If there were only a handful of decent fight cards in MMA per year, and only one, MAYBE two, stars on each of them, then a major headliner fighting his once yearly fight could fill an American football stadium.
We get a shit load of good MMA cards every year, and some fantastic ones.
Then come to find out the once yearly fighter gets beat. He’ll never have this big of a draw again.
Highest UFC attendance record was 56,000 for a card headlined by two girls
Very very shamefull and humiliating for the company IMHO.
Debatible…
Joshua had lost 3 times before the 98,000 attendance (Numbers according to Turki) so that is not quite true in Boxing. At least for British fighters.
Hatton drew a huge stadium crowd as well straight after losing his undefeated record to Mayweather too.
So 56,000 in the midst of a shit load of cards per year from one promotion, vs 98,000 for the sport’s biggest draw in the midst of a handful of cards total by all the promotions combined. Wrestling drew almost 90,000 in the same stadium.
If Conor kept fighting and wasn’t a flake, there’s no doubt in my mind he could have pulled those numbers.
A record crowd of 56,000 for a couple of low skilled women looks pretty bad for the UFC IMHO.
Also Joshua isn’t the sports biggest draw Canelo is.
There are far more Boxing cards worldwide every week than there are UFC ones so not sure why you are claiming Saturday’s event was put on in the midst of only a handfull of cards?
I don’t doubt Conor could pull huge numbers but how many other UFC fighters could sell out giant stadiums?
Tyson Fury has also pulled huge numbers at large Stadiums in the UK like Joshua.
The point is not to put the UFC or MMA down this thread was just to laugh at those who used to argue so strongly on the old site that Boxing was dying and that MMA was swallowing it up as it would eventually pull in all the best fighters in the world.
50k a year isn’t gonna cut it.
When they removed fighter sponsors they really gave it to em without lube.
This is why the UFC heavyweight champion moved to Boxing to make more money in one fight than he did his entire MMA career.
They don’t pay well in MMA.
Ask Frank Mir who headlined a million + selling PPV and didn’t even earn 7 figures from it.
It totally fucked the sport, imo.
It was just a huge FU to the fighters, while at the same time becoming more corporate.
Some people think that just because boxing may have waned in popularity in the US for a few years, it was just not popular. In fact, boxing is absolutely huge in Europe and South America. GGG, Canelo, Bud Crawford, Kilitchko, Wilder, Fury, Usyk, Joshua, Inoue, Spence, Tank, Ryan Garcia, Teofimo, Lomachenko and many others have all been huge stars of the last couple decades. Boxing is a very big ticket in the US and around the world. Also, boxing is fucking awesome.
It’s put off a lot of potential talent too.
It’s obvious that you will make way more money in Boxing than MMA so the sport becomes far less appealing as a result.
Exactly. Dana thought the well of talent would run over forever when the sport burst into the mainstream.
Wrong. Mishandled.
I remember making these same arguments on the UG over a decade a go and was repeatedly told how stupid and delusional I was and how I couldn’t let go that Boxing was dying and being replaced by a much better sport.
Somehow many of them just couldn’t grasp that there was a whole world outside of the U.S or they just didn’t seem to care. One or the other probably.
K1 did that in Japan during that time.
How’s it doing since?
Tbf the UFC is having a weaker era for star power right now while boxing isnt. It can turn on its head very quickly especially considering that Conor, Jones, Izzy, Poatan and also AJ, Fury, Wilder, Usyk, Canelo, Loma, Crawford are all most likely gone within the next few years.
Both sports are niche as fuck on most of the planet. But the difference is MMA has the UFC acting as the NFL/NBA/WWE etc of its sport and centralizing the attention. Hence why its the biggest combat sports promotion on the planet by a wide margin and probably has more people globally watching it on the typical weekend than any particular boxing card does.
Looking it up from Boxrec and Sherdog theres 80 pro boxing events scheduled across 26 countries from now until the end of the month, and 68 across 29 happening for MMA. The gap isnt as big as people think it is. You will struggle to even find footage of most of those boxing events too, it seems to me like a higher ratio of MMA cards actually get filmed, have commentary and can be watched.
Yes because K1 in Japan is comparable to the sport of Boxing worldwide.
Source?
I’m not sure you realize just how many Boxing cards are on a weekly basis compared to MMA.
If you think the watered down cards of the UFC are getting more views than Boxing (on average) in places like Mexico or Europe then you are misinformed.
John fury, the fighting man, the machine! Saved boxing
Will check another time but last I checked there were far far more Boxing cards on a weekly basis across the world than MMA and the gulf was bigger than the figures you quoted.
You say that it seems like a higher ratio of MMA cards get filmed but what is your source?
You are from the UK if I remember correctly? If so then you should know that there is way more Boxing shown here on TV than there is MMA.
He has been strangely quiet since the Usyk defeat.