Why is boxing still producing bigger stars than MMA?

[ChessJitsu]

Everyone in MMA is still impressed by Holloway/Gaethje and Alex Perreira but Ryan Garcia/Devin Haney was the biggest fight of the year.

Ryan Garcia is now bigger than any star in MMA (except McGregor).

Aside from him, there's Tank Davis. Who's also bigger than any star in MMA.

And of course there's Tyson Fury and Usyk.

All these guys are McGregor/Khabib level stars.

 

[Ares Black]

Everyone in MMA is still impressed by Holloway/Gaethje and Alex Perreira but Ryan Garcia/Devin Haney was the biggest fight of the year.

Ryan Garcia is now bigger than any star in MMA (except McGregor).

Aside from him, there's Tank Davis. Who's also bigger than any star in MMA.

And of course there's Tyson Fury and Usyk.

All these guys are McGregor/Khabib level stars.

The average person has never heard of any of these guys except Conor McGregor and possibly Tyson Fury.

 

[Substance Abuse]

I watch both sports. I enjoy both sports. I don't care who's more popular than who, only who's the better fighter, or the quality of the fights.

At the end of the day, only McGregor, Fury and Canelo have transcended their sport recently. Garcia is on the periphery of that, and is an outlier, his social media outreach doing more work for him than his boxing did until this past weekend.

 

[ChessJitsu]

The average person has never heard of any of these guys except Conor McGregor and possibly Tyson Fury.

Ryan Garcia has 11.6 million instagram followers.

only McGregor and Khabib in the UFC have more than that (and they're both basically retired).

 

[cade187]

I’ve never heard of either of those guys.

 

[Shaolin Alan]

I've been a boxing fanatic since the 80ies and MMA since UFC-2. I can tell you from my own observations, that I'm aware of who boxing's stars are because of what I'm told and then shown. However, I know who is a star in MMA, because I've seen them develop and reach their goals.

 

[RoyJonesJr]

Garcia went a schizo coke raged world tour talking about the illuminati, rape, Bohemian Grove, and alot of other stuff

Also boxing is a older sport, still ingrained in the culture

 

[Black9]

Boxing is an 100 year old sport.
While UFC just passed 30. Even then, the only reason this got hype is because Ryan Garcia went psycho and the Mexican fanbase.

 

[Ares Black]

Ryan Garcia has 11.6 million instagram followers.

only McGregor and Khabib in the UFC have more than that (and they're both basically retired).

There are 8 billion people in the world. That means that about 0.15% of the population follows him on Instagram. And approximately 99.85% of the population does not. The average person has never heard of him.


Why does Ryan Garcia have a lot of Instagram followers? He's successful, good-looking, and he has Mexican heritage. Boxing is huge in Mexico.


UFC is big business, but it's still ultimately a niche sport, and their business strategy is promoting the UFC brand rather than individual fighters.

The boxing business model is different, with a bunch of rival promoters each trying to create breakout stars.

TLDR; The UFC doesn't give a shit about creating stars. The brand is what matters.

Boxing needs to make stars to generate interest. No one tunes in to watch a random boxing match. Lots of people watch UFC without particularly caring who is fighting.

 

[dildos]

mma is still a niche product compared to boxing.

 

[Pancake Sprawl]

There are 8 billion people in the world. That means that about 0.15% of the population follows him on Instagram. And approximately 99.85% of the population does not. The average person has never heard of him.


Why does Ryan Garcia have a lot of Instagram followers? He's successful, good-looking, and he has Mexican heritage. Boxing is huge in Mexico.


UFC is big business, but it's still ultimately a niche sport, and their business strategy is promoting the UFC brand rather than individual fighters.

The boxing business model is different, with a bunch of rival promoters each trying to create breakout stars.

TLDR; The UFC doesn't give a shit about creating stars. The brand is what matters.

Boxing needs to make stars to generate interest. No one tunes in to watch a random boxing match. Lots of people watch UFC without particularly caring who is fighting.

don't forget bots. i guarantee a lot these celebrities numbers are inflated by bots

 

[Ares Black]

mma is still a niche product compared to boxing.

Boxing is nowhere near what it used to be. At this point they are both niche sports, but MMA is bigger in many places.

 

[luvbjj]

No one knows who usyk is lol. Ryan is only a big star because of him being so active on social media.

 

[KeiranMc]

I watch both sports. I enjoy both sports. I don't care who's more popular than who, only who's the better fighter, or the quality of the fights.

At the end of the day, only McGregor, Fury and Canelo have transcended their sport recently. Garcia is on the periphery of that, and is an outlier, his social media outreach doing more work for him than his boxing did until this past weekend.

Why can't all fight fans be like this fella?

 

[Ares Black]

don't forget bots. i guarantee a lot these celebrities numbers are inflated by bots

Yeah a huge chunk of those followers are not actually, you know, people.

 

[Wreckless]

The amount of people on this planet who can become great at MMA is much smaller than boxing.

Everyone and their mother can train to become a boxer. MMA takes years to learn. Perfect example is Jake Paul and all those Youtube boxers.

Not to mention a lot of these boxers with 30-0 records have a padded record with a bunch of bums.

I'm not ready to say boxing has more stars, but even if it does, we're just talking about a few people. As a sport, MMA is crushing boxing and has been for quite a while. No one even takes boxing seriously these days.

 

[Black9]

I watch both sports. I enjoy both sports. I don't care who's more popular than who, only who's the better fighter, or the quality of the fights.

At the end of the day, only McGregor, Fury and Canelo have transcended their sport recently. Garcia is on the periphery of that, and is an outlier, his social media outreach doing more work for him than his boxing did until this past weekend.

I'd say Khabib is in that mix also being the biggest sports star in Russia and the Muslim world(aside from Mo Salah and Ali obviously).

 

[BlankaPresident]

UFC is terrible at promoting their fighters (probably intentional as mentioned above).

 

[Substance Abuse]

I'd say Khabib is in that mix also being the biggest sports star in Russia and the Muslim world(aside from Mo Salah and Ali obviously).

You're right. I was just referencing those who are active.

 

[Steve-French]

I like both sports, but boxing purists can be insufferable. Here's the way I look at it...

The cream of the crop boxers make way more money, but the UFC has a way better middle class. A top 20 UFC fighter is going to make more than a top 20 boxer.

The UFC as a promotion is also worth 8 times as much as all of the top boxing promotions combined.

The UFC (for the most part) also has the best fighting the best on a regular basis and stacked PPV cards. Boxing is watered down with showcase fights and weak undercards.

That being said the Saudis are starting to crush it and are stacking cards. Which is awesome! They pay the fighters and stack PPVs, but they are also trillionarie fight fans and probably aren't losing sleep over the returns.