UFC PPV's don't generate more than boxing, unless it's a bad fight. As for ITV and BBC not showing Boxing is because they're idiots. They're possibly predjudice against the sport, I honestly don't know but it makes no sense. 'If' a fight like Khan vs Hatton happened on the BBC live on a late Saturday aftternoon I reckon they could get about 20,000,0000 viewers or more tuning in. Boxing in my opinion the second most popular sport in the country. I never hear casual sports fans talk about sports outside of football as much as they boxing.
UFC is closing the gap on boxing..but there are key differences. The fighters are on contacts and their pay is scaled and structured according to their status. So atm 20million paydays are out of the question. But who gets those numbers in boxing? only the top 3-4 fighters in the world....the rest prolly get less than alot of mma guys. Zuffa have always stated outdoor stadiums would ruin the whole UFC experience cuz u wouldnt be able to see it. They are more interested in building a strong brand and keeping a longterm fan base. Boxing promoters on the other hand are greedy and dont care if the fighters look like ants in a 60,000 seater stadium. 1.5 Million PPV buys for their last show says alot...only a couple of boxing ppvs have ever topped that. Expect UFC to be hitting those numbers with greater frequency in the coming years. Another reason UFC is beating boxing is depth of the fight cards. The events are usually stacked with good fights because the fighters cannot pick and choose their opponents like promoters do in boxing. The majority of big boxing events have a shocking undercard.
UFC I beleive has reached it's peak now... or already has when Cuck Lidell fought Ortiz. There are no stars with what they had coming through.... as many people find the top fighters in the sport boring which is Silva and the light heavyweight champions name who I won't even attempt to spell!.... you all know who he is though right? And I love Silva and the Katate guy.... true martial artists. It don't help that Brock Lesnar had three fights coming from a a WWE background.... plus a certain Tim Silva being kncked out by Ray Mercer in just nine seconds.... although I don't see that as being anything signifucant personally but less cultured fans of fighting wil.
Thats rubbish...they are consistly getting bigger numbers now rather than 4-5 years ago when they depended alot on Liddell, Ortiz and Couture. They have many PPV headliners now in Lesnar, Machida (yes hes building a big following), A.Silva, Rampage, Hendo, Franklin, W.Silva, GSP, Penn..i could go on all day. The WWE thing isnt too relevant...Brock was a proven NCAA college wrestling champion before that. And wrestinghas proven to be the most successful base for mma. And Tim Sylvia? he always sucked lol.
Ben, you have no idea what you are talking about. UFC has beaten HBO on PPV over the course of a year and will probably do so this year. The top 10 PPVs this will mainly be UFC. UFC 100 will be the biggest PPV this year by a mile. Boxing is the sport that is struggling to make new drawing cards. Brock Lesnar is the biggest draw the UFC has had, not Liddell or Ortiz. I'm sure BBC and ITV would be interested in showing Hatton against Khan. That isn't the issue. The issue is that ITV and BBC and currently everyone else except Sky have no interest in showing boxing because it isn't financially viable. The sooner people like you can accept that it isn't just a case of the channels are 'prejudiced' against the sport, the better it is for boxing.
I have to say, thinking about it I kind of feel I've wasted my time talking about this because, me and everyone else talking about UFC and Boxing as entire entities is flawed in itself. In America Boxing is struggling (although the super six tourney may change the standrds) to sell, but in the UK Boxing is in a very very healthy place right now, the economy is the thing that stands in it's way.... there has never been a period in british boxing where we have had so much talent coming through from every sigle lebvel.... including amatuer, in a year or two this subject will no longer be even spoken about as what I'm saying will shine through.... By the way I don't even think the last show at the O2 sold any more than Haye for Barrett.
Jeez ben is being an idiot. Lesner just earned $3mil for his last fight and is a very big name in world sport and probably more well known than the current p4p boxing number1 or heavyweight number 1 whoever that is. UFC has a good brand and a growing following plus can put on regular competative big fights and strong undercards, unfortunetly boxing produces few really big interesting fights and even fewer well matched undercards. ESPN knows what it is getting with the UFC company where as if they tied into a promoter like Hayemaker or Hennassey they may get 1 big fight per year and a bunch or average or poor put together cards that can end up being a waste of a contract.
Gareth A.Davies said in response to comments on his blog that he reckons that ESPN will try and get some boxing.
I hope they will. Even just showiing the American fights they already show stateside would be good and better than nothing.
How am I being an idiot then? Lesnar getting 3 million is still alot less than Mayeather gets.... and no, he isn't more well known that Floyd Mayweather or Manny Pacquiao and the heavyweight contender thing you mentiones is irrelevant. Henessy and Hayemaker are likey to have more than one big fight a year.... Froch's next fight will be his third under Henessy in 12 months. Hayemaker is just getting started and has had alot of misfortune lately anyway. Anyway, no way does UFC sell better in this country than boxing does.... not even close! I don't see BBC and ITV picking UFC over boxing either... and they may be reluctant about showing boxing but UFC ain;t even on there radar!
You were being an idiot in the early part of this thread. I am not saying that Lesner earns more than Mayweather or Pac just that he has got to a level where he can earn very well, his next pay packet will probably not reach the 3mil dollar fiigure but it is impressive. Which big fight has Warren put on recently? Khan vs Eurobum which drew 30,000 buys on ppv? Froch had no tv and no one cared. Boxing is still bigger than MMA in Britaiin and I hope that continues, it certainly is not going to change until very further down the line. My point about UFC is that it is one company, a well run coompany that offers good events on a monthly basis. ESPN know what they are getting with them while the terms with boxing promoters will be alot harder to work out, hopefully Hayemaker sort the shambles out and maybe Hennessy fiinds himself on the channel after the ITV drop.
I don't think the boxing thing will happen straight away but I don't see what is wrong with showing their Friday Night series over here for starters, they can test the water that way.
