Revenue - Boxing Vs UFC

[Lomadeaux]

Listen I get all of your MMA defense. I get it. It just doesn't compare when it comes to people actually spending MONEY. Not time talking about it (popularity). That was the purpose of the post and they don't compare right now, and most likely never will.

[Eff Pandas]

How?? .

I think you aren't understanding what I'm saying.

The UFC is allegedly taking in 80% of the PPV money from what most people say of the 100% of the money their PPV's make of the 50%-55%ish portion the distributers aren't taking.

The promoters in boxing, which are all on their own & not collectively working together, are allegedly taking in 20% of the PPV money from what most people say of the 100% of the the money their PPV's make of the 50%-55%ish portion the distributers aren't taking.

That's what I'm talking about.

But for sure of the PPV money that's coming in I got little doubt that the UFC is the single biggest consistent revenue generator in the combat sports world. Cuz in a bad year (2014 would be a great example since they only sold 3.3M PPV's the whole year when everyone was getting injured left & right, to compare they sold 6.0M in 2013, 7.3M in 2015 & 8.3M in 2016) they are probably making ~$66M+ every year ($50 x number of PPVs x 50%/disturber cut x 80% for alleged fighters pay).

I mean do you think Arum is making $60M+ in a bad year from PPV? Is HBO? Showtime barely does PPV's it seems like. Sure there are a couple boxers who are making 60M+ per year, but they are buying those crocodile skinned lambos & lighting money on fire at strip clubs & just in general not invested back into their chosen combat sport like the UFC does. That's why the UFC got sold for 4.2B when it got evaluated at 1/8 that value a couple years previously while HBO (the industry standard for elite level boxing) continues to short their boxing budget since the early 00's.

I'm no fan of how boxing is f#cking itself, but its easy to see boxing is making itself smaller & getting smaller in the US cuz its making bad move after bad move & there is no central power working towards making boxing stronger. Everyone in boxing is short sighted & can see no further than their own next big payday. Its just how it is man.

[Lomadeaux]

Canelo-Chavez, Jr. does 10.6M at the gate.

[Motorcity Cobra]

UFC keeps their numbers largely secret so they can pay their fighters pennies on the dollar.

This is all that really needs to be said. Paying guys $20,000 and turn around and sell the company for billion. Why you think all these guys talking about fighting boxers?

[JJRod]

If we're gonna go by simply ppv numbers the thing to look at is how mma has reached a million buys with multiple names.
You take Mayweather and Pacquiao out and I think only Chavez/Nelo got 1 million ppv's in the last 8 years.

Overall it would be hard to ignore that boxing viewership has been trending down

Just looking at the ratings on HBO we get a small glimpse.
In 2003 Lewis vs Klitschko drew 4.1 million viewers.
In 2006 Winky Wright vs Jermaine Taylor drew 3.5 million views.
In 2010 Cotto vs Foreman did 1.6 million.
Today we're excited when GGG gets 1.4 million viewers.

[michaelhatwell]

I think it's not an easy job to become a boxer or an MMA star. The revenue these matches generate is just spellbinding!!!!!

[BennyST]

From 2006-2015 the UFC sold 62M PPV's to boxing's 42M PPV's.

I haven't done numbers in a year, but I'd assume boxing is worse off in the 2007-2016 10 year period cuz MMA had a break thru year & boxing had a horrible year.

Revenue is a legit thing I'm curious about, but its impossible to get much data on revenue. I mean its hard enough to get rumored buy numbers. I'd love to know the revenue details doe.

Hey man I love boxing more than MMA myself, but numbers don't lie. MMA is catching more fire with combat sports fans than boxing is these days.

One factor is that UFC has a PPV every single month of the year. Boxing has a few PPV's a year.

Also, quite a few of those numbers you listed have been deeply disputed as wrong and on the high side to a huge degree. They are numbers by the UFC after all...not very reliable.

[Eff Pandas]

One factor is that UFC has a PPV every single month of the year. Boxing has a few PPV's a year.

Also, quite a few of those numbers you listed have been deeply disputed as wrong and on the high side to a huge degree. They are numbers by the UFC after all...not very reliable.

I favor 3rd party data over any other data when it's available, but yeah ALL the numbers are disputed from boxing and the UFC, but it's the only data you can really compare with ppv stuff.

Although I will say that it seems to be consistent with TV ratings that have more legitness and where the UFC regularly has better numbers than boxing on comparable channel. As mentioned in this thread the biggest ratings for a UFC vs the biggest boxing event in the last decade has the UFC beating out boxing 9m to 6m and some boxing fans are even critical of the boxing event cuz it was sandwiched in between Olympic events on a medal day iirc.

And it's also notable that on the majority of sports websites the UFC is given more space or higher status among the space then boxing is which suggests to me it's likely that the UFC is getting more hits to be getting that better position on the site. And just look at the legit tv money being offered. Fox is paying the UFC 90m a year and HBO has a 20m budget for boxing.

F#ck man even for anecdotal info I personally see more random people talking about the UFC over boxing and have more interest in MMA over boxing. My city, in upstate NY, has more MMA facilities to train then boxing gym to train at. The trend is obvious and everywhere.

All signs point to the UFC out drawing boxing in recent years if you aren't walking into the debate with a preconceived notion that boxing is the winner. As much as I'd like to see boxing being the #1 combat sport in the US it's just not these days in any reasonable way you can measure or speculate on the importance of data.

[Winryl]

What about Saleh Stevens MMA?

[Grimgash]

From 2006-2015 the UFC sold 62M PPV's to boxing's 42M PPV's.

I haven't done numbers in a year, but I'd assume boxing is worse off in the 2007-2016 10 year period cuz MMA had a break thru year & boxing had a horrible year.

Revenue is a legit thing I'm curious about, but its impossible to get much data on revenue. I mean its hard enough to get rumored buy numbers. I'd love to know the revenue details doe.

Hey man I love boxing more than MMA myself, but numbers don't lie. MMA is catching more fire with combat sports fans than boxing is these days.

Especially with Espinoza calling out White saying he can't release fake numbers. So the buy count on UFC is usually suspect, White claimed what 6.7 Mil for May-Mc?