Boxing and MMA are pretty much in the same position now. UFC isn't really putting on great cards on a regular basis anymore. It's usually one, maybe two good fights per card and the rest filler - the same thing they used to criticize boxing for. They both have a big night every now and then. They're coexisting peacefully, neither hurting the other. Hell, ESPN airs them back to back most weekends so if anything they help each other.
Doesnt Top Rank generally do better ratings than the UFC on ESPN? obviously its apples to oranges to a degree because the UFC keeps most of its bigger stuff for PPV.
Anyway as far as the observable metrics, boxing still has significantly more participants, last year I think (its hard to say for sure these days because the UFC rarely gives out PPV numbers anymore) Tank/Garcia, Canelo/Charlo and Spence/Crawford did better than any UFC PPV. Tank/Garcia broke a million, UFC hasnt done that since 2021.
Also the biggest attendances are mostly boxing cards, usually UK stadium shows.
I do think the UFC is a lot more "consistent" in the sense that it acts more like a sports league, it rolls along every week at a certain baseline of popularity regardless of whos fighting.
No. It's easily looked up. Teofimo's recent fight had 584k. Recent UFC prelims were over a million. And Teofimo is big name in boxing.
Big PPVs are an indication of individual stars, not the popularity of the sport. Mayweather and Pac fights were bigger than anything in the NBA/MLB/NHL besides the finals. Does that mean boxing was bigger than NBA/MLB/NHL? No, just that Mayweather and Pac were stars.
And attendance in England is irrelevant to the question of America.
Sorry the "in America" criteria slipped my mind lol.
Even so, didnt Canelo/BJS in Texas do a bigger crowd than any UFC event ever? i'm not sure the UFC has ever done a bigger attendance in the US than Spence/Ugas got too.
Where are you looking up these ratings? I used to use MMAPayout but it died a few years back. Back then there was a clear trend, PBC on Fox got the highest ratings (as it should since its network tv), Top Rank typically got higher ratings than the UFC on ESPN, and boxing outdrew Bellator on Showtime.
If the UFC is outdrawing Top Rank now i'd be surprised tbh. Maybe if theres good prelims to a big PPV card, but a ton of the UFCs free cards nowadays are Apex cards and pretty damn bad.
I was just getting the ratings by google search but here is a ratings site I just found: https://ustvdb.com/networks/espn/shows/top-rank-boxing/ https://ustvdb.com/networks/espn/shows/ufc-ppv-prelims/.
Also those garbage Apex cards aren't usually on ESPN but the streaming service ESPN+. Viewership for that is never released as far as I know.
This is not even a debate anymore.
UFC makes more money than all other MMA promotions and all boxing promotions combined.
UFC gets billion dollar broadcasting deals. Boxing can't keep broadcasters, never mind get billion dollar deals.
UFC prelims featuring nobodies do better ratings than boxing stars like Shakur, Beterbiev, Ortiz, etc on the same network.
There's no observable metric that boxing does better in other than maybe 2-3 gates a year.
It's not that serious
Francis is a genetic freak
Fury didn't take him serious enough
Fury also relies on being the bigger stronger guy … this time he wasn't
At the end of the day it's two giants throwing hands and anything can happen
Would have preferred the new weight class be in the 185-190 pound range to fill the gap between light heavy and cruiser. Fighters in the 220 pound range are going to want to be considered heavyweights, not bridgerweights.
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Figured Woodley can last to decision but wouldn't be surprised by anything.
Ben Askren was strictly a wrestler. His record was 19-2 but would have been 0-21 if he was forced to stand and that's not an exaggeration. His loss proves absolutely nothing.
The **** does this even mean? are you asking me to tell you where in the world MMA is more popular than boxing?
Loads of places. Russia, Brazil, Canada, Australia, many parts of Asia, most of if not the entire Muslim world. Currently growing huge in many parts of Africa due to 3 current champions from there. MMA has already blown up so much in South Africa, Poland and the Czech Republic that they all now have their own leagues that have surpassed the UFC in popularity.
Promoters need to come together and create their own streaming service. Something that they would all have a financial interest in seeing succeed. None would make a dent on their own but combined it would pretty much be the ultimate destination for boxing. At that point there would be more reason to make all the big fights rather than keep fighters away from each other. Only recognize one sanctioning body. One champion. Do all that and you basically have a league. Problem solved.