Why UFC/MMA Will become Bigger Than Boxing
The rivalry between boxing and MMA has been around for quite some time now. And from what we see, it seems like its intensity is never going to decline. But, have you ever asked yourself why? Where this hate and weird comparisons come from and why? Well, the answer is very simple: Money
MMA stands for the fastest rising sport in the world. And over the last 15 years, it has been rising at a very high rate. If MMA keeps on growing like this, it might soon become the leader in pay per view sales and viewership worldwide.
Boxing on the other hand has a long history and has been the number one combat sport for a long time. But the moment UFC/MMA started to take a huge part of their market share, the rivalry between the two sports began to emerge.
Even though these are both combat sports, their business models and the way they operate are totally different. In this article, we will bring you closer to why MMA will eventually become bigger than boxing and what the main differences are between the two sports.
If you like Martial Arts content, make sure you check out our youtube channel:
Numbers tell us a lot
If we look at the official numbers and statistics, we can see that boxing is still more popular than MMA. Over the last two decades, boxing is consistently generating higher numbers in pay per view sales and viewership all around the world. For instance, out of the top 50 PPV sales ever, boxing has 25, WWE wrestling 9, and MMA “just” 15.
The largest MMA event was the memorable UFC 229 that sold around 2.4 million pay per view buys. Boxing owns four events that had higher PPV sales than UFC 229, and many more events that sold over 1 million + buys.
As we can see, boxing is still more popular than MMA when it comes to stats. BUT, the point of this article is that MMA will become bigger than boxing in the future. Thus, we must take a look at these numbers from a different perspective.
You see, MMA has exploded around 2014 with the rise of Conor McGregor and Ronda Rousey. Since then, UFC started generating huge numbers in PPV sales and its popularity got even bigger. Now, let’s look at how many boxing and MMA events were able to generate over 1 million pay-per-view buys in the last five years.
From 2015 to 2020, there were nine UFC events that sold over 1 million in pay per view buys around the world. This is just one event less than boxing that had 10 events that sold over 1 million. As we can see, MMA has come really close to match boxing numbers in the last five years.
MMA has fewer weight classes and is easier to follow
Boxing has 17 weight classes, and the gap between the divisions is around three to seven pounds. MMA on the other side has eight weight classes and the gap between goes from 10 to 20 pounds, which is a lot.
In boxing, however, we can often see a talented fighter holding titles in five or more weight classes. The low gap amongst divisions allows them to go up or down in weight with ease. In some way, modern boxing is built around super fights.
This is bad for the sport because the champ can’t defend the title in all divisions which lowers the fan’s interest in those weight classes. It stops other talented fighters from fighting for the title or receiving the media spotlight.
What does MMA do better?
Unlike in boxing, holding titles in two or more separate weight classes is very hard in MMA. I mean, the gaps between the divisions are too big for fighters to drop or go up in weight. Only a few UFC fighters were able to collect the belts in two separate weight classes. And this is, perhaps, the biggest thing one can achieve in the sport.
This is where MMA has a huge advantage because having one champ per division gives us more title fights. And above all, the fans actually care about the UFC weight classes and what’s happening in them.
Each champ in the UFC fights two times a year on average and the throne switches all the time.
There is only one legitimate champ in MMA
Whether it’s boxing or MMA, a huge amount of money circles through both sports. This means that there are many promotions and organizations fighting for their piece of the pie. This is especially true for the sport of boxing which consists of the following four organizations:
- WBC
- WBA
- IBF
- WBO
Further, each of these four organizations consists of 17 weight classes which means boxing has 68 champions in total. I mean, all 68 fighters have the right to call themselves a world champion. But, which boxing champ is the legit one? Is it the one who holds a title in the WBC organization or the IBF? Do you see the problem?
What does UFC do better?
The UFC controls the MMA market and it is the leader in the industry. It is the home of the best fighters, toughest competition, and its events are the biggest in the world. Every fighter dreams about becoming the UFC champ because this means you are the best in the world.
This makes the sport more exciting and easier to follow because being the champ in the UFC means you are the best in the world. Further, UFC has only eight weight classes, for men and four for women, which means we have just 12 champs in total. It’s that simple and the fans like it.
To be honest, there are other MMA promotions like Bellator, KSW, or the Asian ONE FC. But these promotions can’t come even close to UFC when we speak about the quality of their roster, production, and budget. All the best fighters from these promotions will move to the UFC at some point.
The matchups are more even
In our opinion, this is where these two sports differ the most, with MMA being on the right track. You don’t need to be a boxing expert to know that a lot of elite boxing fights aren’t evenly matched. It is a common thing to see a famous boxer fighting against a relatively unknown rival.
This is the reason why we can often see boxers having 40–0 records with a 100% KO rate. But when you look deep into their records, you might often find out that the standard of their rivals wasn’t that good.
What does UFC do better?
You see, elite boxers are often avoiding each other. And, they tend to build up their records and hype against fighters who are below their skill levels. You can do the same in MMA, but not fighting in the best promotions like UFC.
UFC includes the ranking system which is there to make the competition more even. UFC fighters always face rivals who share similar UFC experience and level of skills. As they go up through the rankings, the opposition is getting tougher and tougher.
As a result, you are never going to see the UFC champ or elite fighter sharing a cage with an unknown rival. It’s even bizarre to imagine fighters like Conor or Khabib fighting against someone who is far below their skill level and way down in the rankings.
UFC rankings are not perfect by any means and there is room for improvement. But fans are ok with it because they get a matchup between the two best fighters most of the time. And they know most of the UFC matches are fair.
MMA is better for self-defense
People tend to value martial arts based on how useful it is on the street and for self-defense. With that, fans often consider MMA to be the closest to legal street fighting under the rules. That’s why we can see MMA gyms popping up on every corner and many people tuning in. Boxing is also very good and useful, but MMA is just more versatile since it prepares you for any type of fight.
Boxing is a standup fighting style and boxers can use only their hands to do damage. But make no mistakes about it, boxing is a very useful fighting style for self-defense as well. And, it is one of the most important skills you can have in MMA.
What does MMA do better?
Unlike boxing, MMA fighting includes all three elements of fighting:
- Standup
- On the ground
- In the clinch
Further, to compete in all three elements, MMA fighters must be good at many other fighting styles. They all need to have at least basic fighting skills in:
- Muay Thai
- Boxing
- Wrestling
- Jiu Jitsu (BJJ)
This is why MMA is one of the most complete fighting styles and the hardest ones to train. It will prepare you for any type of fighting scenario on the street, and that’s why most people see it as the best.
MMA is more exciting because it has more variations
MMA has many more variations than boxing which makes it very exciting to watch. For the ones who don’t know, you can use any type of fighting style to compete in MMA matches. Of course, as long as the techniques are within the MMA rules.
MMA fighters use takedowns, submissions, punches, kicks, to do damage and win fights. This makes the sport fun to watch because there are so many ways MMA fighters can finish the fight.
Further, MMA is hard to predict because you never know what’s going to happen. The finish may come via submission, head kick, knee to the face, or even wrestling slam. The risk of losing is much higher in MMA and that makes the sport even more thrilling to follow. In boxing matches, you know that a fighter can only get KO’d with a punch.
There’s a huge difference in styles in MMA matches
As said earlier, you can use any type of fighting style in MMA fighting. So we can always see fighters with different fighting bases compete against each other. This is the reason why MMA is so popular, we all love to see Karate vs. Wrestling type of matches.
For instance, Conor McGregor is a vicious standup fighter who prefers a fight on his feet. But on the other side, we have his opponent Khabib who best in wrestling. These are totally different fighting styles and even if you are not into combat sport, we all want to know which style would win.
Looking at this matchup, there are so many ways this fight can play out. And just thinking about all the possible outcomes makes you want to watch it.
If after all that, you still want to get your start in boxing, try this article: Beginners guide to Boxing.
📬 Get weekly updates straight to your inbox
💬 💬 💬 💬 💬 💬
We also have a chat room! (We use Discord) join here
Martial arts unleashed is the fastest growing Martial Arts Publication and media company in the world with almost 1 million followers across the unleashed network. Give us a follow on medium for weekly articles.
