierarchy of needs like every other student i've decided to be a bit creative and i'm going to do a study into the differences between the marketing of MMA and the marketing of boxing and try and find out if the sports are really in opposite trajectories and try to make suggestions as to how both sports can gain more popularity. As you can see its not a simple topic but I was wandering if anyone in the industry could make certain information available to me?

I've not even looked at anything yet- this is literally the first time i've even thought about things but I'm just waying up what i'll need in terms of decent research material. Does anyone know of any way I could get hold of HBO's ppv figures for boxing and MMA? Could anyone from SKY give me some decent information? Does anyone know anyone at allegedly who might be interested in helping? Would any of the promoters give me a bit of a hand or time to chat about things?

Have any of you guys got any suggestions?

I'm going to use this thread to ask questions not and again too and i'll prob do some primary research here and on eastside in terms of questionnaires if anyone can help?

Anyways thanks alot.

[Jeff Thomas]

I could do with these figures if possible;

magazine sales
website visits
live gate sales
viewing figures
pay per view buys

Anyone think of other indicators as to how a sport is performing in terms of popularity?

[JC]

For a quick and dirty measurement you could use search traffic

http://www.google.com/insights/search/# ... ing&cmpt=q

Shows "UFC" overtook "boxing" as a search term around 2009.

[dondada]

For a quick and dirty measurement you could use search traffic

http://www.google.com/insights/search/# ... ing&cmpt=q

Shows "UFC" overtook "boxing" as a search term around 2009.

What a great stat!

[Jeff Thomas]

For a quick and dirty measurement you could use search traffic

http://www.google.com/insights/search/# ... ing&cmpt=q

Shows "UFC" overtook "boxing" as a search term around 2009.

Brilliant thank you very much

[Asterix]

There's also this: http://www.google.co.uk/trends?q=boxing ... all&sort=0

It shows that boxing is more popular/searched in most countries, but MMA/UFC is more popular in North America.

[hurlock]

mayweather allways seem's to know his figures of sales etc.i allways wonder were the journo's etc. get there figures from.id thought brain box jeffro would have it coverd tho :!:

[smoggy7188]

Alrite Bomber, the best place for gate sales for the UFC is Wikipedia, just put in say UFC 103 it gives you an attendance, buy rate and total gate with links to sites where they got those figures from.

[Captain Hook]

If you contact Ian Munzberger at HFFS in Deeside, he is operating both sports out of a gym there and bringing the likes of Rampage Jackson, the Wolfslair crew and Cheick Congo to North Wales, as well as boxing training with Jamie Moore

He used to manage Wolfslair and plans to set up fight teams for MMA and boxing in 2012

Straddling both sports and they're all in the know. Mooresy had some interesting views on marketing boxing when spoke to him recently.

http://www.dailypost.co.uk/sport-news/b ... -29716360/

Excuse the shameless link but it is relevant!

I have other contacts that may be able to help so feel free to drop me a line anytime mate - [email protected]

[hurlock]

im a big fan of mooresy but i dont think he'd of beaten martinez back then :!:

[Jeff Thomas]

Great thanks for all that so far thats really helpful

[Jeff Thomas]

Great thanks for all that so far thats really helpful

My sister, Anne, is married to this guy called Dana who has something to do with mixed martial arts. I think he got into it because he has a name that sounds like an Irish Eurovision contestant and was getting bullied. I could ask him if he'd mind having a chat with you, if you want?

Dana Whyte

[Captain Hook]

:)

[jamielaststand2011]

@Jeff Thomas - Eddie Hearn is pretty active on Twitter. Im sure if you sent him a tweet he would be happy to help.
https://twitter.com/#!/EddieHearn

[Deserter]

Jeff, great choice of subject matter. You can get mag sales for Boxing News as it's ABC audited:

http://www.abc.org.uk/Products-Services ... ?tid=13972

However for other titles such as Fighters Only you'll need either the publisher to give you an honest figure, or access to an industry 'insider' who can access things like WH Smith EPOS data.

One thing you shouldn't overlook is the importance of merchandising, as this is an area where UFC/MMA has completely bitch-slapped boxing - companies like Tap-Out have come from nowhere over the past few years to become genuine global brands.

[Jeff Thomas]

@Jeff Thomas - Eddie Hearn is pretty active on Twitter. Im sure if you sent him a tweet he would be happy to help.
https://twitter.com/#!/EddieHearn

Thanks mate

[Jeff Thomas]

Jeff, great choice of subject matter. You can get mag sales for Boxing News as it's ABC audited:

http://www.abc.org.uk/Products-Services ... ?tid=13972

However for other titles such as Fighters Only you'll need either the publisher to give you an honest figure, or access to an industry 'insider' who can access things like WH Smith EPOS data.

One thing you shouldn't overlook is the importance of merchandising, as this is an area where UFC/MMA has completely bitch-slapped boxing - companies like Tap-Out have come from nowhere over the past few years to become genuine global brands.

Thanks yep seen this - thanks very much mate

[Glyn Leach]

Don't think UFC has been on HBO Jeffro, not sure though. On Showtime these days, main broadcaster has been Spike TV. Always found UFC particularly helpful to deal with though, the numbers are on their site. They're certainly more likely to be open about figures than boxing people, but then I've also encountered difficulties with them when trying to get exact figures for TV shows. Did an interview with Dana White on this subject a couple of years ago, good talker. If I can't find the interview on my computer I can send you a copy of the mag with it in it.

[Mensa07]

if I were you mate I'd start putting together a list of email addresses, phone numbers, twitter/facebook accounts for all the boxing and mma websites, magazines, journalists, and promo companys out there. that part is pretty easy nowadays with the net.

Then as you say think about your metrics, how are you measuring 'popularity'? what specific info do you need from your contact list?

Magazines and websites should be happy to give you their (possibly inflated) reach figures, they can tell you how many hits/sales they do and also where they do them. this might be good info for measuring growth, ie. has boxing spiked in asia with pacman's rise? where is MMA most popular today, where is it growing fastest?

fight hype is a cross boxing/mma site so that might be a good place to start, the owner Ben Thompson is a good bloke and he's on facebook.

also alexa.com is a tool for showing website popularity, you could use it to compare boxing/mma reach.

contact the national licensing boards? how many registered pro boxers are there in the uk today? compared to the past ten years? is the number of participants shrinking or growing? how many ABC's and MMA gyms are in the country?

let us know how its going, sounds an interesting project.

[Trojans44]

For background reading on the state of boxing and what the failings are I'd reccomend any of Thomas Hauser's stuff on secondsout and sweetscience. He's written extensively about HBO for example.

[Flashing Blade]

For anything to do with the business of MMA, mmapayout.com is a useful source.

The MMA Payout Blue Book http://mmapayout.com/blue-book/ has figures for the last few years. Gates and receipts are usually verified by athletic commisions. PPV buys can only ever be estimates when the company releasing them is in private hands.

This Saturday is of huge significance as the UFC makes its debut on network TV with live coverage on FOX of the Junior Dos Santos v Cain Velasquez heavyweight title fight.

If you want to look at the UK, live UFC events are always in the top ten shows on ESPN so you can search the BARB figures for he relevant week.

For background on the UK MMA scene, I would strongly suggest you buy Bloody Revolution: A Journey into UK http://www.amazon.co.uk/Bloody-Revoluti ... 591&sr=8-1 as it discusses the development and current state of the sport (and because I wrote it).

[Flashing Blade]

A promo for the first UFC on FOX with Bon Arum taking centre stage.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yThVrdR7 ... embedded#!

[reggaereggae]

For a quick and dirty measurement you could use search traffic

http://www.google.com/insights/search/# ... ing&cmpt=q

Shows "UFC" overtook "boxing" as a search term around 2009.

Brilliant thank you very much

This is definitely an interesting statistic..... but if I can say, be sure to put this data into perspective for the bigger picture. UFC is, esp in the USA, the most well-known MMA organisation and most well known. When the general public look for MMA or Cage Fighting, UFC is the most likely association. If you look athe 'official' sports name; IE MMA; boxing is about double that on searches.

I would suggest that because of its newness (IE people want to find out about it) and high represenattion of younger internet-savvy fans; it is not that surprising that UFC ranks higher than 'boxing'.

Also look at other combat sports: EG http://www.google.com/insights/search/# ... ing&cmpt=q EG KArate is very close to both - it is a sport that many may want to take part in; but bear in mind there is not remotely the money, TV or viewing figures of the other 2.
It may also be worth looking at say; the top 10 names in either sport and seeing how they rank.

MY 10 cents! hope it helps

[Jeff Thomas]

Don't think UFC has been on HBO Jeffro, not sure though. On Showtime these days, main broadcaster has been Spike TV. Always found UFC particularly helpful to deal with though, the numbers are on their site. They're certainly more likely to be open about figures than boxing people, but then I've also encountered difficulties with them when trying to get exact figures for TV shows. Did an interview with Dana White on this subject a couple of years ago, good talker. If I can't find the interview on my computer I can send you a copy of the mag with it in it.

just in time for my subscription renewal glyn - on the ball you guys

[kamicazze]

One major difference in the promotion of events is that UFC promotes the whole show. From the undercard to the main event and sometimes takes a pro wrestling approach to the selling of the event. See Chael Sonnen. Whereas Boxing will only promote the main event, only televise that and maybe on support match and for the rest of the evening the arena is empty whilst everyone is at the bar.
On the flip side, UFC don't have success with building a fighter up from no bouts. They've normally had bouts in other companies prior to coming to UFC. The guys who eventually make it to the top in UFC already have the skills, get a few televised fights for exposure them put in main event.
I'd try contact Dave O'donnell who was promoter for UCMMA, Cage Rage and BAMMA. Marcuz Zeleznik (i think his name is) who is the UFC uk promoter and maybe a small time promoter such as cage warriors one. And then Eddie Hearn, Francis and George Warren, and Steve Wood.
I say all these as they are probably realistic in terms of getting in contact with.