How popular is Boxing in the UK?

Anthony Joshua is popular in the UK

 

Is he going to win their sports personality of the year award anytime soon?

 

I don’t think it is at all. There’s been more interest lately with the ‘golden era’ but for some reason the likes of cricket and rugby union are more popular. Even tennis, that is a good sport though.

 

The people who most talk up the popularity of British boxing are Deontay Wilder fans who think that there's no other sport to watch over here and that UK citizens are obliged by law to attend AJ fights or buy his ppv's.

The reality is that there's just as many established sports competing for UK sports fans pounds as there are for US sports fans dollars. For Gridiron, Basketball, Baseball and Hockey, see Soccer, Rugby, Cricket and horseracing believe it or not:

https://www.statista.com/statistics/686971/highest-attended-types-of-sport-in-the-uk/

 

Football is light years ahead of everything else popularity-wise.

After that, sport in the UK is quite event driven. By that I mean if you were here when the Ashes was on, or the Six Nations, snooker World Championship, Wimbledon, Open, Grand National and so on, you'd assume cricket, rugby, snooker, tennis, golf and horse racing were popular; they would be getting decent media coverage and featuring prominently in the news.

But, the number of people taking a keen interest in club rugby, county cricket, racing from Wolverhampton on a Tuesday night is minimal.

Boxing is no different. AJ fights are top story headline news.

 

Boxing isnt top 3 but it is in the top 5 most popular sports in the UK

The undisputed top 3 are Football, Rugby union and Rugby League

At the moment its a matter of opinion, my opinion is that golf is 4th and boxing is 5th

The highest that boxing will ever get to is 4th most popular, because the top 3 is locked down

Cricket which used to be 4th has dropped down a lot in the past 20 years in terms of popularity

 

Maybe depends where you are in the country too. You're far more likely to get boxing on TV in my local (Manchester) than you are rugby union. But probably an indication of how irrelevant union is around here.

 

It’s there to a certain extent but it’s mainly under the radar.
It comes to the fore when a popular fighter emerges and attracts the casuals, the like of Hatton and Joshua.
Awareness is less since it stopped being shown on Terrestial TV.
Having said that over the last 10 years Wembley Stadium has been packed with 80,000 people watching the likes of Joshua, Froch, Groves etc so you’ve got to say it’s at least in decent shape.

 

Rugby league isn't the third most popular sport in the country.

 

This.

It's not mainstream whatsoever except briefly a few times per year for about 5 days, pre, peri and post a HW fight. Anyone saying otherwise spends too much time on boxing media or has a PR axe to grind.

Some Yanks on the general board seem to have this notion that boxing is like some national religion here, not far off from Mexico's relationship with the sport, which is utterly bizarre.

 

Football by far the most talked about. Rugby Union is huge when the 6 Nations is on.

I'd say boxing is third after those.

 

Probably yeah.

Ronnie is seen more as a cult icon I think, think everyone appreciates his greatness and snooker will take a huge hit when he retires, he is bigger than the sport.

 

It is when take into account that in cities like Wigan and Leeds and other parts of the North it is the number 1 sport above even football

Rugby Union has that same status only in Surrey in the South.

 

Worth noting that since 2011 boxing has been on terrestrial TV (after ten years or so being in the wilderness)- admittedly on a much lower level than the nineties but still on nevertheless.

The public just follow specific boxers generally and because of the frequency of fights (twice a year for the top guys) it’s not on a level of a sport that has a designated season.

More entertaining fights on all cards would help grow the sport more- showcase fights are fine occasionally but genuine 50/50s seem to have declined greatly on UK cards (especially Hearn’s cards).

 

I know it's huge in places like Wigan and St Helens. But they aren't big places.

More people watch Leeds United than Leeds Rhinos by the way. And outside the M62 corridor barely anyone cares about rugby league. I'd say it's definitely behind boxing, and for that matter golf, Formula 1 and cricket.