Just watched Nganou and Gane, it was the worst fight ever. Compare that to Fury-Wilder 3 and you wonder why so many people follow the UFC. Boxing should be much bigger. What's entertaining about rolling around on the floor?
I’m no ufc fan but heard from a few people this was going to be a good scrap. Up there with one of the worst fights ive ever seen
It may be a case of styles make fights and tactics that didn’t make for a fan friendly fight. I haven’t watched the fight so can’t comment on what happened. Some fights just don’t go the way you expect them to. You will have no trouble finding some cracking UFC cards if you have a look through the archives. They could teach boxing a thing or two about making the bigger fights happen, that’s for sure.
Frequency of fights exactly that. MMA is not my cup of tea, at all. It looks so tacky and amateurish. Also the hugging on the floor.. Nah not for me.
UFC is gaining popularity because there is one single entity controlling everything rightly or wrongly. The fights get made, the fighters cant duck, and the purses are dictated to them
This. However, boxing promoters and governing bodies need to at least force the fighters to face the best and fight more often than they currently do.
UFC actually isn’t gaining popularity, it peaked about a decade ago. Last weeks show got the lowest ratings for a prime time show since they moved to ESPN three years ago and other than occasional McGregor/Diaz/Masvidal fights PPV buys are nowhere near what they used to be. For those that have grown up as boxing fans and have no interest in Muay Thai, BJJ and wrestling and just want to watch stand up fights, most fights won’t appeal as much as boxing. As far as the purest form of legal combat sport though, nothing comes close.
Only way for that in my opinion is to have 1 controlling belt/ governing body that’s not too corrupt. for me there’s a gap in the market for The Ring to be bought out and put in rules that means once a year in every division number 1 fights number 2. All other champs in the rankings. No promotional or fighter bias
Its no secret it boils down to this, the UFC regularly makes fights that even casual MMA fans, like myself, want to see. Yes the fight may have been poor last night (worth noting the co-main event with the flyweights was great) but how many times have we seen fights in boxing that promised to be a great fight become dull ? This things happen. The core issue is "superfight" in the ufc happen at least 2-4 times a year, compare that to boxing where it possible we may get a "superfight" every two years its easy to see why UFC is gaining traction. They also do a great job promoting aswell imo.
I don't know how popular it actually is. It won't through a golden era with Mcgregor. Everyone who fought him became stars in their own right. Let's see how they do without Mcgregor Khabib and Jones. Plus covid helped them massively been the only show in town.
In short UFC is a legitimate “shoot” form of professional wrestling- from it’s presentation to the building of rivalries to a PPV fight. Boxing has this but it’s done so much better in the UFC mainly as there is one dominant promotion (more control over content) and not different promoters trying to outdo each other.
I think even though it's doing considerably well the company who bought the lions share percentage of the business are still in quite a bit of debt and have had to change how their loan situation is since they bought the ufc. I think they might sell their percentage off to the other companies who own the rest. So yes... they're doing well but haven't turned over a ''real'' profit in terms of it being a good business purchase as opposed to buying a prospering start up tech company which potentially would have been a lot more profitable. I think the company Endeavor paid too much and the Fertitas sold at the right time as their market value was inflated likely simply due to the success of Conor McGregor at the time. UFC was gaining much more traction and seemed more rejuvenated in that period. We'll see how things go for UFC in the next five to ten years. I think ultimately UFC make the the fights fans want to watch even though a lot of the undercard nowadays are more hype than substance. Whereas with boxing there's more hands in the cookie jar and more people who want a piece of the pie along with all the networks, event organizers, boxing org rules,...etc... the fights are harder to make and the undercards also suffer due to the main event salary percentages. It's easier for fans to see who's going to fight who in the UFC as opposed to boxing with all the different organisations, promotions,...etc... making it harder to guage who's going to fight who. Boxing is more fairer ''at the top'' in terms of pay given how fighters put their health on the line. UFC could improve the pay of fighters but don't need to go over the top upping their salary. I think there's problems in both boxing and mma which could be fixed over time. I prefer boxing generally but i've watched mma for 20 years or so off and on. There's always periods in boxing and mma where things become stale. The biggest fights in boxing don't simply just rely on ''hype'' which seems more organic in the boxing world. In UFC Conor McGregor gained a lot of hype on his rise but it seemed more artificial compared to someone like Manny Pacquiao for instance. We get told how good x fighter is much more in UFC than in boxing where it's much more apparent through an eye test. I think Dana White isn't the person who makes more of the decisions from the business aspect side of things anymore and he has probably more pressure on him now than he did when the Fertitas owned the company. I think realistically he should be more friendly to the employees because from the outside looking in sometimes he makes himself look less than professional.
They'll do fine. They had Spider Silva, Brock Lesnar, GSP, Liddell etc in the past. They're building up some Swedish guy now. Even Bisping who wasn't the best, probably has a bigger fanbase than the more popular British boxers over the last 10-15 years (Haye, Hatton, Froch, etc.).
The UFC has - unlike boxing - grabbed a very young audience which appeals to the commercial TV stations / platforms. I also think many people get tired of boxing due to corruption and fraud. It's hard to defend.
