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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Obviously the exact disparity is gonna vary from week to week. Boxing has more events but I think a lot of people expect the gap to be way bigger than it is, and also underestimate how international MMA actually is now.
I dont have one. I’m just speaking from my experiences as an avid follower of both. Suppose you could look up the schedules for both on Taplogy with the “tv and streaming” filter on but i’m too lazy right now. But off the top of my head MMA has UFC, Bellator, PFL, One (granted barely an MMA promotion now), KSW, Rizin, Brave, Oktagon, Cage Warriors, Ares, UAE Warriors, LFA, ACA etc etc all holding events on a somewhat regular basis, getting filmed, having English commentary and being relatively easy to watch somewhere official.
Yes I am from the UK, the UK is an anomaly for boxing though, most countries do not have the kind of domestic scene or casual interest for the sport that we do. Also MMA itself has a sizeable following in the UK. I would say theres a decent amount of crossover between the fanbases. Really the UFC hasnt capitalized as well as they probably could on Aspinall and Paddy.
What cards do you think typically are getting more viewers spread across a wider range of nations than the UFC? remember i’m not talking about the viewership for ALL boxing cards combined, i’m saying the UFC is probably getting on average more viewers globally than any specific promotions boxing cards. Its the WWE/NFL/NBA effect, ie wherever you are in the world, if you’re an MMA fan, you’re probably following the UFC, thats not the case with boxing as its much more fragmented across multiple promotions and domestic scenes, no one platform has the kind of international reach that the UFC does. The exception being when a major name like Canelo, AJ, Fury etc etc fights. But for the most part how many people outside of the UK are tuning in to some random Matchroom card? how many people outside of America are tuning in to some random Top Rank card?
If we are using inactive names as well then obviously Brock was too. Dunno if i’d put Anderson, GSP, Chuck, Randy, Jones etc on that level but they are more well known than the vast majority of boxers that have shown up in the last 20 years.
In my job I do a lot of traveling around Western and southern europe and I can tell you from experience when watching TV there is far far more Boxing on the sports channels shown than MMA and it’s not even close.
MMA wasn’t even legal in France until 2020.
I obviously don’t need to explain just how huge Boxing is in Eastern europe.
So really not sure what you are basing your experiences on when you say that it seems more MMA cards get filmed than Boxing ones.
I think your confusion is stemming from the fact that you are comparing a specific company from one sport to another.
I’m talking about the sports as a whole. So while the UFC may get X amount of viewers for a specific card there will be far more viewers for Y amount of smaller Boxing promotions combined during the same duration.