Dana White: UFC Is Now Bigger Than Boxing & WWE Combined

[Battle*Hardened]

They sell out arenas in Australia, Germany and England like it's the united states. They have plans on going to Japan and China right away and everywhere else in Europe, remember the UFC only got big around 2005-2006 unlike Boxing that's been around since my great grandpa was born. Give them time..

The NFL sells out stadiums across seas once a year to. Does that mean anyone over there seriously cares all that much about it? Does it mean its more popular then soccer?

[etlux]

I guess it's a sore subject for you. Sad.

I'm comparing UFC's ppv numbers against boxings ppv numbers.

UFC have a fair share of free cards aswell that could be compared to hbo BAD etc.

I never said mma is bigger than boxing globally.


As i said. I never said UFC is bigger than boxing on a global scale. Only in US.

PPV boxing is not a small part. Most of the really big fights are PPV and that ofcourse is a great indicator on the sports popularity.
The fact that UFC can keep up their 500k+ numbers while doing multiple ppv shows per month is really impressive.

And if you would compared HBO bad, FNF etc against the free mma that is on tv, theres probably not a big difference.


It's sad to see you combine your tourettes with an inability to read.

Well as long as you just admitted that boxing annihilates UFC globally then we're on the same page because it's not even a comparison. Boxing has literally hundreds of cards PER DAY globally that you will never hear of, generating money on a global scale. In every possible type of country from Thailand to Canada to Russia etc. Boxing is gargantuan there are boxing gyms in small countries, poor countries like in Africa etc where people have never even HEARD of MMA. On a global scale boxing utterly dominates MMA/UFC and PPV is only a tiny FRACTION of Boxing's total net $$$ on a global scale. There are only a handful of PPV cards per year yet there are tens of thousands of matches that you will never hear about, generating money per year. There is no comparison, boxing is a global sport, MMA is a tiny niche fad by comparison and generates very small $$$ compared to boxing.

[Dorian]

Stop making it sound like they do it on a constant basis, truth is they sold out a few times and boxing sells out ten times more arenas in Europe. Boxing dominates Europe, no one even knows or cares about UFC over there just because they sold out once or twice whereas Boxing regularly sells out Arenas in europe on a constant basis. Boxing has made viewing records in the past few years in many european countries such as Germany. UFC does no such thing there.

Boxing is bigger in Europe, no doubt but the UFC first went to Europe in what? 2007? I'm not exactly sure but around there. They just started getting big. Let's wait and see how big they get in a few more years or decades in that matter before we compare the sports popularity in Europe.

In the US, it's a different story tho.

[SkillspayBills]

When his fighters get paid ANYWHERE NEAR the amount of some, even mid level fighters than Dana can talk. Right now even his top stars barely make 6 figures per fight.

[Ragnar Lothbrok]

People wanted to see Kimbo fight so Dana signed him for 2 fights and drew huge numbers, Brock Lesnar brought over tons of WWE fans when he joined the UFC.

I don't think their rejects of other sports like you claim, there are so many young guys who grew up wanting to be MMA fighters(GSP is one).

Boxing has been around for how long? MMA/UFC just got serious attention from 2005-2006 and up and look where they are right now in such a short amount of time.

boxing has a 100 year plus built in history, tradition, & fan base. The complete opposite of MMA/UFC.

In my opinion, the ufc/mma in its rawest & purest form was at its best during the black box cable days where there where no weight classes, everybody fought at the same night.

UFC/MMA now has completely lost its edge. It has become commercial. It lost a lot of its intrigue when it became too structured, too organized. It has reached its plateau even though its history is still in its infancy, & that does not bode well for its sport & future.

[King Ghidorah]

Zuffa/Dana White... Slowly killing the sport of MMA.....

[Barry Halls]

& did brock lesnar make the team? I like GSP but he is nowhere near a transcendent athlete. GSP & Spider sliva are nowhere near mainstream level popularity in the U.S.

No he didn't but his tests scores where really impressive. He basically walked into the sport to try it and was quite close to make the team.

Wrestlers are generally viewed as a very athletic endeavor, and he had great success in that sport in college.

UFC has reached its plateau. Every time i watch a MMA fight, the majority of their fighter's striking technique is sloppy, their stamina very amateurish, & the majority of their fights are crappy due to all the clinching on the floor & on the cage.

I think this is a biased opinion. You just don't follow the sport enough to make that call.

I've watched since early 2000s and i can tell you mma is progressing very nicely, and has not reached even close to a plateu.
This is basically the "leather helmet" stage of mma. It will only get better.

Their business model might be great but they do not have a proven talent factory that churns out great talent year in year out like boxing.

MMA would need to focus on developing a solid amateur program. It's hard to compete athletic wise against a sport like boxing which is an olympic sport.

Now you mostly get people who practiced one single area of the sport and then branch out into putting it all together as adults.

[etlux]

there are close to 200 countries int he world. If every country on average has several boxing cards per day let's say even 3 on average (some big countries will have much more, some small ones will have zero or 1 so the average let's say is 3) that's 3 x 200 (rough numbers just to show a point) is 600 boxing cards per day. Let's say each card generates on average to be generous $5000. That's 600 x 5000 = $3,000,000 per day that boxing is generating (these numbers could be far higher).

$3 million per day times 365 days per year is $1,095,000,000 i.e. one billion dollars just non PPV cards. Now multiply all PPV cards per year and they probably generate an additional several hundred million so let's say boxing generates $1,500,000,000 to 2,000,000,000 per annum.

UFC functions mainly as a PPV sport. I have googled it and there is information stating that UFC generates around $200,000,000 per year from PPV's.

Now compare my estimate for boxing globally generating in the 1 billion ++++ range and UFC generating a shockingly awful by comparison $200 million.

As you can see on a global scale UFC is a complete and utter JOKE compared to boxing and is no where even close...

[Barry Halls]

Well as long as you just admitted that boxing annihilates UFC globally then we're on the same page because it's not even a comparison.

I simply don't have an opinion on that. I think it's reasonable to assume boxing is bigger worldwide.

blablabla

i think you overestimate the activity in pro-boxing.

But lets just say, I't looks like UFC have a bigger interest among casualfans willing to pay 50+ dollars for a card in the UFC.
Their businessmodel surely is nothing to scoff at.

[Dorian]

Look how big they got in just a few years, that's insane considering they were pretty much bankrupt in 2004.