BoxRec

There are two ways to answer this, for you personally, and as a sport in general.

For myself, a few years ago i would never have entertained this question. I was not a fan of MMA at all. I never watched it and would even talk it down. Around 2015 i got into watching the UFC, and my interest has grown steadily ever since, to the point where i now find myself more regularly hyped to watch UFC fights than boxing matches. How dud it get to this, i wonder?

What has boxing got in the pipeline that i can personally get excited about? Fury v Wilder 2, yes its interesting and i look forward to it, but the build up is all nonsense IMO, quite predictable and boring. Joshua vs Pulev - semi interesting. How long will we wait for the Fury Wilder fights, will they ever happen??? Josh Taylors future has me buzzing, would love to see the Ramirez fight happen soon. Outside of that what else is there. Will Saunders or Smith ever get to fight Canelo, i'm beyond caring to be honest. Maybe they will fight each other, woo hoo. Brook vs who?? he's not done yet, he still wants Khan, he wants Spence rematch, yawn. Golovkin, not really interested anymore. Crawford, great talent, but if no Spence not very exciting times for his career. Mayweather vs Pacman 2, give me a break. The point is, for me personally, there is not much going on in boxing for me to get excited about.

UFC on the other hand, i'm hyped to watch Khabib vs Ferguson, Edwards vs Woodley, Jones vs Reyes, Adesanya vs Romero, and thats all in the next 2 months. I'm hyped to see who McGregor fights next, Masvidal, Khabib, Usman? I'm hyped to see where Covington goes from here, that fight with Usman was electric. I'm hyped to see Jones move up to heavyweight. And the list goes on. And it will all happen soon, with the UFC its almost a guarantee. And unlike with boxing, i enjoy watching the women fights in UFC. Amanda Nunes is a beast. The UFC has so much depth to it and they do it all so well. The build ups to the event nights are entertaining, the cards are stacked, one champion per weight class with less weight classes, the best are made to fight the best all the time. Its always a win win for the fans.

I never thought i would say this, but i am currently more into watching MMA than boxing. And that is comming from a hardcore boxing fan of 25 or so years.

As to the second question, is the UFC surpassing boxing in popularity as a sport? I dont have access to any stats and figures to say one way or the other, probably boxing PPV sells higher numbers, but the UFC PPV events i believe are starting to regularly surpass 1 million buys. McGregor vs Khabib did 2.4 million. Thats huge, and competes with most of boxings biggest events. Sure boxing has a historic, legendary past, with the Ali era, Tyson, etc etc, but where are we now as a sport, and what does the future hold? I feel its declining. The UFC on the other hand is growing rapidly, year on year on year, and i cannot see it slowing down anytime soon. McGregor is arguably the biggest global name in combat sports just now? As far as combat sports go, it seems to me if MMA is not currently number one, it will likely soon knock boxing off from that top spot.

I know many on here will be like i was a few years ago and pay zero attention to the UFC. I still dont know all the moves and techniques, far from it, but i am captivated by it as a combat sport, now i have given it the time it rightly deserves. I am genuinely curious to see if other hardcore boxing fans are gaining interest in the UFC, and if you think MMA is surpassing boxing as the number one combat sport.

No. He's not.

It varies from country to country, but I think Boxing and it's rich history will be hard to surpass on a Worldwide basis.

.

Stuarty wrote: ↑29 Jan 2020, 16:41 No. He's not.

Who is then, Canelo?

ALI wrote: ↑29 Jan 2020, 16:47

Stuarty wrote: ↑29 Jan 2020, 16:41 No. He's not.

Who is then, Canelo?

Not sure to be honest! WBU?

gilgamesh wrote: ↑29 Jan 2020, 16:45 It varies from country to country, but I think Boxing and it's rich history will be hard to surpass on a Worldwide basis.

but its currently waining, i believe. Its not in great shape. Maybe it just takes the emergence of a few big stars to reignite the entire sport, but its certainly in a lull just now, thats how i feel anyway. There are very few exciting fights on the horizon.

I’ve been wondering this myself recently, my interest in boxing has definitely waned over the last few years. Just down to the obvious stuff really - big fights not being made, total sh!t on PPV which I refuse to buy, the effective demise of B0xnati0n and the lack of international cards it used to bring. All those factors have contributed to boxing just being less interesting and less accessible.

I’m not a huge fan of MMA, but I can certainly see the attraction.

Yes for me and in the US. A great boxing match is still my favorite but they are extremely rare. The product mma puts out is miles better. The best fight the best, etc..

No. You only have to look at the fighters purses. It's biggest star had to come to boxing to get his biggest payday.

Steveh583 wrote: ↑29 Jan 2020, 17:38 No. You only have to look at the fighters purses. It's biggest star had to come to boxing to get his biggest payday.

In the UFC there is only one promoter who controls every fighter on the roster, so he can pay them pretty much whatever he wants. If we had the same scenario in boxing, you can be sure the pruses would be similar to the UFC, so that point is mute.

In reference to UFC purses, they have an interesting pay structure. The more fights you have, the more your pay level increases, as it also does when you progress up the rankings. They also entice fighters to fight hard and put on a show for the fans, for example, a fighters purse is increased by 50% if they win, and in addition, on each UFC card, they declare a fight of the night, where the two participants in fight of the night get a healthy bonus to share. I'm not sure if i have ever seen anyone take a dive in the UFC, or act like they have just turned up to collect the cheque. Terms like "he's coming to win" etc are strictly for boxing, in the UFC there is no such nonsense, or such cr*p like Big Star vs T.B.C. There is nobody with the name T.B.C. in the UFC.

I would rather watch a UFC event than a boxing event at this point. You're guaranteed a pretty competitive main event most of the time. Blaydes vs JDS was a very good exciting fight last weekend, fine performance from Blaydes. Then I tuned into Danny garcia going a dull 12 rounds vs Redkach. We have Fury and Wilder next month and you know Fury is going to fight negatively and try to nick a decision. I'll be watching Felder vs Hooker if it's on at the same time as Fury Wilder myself.

Steveh583 wrote: ↑29 Jan 2020, 17:38 No. You only have to look at the fighters purses. It's biggest star had to come to boxing to get his biggest payday.

Might be better to look at their TV deals. ESPN paid the UFC 1.5 billion, arum didn't get that much. Boxers are overpaid at the top, that's the biggest problem. The UFC fighters make plenty more than is reported anyway.

I've no doubt UFC's more popular than boxing (has been for a few years), but the skills I most appreciate are still largely unique to boxing. I watched a replay of McGregor-Cerrone for example, and after the kick buzzed Cerrone he turned away and left himself wide open. Not blaming him — I might've done the same, but that's a 101 for anyone who's boxed at a high level, even when hurt.

And I rate Khabib's wrestling because he's obviously great at it, but his standup sucks. I've always said that boxing benefits from increased rules forcing its fighters to increase their finesse. Lots of neat skills don't translate to UFC, and yet it's not representative of no-rules either (not that I'd support that), leaving it as an oft-times clumsy spectacle with occasional moments of wild entertainment.

I still feel that boxing has quite a bit of talent, but of course the dickbags in charge get in the way.

lol at UFC pay per views regularly surpassing a million buys.

Every time a UFC does that many buys Dana has to say it to every camera on the same continent as himself for as long as he can(it really is part of his job to do that).

The UFC has had 15 total pay views that reached a million buys with the last one being UFC 229 McGregor vs Khabib in 2018.

UFC 230: 250,000 buys
UFC 231: 300,000 buys
UFC 232: 700,000 buys
UFC 234: 175,000 buys(Silva/Adesanya)
UFC 235: 650,00 buys
UFC 236: 100,000 buys
UFC 237: 100, 000 buys

https://www.tapology.com/search/mma-eve ... ys-buyrate
https://www.statista.com/statistics/680 ... y-buyrate/
https://www.businessinsider.com/the-50- ... pv-buys-51

Some of those buyrates are pretty good but not one approaches a million.

Didn't see any buyrates for UFC 238 and beyond.
Dana makes sure the whole world knows when a UFC hits a million buys but when that doesn't happen it takes a while before buyrates start popping up.

I bet McGregor/cerrone came close if it didn't. Then again, boxing has nothing on the horizon I could see getting a million buys in the States.

Onetimeonly wrote: ↑29 Jan 2020, 18:48 I bet McGregor/cerrone came close if it didn't. Then again, boxing has nothing on the horizon I could see getting a million buys in the States.

That was 11 days ago.
If it did a million+ buys Dana will be saying it soon.

Now that Canelo is off of pay per view McGregor is pretty much the only fighter that gets a million buys.

Perseus wrote: ↑29 Jan 2020, 19:00

Onetimeonly wrote: ↑29 Jan 2020, 18:48 I bet McGregor/cerrone came close if it didn't. Then again, boxing has nothing on the horizon I could see getting a million buys in the States.

That was 11 days ago.
If it did a million+ buys Dana will be saying it soon.

Now that Canelo is off of pay per view McGregor is pretty much the only fighter that gets a million buys.

McGregor vs Cerrone is being reported as reaching over 2 million PPV buys.

Perseus wrote: ↑29 Jan 2020, 19:00

Onetimeonly wrote: ↑29 Jan 2020, 18:48 I bet McGregor/cerrone came close if it didn't. Then again, boxing has nothing on the horizon I could see getting a million buys in the States.

That was 11 days ago.
If it did a million+ buys Dana will be saying it soon.

Now that Canelo is off of pay per view McGregor is pretty much the only fighter that gets a million buys.

Khabib/Ferguson will.

ALI wrote: ↑29 Jan 2020, 19:04

Perseus wrote: ↑29 Jan 2020, 19:00

That was 11 days ago.
If it did a million+ buys Dana will be saying it soon.

Now that Canelo is off of pay per view McGregor is pretty much the only fighter that gets a million buys.

McGregor vs Cerrone is being reported as reaching over 2 million PPV buys.

It is not being reported as having reached over 2 million buys.

It is being reported that UFC 246 would have done 2 million buys under the old pay per view cable based distribution system.
UFC no longer uses that system in North America.
You first need a subscription to espn+
As of November 2019 espn+ had 3.5 million subscribers.

https://www.bloodyelbow.com/2020/1/20/2 ... s-mma-news
https://www.thewrap.com/espn-plus-hulu- ... rs-disney/

You don't have to have ESPN+ to order the ppvs. But they bundle it to where you pretty much get a year for free when you buy one.

No.

I mean, I haven't done any studies of coverage or sales etc or anything like that on it, but on a day to day basis I hear far more people talking about MMA than boxing

Onetimeonly wrote: ↑29 Jan 2020, 20:53 You don't have to have ESPN+ to order the ppvs. But they bundle it to where you pretty much get a year for free when you buy one.

So how do you(legally) get it without espn+?
I'm asking because I am not an espn+ subscriber and would like to know.
Doesn't mean I will buy one but I want to know how to legally get it.

Perseus wrote: ↑29 Jan 2020, 21:25

Onetimeonly wrote: ↑29 Jan 2020, 20:53 You don't have to have ESPN+ to order the ppvs. But they bundle it to where you pretty much get a year for free when you buy one.

So how do you(legally) get it without espn+.
I'm asking because I am not an espn+ subscriber and would like to know.
Doesn't mean I will buy one but I want to know how to legally get it.

Go to ESPN and buy it. They direct you. I was already subscribed and they gave me a year and a ppv for I think $75. Or I could have just bought the ppv for $60.