UFC officially bigger than Boxing?

[PrBoxing88]

I guarantee you that in a couple years there will be Felix Verdejo, the face of boxing and he will be BIGGER than (UFC), Mayweather and Pac.

[Don Pichardo]

a chick? The UFC is in a sad state if their biggest star is a woman

I'm very far from a ***ist. But this statement rings true.

[Don Pichardo]

Boxing will always have it's place and in about 7 years boxing will stage a fight bigger than anything else that will capture the attention of the world.

But, UFC will surpass boxing in terms of popularity. It is inevitable.

Regardless of how little respect people have for the boxing quality of an MMA fighter, the fact is UFC is simply the evolution of combat sports and people generally going along with evolution.

Care to explain the inevitability?

[SalimShady1212]

I've already given out a lot of red k today, one more victim wont hurt.

[Straight Up]

Brandon Rios gets paid close to a million or maybe 1 million on his fight with bradley.

Heck even Adrien Broner makes a couple millions.

When has a UFC fighter ever made more than that?

adrian broner will make their current star Conor Mcgregor look poor.

[DannyNL]

Btw the woman in ufc right now is merely a novelty a la Mia St. john and Christi Martin in the 90s.

Not even close. That woman is now a house hold name, is starring in huge box office movies, and just did a million PPV buys fighting an absolute nobody that MMA fans didn't give a chance to. She drew more money than Floyd did with Berto.

UFC is a powerhouse and the fact is, it has stolen a lot of boxing's lustre.

Boxing has always had competitors (others sports, pro wrestling, ect) but MMA has taken boxing's place as the premiere hand to hand combat sport.

The boxing heavyweight champion was always looked at as the baddest man on the planet. From John L Sullivan up to guys like Dempsey, Marciano, Liston, Foreman, Ali, Tyson, Lennox, ect. Those were the guys who the general public believed, in their time as champions, would whip any man alive in a fight.

No longer the case. The UFC champion is now the baddest man on the planet. The general public knows that the UFC champion would kick the boxing champ in the head, or choke them unconscious in a matter of seconds. A pro boxer is helpless in a real fight against a skilled MMA fighter.

[ReIoaded]

Care to explain the inevitability?

My theory is that MMA is basically an evolved version of boxing.

Boxing is ultimately two men (or women) go into the center of a stage and fight for the entertainment of the audience.

Throughout history, combat sports has seen wrestling matches, judo matches, karate matches, sumo matches, fencing matches, Muay Thai,... Pretty much every form of fighting has had their stage and has tried to grow in popularity and the sport of boxing has always reigned supreme.

Not a single one of the other sports could even touch boxing in terms of popularity among fight fans.

But recently, UFC in just a few short years has managed to actually become a rival to boxing. All those other combat sports couldn't even be mentioned in the same breath as far as boxing's popularity is concerned.

Suddenly UFC is competing for ratings with boxing and at times will go head to head with events just to see if they can compete.

Boxing's demographic is an older audience. The majority of young people are more interested in UFC than boxing. There's more MMA gyms popping up then there are boxing gyms. Give it a few years and all these young kids will grow up to pay for UFC PPVs or join an MMA gym and all the old boxing fans will be long gone and only a small minority of kids will join the boxing gym.

MMA is the new boxing. It's the new combat sport that the masses are going to watch. People want to see real fights where people actually hurt each other. For years, boxing was the only sport that actually looked anything like a real fight and that's what made it so compelling to watch vs all the other combat sports.

But with an anything goes approach to the techniques athletes can use... kicks, punches, elbows, grappling that are used for real and cause real damage and knockouts, it's only natural that people will gravitate and move on to MMA from boxing.

Boxing will still be around and will always have it's place, but it's just going to become a niche sport.

[DannyNL]

Brandon Rios gets paid close to a million or maybe 1 million on his fight with bradley.

Heck even Adrien Broner makes a couple millions.

When has a UFC fighter ever made more than that?

adrian broner will make their current star Conor Mcgregor look poor.

That's where boxing shines. UFC guys (on average) get paid a small percentage of what top boxers do.

The problem for MMA fighters is that there is no bargaining power. Dana White and the UFC are the main game in town and if you fall out of favour with them, have fun fighting on the small shows and making peanuts.

[Don Pichardo]

Not even close. That woman is now a house hold name, is starring in huge box office movies, and just did a million PPV buys fighting an absolute nobody that MMA fans didn't give a chance to. She drew more money than Floyd did with Berto.

UFC is a powerhouse and the fact is, it has stolen a lot of boxing's lustre.

Boxing has always had competitors (others sports, pro wrestling, ect) but MMA has taken boxing's place as the premiere hand to hand combat sport.

The boxing heavyweight champion was always looked at as the baddest man on the planet. From John L Sullivan up to guys like Dempsey, Marciano, Liston, Foreman, Ali, Tyson, Lennox, ect. Those were the guys who the general public believed, in their time as champions, would whip any man alive in a fight.

No longer the case. The UFC champion is now the baddest man on the planet. The general public knows that the UFC champion would kick the boxing champ in the head, or choke them unconscious in a matter of seconds. A pro boxer is helpless in a real fight against a skilled MMA fighter.

I'll only concede that rousey is more popular than Martin and st john

And the badest man alive is valdimer klitchko. He Literally whips any man on earth. I'd wager the entirety of my 401k.

[Don Pichardo]

My theory is that MMA is basically an evolved version of boxing.

Boxing is ultimately two men (or women) go into the center of a stage and fight for the entertainment of the audience.

Throughout history, combat sports has seen wrestling matches, judo matches, karate matches, sumo matches, fencing matches, Muay Thai,... Pretty much every form of fighting has had their stage and has tried to grow in popularity and the sport of boxing has always reigned supreme.

Not a single one of the other sports could even touch boxing in terms of popularity among fight fans.

But recently, UFC in just a few short years has managed to actually become a rival to boxing. All those other combat sports couldn't even be mentioned in the same breath as far as boxing's popularity is concerned.

Suddenly UFC is competing for ratings with boxing and at times will go head to head with events just to see if they can compete.

Boxing's demographic is an older audience. The majority of young people are more interested in UFC than boxing. There's more MMA gyms popping up then there are boxing gyms. Give it a few years and all these young kids will grow up to pay for UFC PPVs or join an MMA gym and all the old boxing fans will be long gone and only a small minority of kids will join the boxing gym.

MMA is the new boxing. It's the new combat sport that the masses are going to watch. People want to see real fights where people actually hurt each other. For years, boxing was the only sport that actually looked anything like a real fight and that's what made it so compelling to watch vs all the other combat sports.

But with an anything goes approach to the techniques athletes can use... kicks, punches, elbows, grappling that are used for real and cause real damage and knockouts, it's only natural that people will gravitate and move on to MMA from boxing.

Boxing will still be around and will always have it's place, but it's just going to become a niche sport.

Greent for a thoughtful analysis. Very logical and I agree on certain points. Specifically where you talk about the younger guys are more Into mma. It could effect the out come in the car future.

However I uktimately believe boxing still wins. I just think that be that time mma will fade or not grow bigger. I think it has peaked. Only time will tell.